Last week we wept over the loss of live news on Showmax. While at the time we hoped it would return, what we didn’t expect was entirely new offering from the platform.
Announced this morning, Showmax Pro will offer up all Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and PSL football games, live news, music channels and other sporting events.
The service will launch in Nigeria and Kenya today (7th July) with additional countries coming soon.
“The entire process is expected to be completed within 6-8 weeks with coverage across sub-Saharan Africa,” Showmax said in a statement.
Showmax Pro will also have a mobile-only version available, just like vanilla Showmax does.
You can see a full breakdown of the Showmax Pro offering compared to Showmax below. Note that this offering is for Nigeria and Kenya and the offering in other countries may differ.
Showmax | Showmax Pro | |||
Showmax | Showmax Mobile | Showmax Pro | Showmax Pro Mobile | |
Series, movies, kids’ shows, documentaries | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
IAAF Athletics, pro boxing, major international marathons, & more | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
Music channels Trace Urban, Trace Gospel | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
News channels Africa News, Euronews, Newzroom Afrika | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
Football: all Premier League, Serie A, PSL and La Liga games | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
Number of concurrent streams | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Smartphone and tablet apps | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Smart TV, laptop, Android TV, Apple TV apps | ✓ | – | ✓* | – |
Maximum video resolution | HD | SD | HD | SD |
14-day trial | ✓ | ✓ | – | – |
As for pricing, Showmax Pro costs KSh 2 100, while the mobile only package costs KSh 1050 in Kenya. In Nigeria, Showmax Pro will cost you NGN 6 300 while the mobile only package costs NGN 3 200.
“Showmax is an African video on demand service with many years’ experience operating on this continent. We’re local-first, which means listening to our customers and delivering African stories told in familiar voices as well as the best that Hollywood has to offer. Our local-first strategy is an advantage because it allows us to tailor our content, apps, packages, and partnerships specifically to what’s most important in Africa,” chief executive officer of the Connected Video division at MultiChoice, Niclas Ekdahl said in a statement.
We now wait in anticipation for Showmax Pro to land in South Africa.