Showmax curtain call: What it means for streaming of local stories

The recent announcement that Showmax will be discontinued in South Africa has called into question the future of streaming local content. 

MultiChoice and its owners, Canal+, confirmed that it would be halting the service, with an end-of-service date to be communicated.

RELATED: Canal+ pulls the plug on loss-making Showmax - what next for DStv subscribers?

Jan Vermeulen, editor-in-chief of MyBroadband, explained that the writing was on the wall when MultiChoice removed all its HBO content from the platform, which was a significant part of Showmax’s offering.

The platform’s financial struggles were also well-documented, with the service posting billions of rands in losses each year.

He attributed it to a poor financial strategy, and it’s deal with Comcast, which saw Showmax paying billions in platform fees.

“The idea was good, the content was good, hyper-local content for every region where they operate, but the financial deal they struck to try and grow into that was just bad.”

But what is next for Showmax? Vermeulen suggested that Canal+ scrap the the ComCast deal and migrate the service to its own platform.

“They’re paying extremely high fees to continue using that platform, and there’s no reason for that with Canal+ buying MultiChoice.”

He added that it will also be interesting to see if Canal+ upholds its promise to invest in local productions.

"We'll see whether that promise holds, because there's plenty of stuff that was branded Showmax originals… now where’s their home?"

To listen to Vermeulen in conversation with 947’s Drive with Thando, use the audio player below: