The latest update introduces significant upgrades to the user interface. Live TV rows now play back channels as users browse, letting them preview content directly from the homepage, allowing them to immediately jump into live TV. The price point of R699, which is a R100 saving per month, will be available to all DStv Stream customers who take out a 12-month Premium contract. DStv Stream gives customers access to all the live and video-on-demand content available per package, no dish or decoder required – simply stream everything with the DStv app. 

Additionally, Live TV rows now display not just channels but also events, making it easier for users to see what’s happening now and what’s coming up next. This functionality makes planning the viewing experience quick and simple, particularly around major events such as sports games. 

“We know that delivering the streaming experience our customers want means we need to stay at the top of our game,” says Marc Jury, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa. “We know that delivering the streaming experience our customers want means we need to stay at the top of our game,” says Marc Jury, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa. “This latest update is a big step forward, especially for live sports fans. It’s a fantastic way to dive into everything that SuperSport has on offer.” 

Early numbers show that these updates are making a positive impact on the user experience, resulting in a 23% increase in the number of series and movies streamed on demand, a 17% increase in the number of titles that customers have added to their watchlists, and an overall 8% increase in content watched on DStv Stream compared to the previous month.   

The update also introduces several new sections on the platform, each tailored to improve content discovery: 

Channel homepages: The app now has dedicated homepages for all channels, complete with billboards and curated content, offering users an enhanced browsing experience. 

Sports tournament homepages: Dedicated pages for tournaments allow sports enthusiasts to access all relevant content, including previously played games, upcoming matches, highlights and video-on-demand content related to the tournament. Now that the new season has kicked off, the Premier League homepage is a must-visit.  

Studio homepages: The new studio pages bring users closer to their favourite studios by showcasing all the latest releases and popular titles from each studio, from Warner Bros. to Disney.  

Watch from Start: Whether they’re late to the big game, a live concert, or an important broadcast, users will no longer worry about having missed the start. This new feature allows users to go to the beginning of any live event instantly. To use this feature, simply press the “OK” button on the remote control while watching the live event. Then navigate down to the “Watch from Start” option located just above the progress bar. With one click, users will be taken straight back to the beginning of the event. 

The update also introduces eight new display types for video-on-demand rows, providing richer and more engaging previews which encourage users to explore content beyond their usual selections. The “Explore More” section offers deeper dives into genres, collections, and curated content, giving trending and niche content greater visibility. 

Updated navigation on tvOS and iOS platforms aims to make content discovery more intuitive and visually engaging. New features such as billboards and lead tiles serve to spotlight featured, new, and exclusive titles, driving immediate user engagement. 

New display formats now play trailers directly on the homepage, while live channels stream automatically upon landing on the page. These real-time experiences are designed to keep users connected to current events and make DStv Stream even better.  

This is the second in a series of DStv enhancements over the coming months that will improve user experience and platform stability. We are looking to announce the next one in a few weeks’ time.   

How to get DStv Stream for R699 on a 12-month contract

This offer is available via WhatsApp for Premium customers. “Stream Contract Deals” to 060 060 3788. 

DStv Stream is free for all decoder customers

A major highlight for DStv decoder customers is that every single customer has access to the DStv Stream app at no extra cost. Whether dealing with power cuts, travelling away from home, or simply wanting an extra viewing option, customers can download content, watch from anywhere, and enjoy their favourite shows and sports on the go. 

Showmax, which is aiming to become Africa’s leading streaming service, and Capitec, the biggest digital bank in South Africa, have joined forces to make entertainment and sport more affordable.  

• 50% discount on Showmax streaming vouchers for 12 million Capitec app users   
• Showmax Entertainment Mobile priced at R22, Showmax Entertainment all devices at R49 and Showmax Premier League mobile at R34 per month 
• Less than R1 a day for entertainment on mobile  
• Capitec clients can also get 5 GB of Capitec Connect data to stream at only R145  

“We are proud to have joined forces with Capitec to make entertainment even more accessible and affordable. We’re kicking off this partnership with incredible pricing that we believe will make customers smile, giving South Africans access to the stories they love from across South Africa, the continent, the world and live football from the Premier League. Get ready for a streaming marathon!” says Marc Jury, CEO of Showmax.  

Henk Lourens, Group Executive for Strategic Initiatives at Capitec says, “At Capitec we understand our clients’ needs and have partnered with someone that shares our proudly South African vision.  We want to make entertainment available anywhere and anytime at very affordable rates. We’ve partnered with Showmax to disrupt the entertainment landscape and create value to our clients. Our clients will have access to entertainment from less than R1 a day, and this is only the start of a very exciting journey with much more disruption to come!” 

The Showmax discounted vouchers are now available to all Capitec clients via the Capitec banking app. In the month of August, Showmax customers can enjoy nine new Showmax Originals, including Durban-based reality show The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice. International fans can look forward to hit HBO series like House of the Dragon, currently IMDb’s most popular series globally, and Talk To Me, named Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards. On Showmax Premier League, the new Premier League football season kicks off on Friday, 16 August and reigning champions Manchester City take on previous champions Chelsea on Sunday, 18 August.  

Check here for more info.

Specifically, Showmax Premier League pricing remains at R69 a month, giving subscribers access to every match of the 2024/25 Premier League season and exciting new shows like Robert Marawa’s Quantum Football series, exclusive Premier League content and exciting offers for customers. The new season starts off with a bang, with an early title contender showdown between Man City and Chelsea. But there’s no resting for the other big guns, with Man Utd taking on Fulham, Liverpool taking on Ipswich Town, while Arsenal take on Wolves in the opening weekend.

“As a lifelong football fanatic, I can’t tell you how excited I am for the return of the greatest football league in the world. Pricing is something that all businesses have to review regularly, and we launched with attractive pricing on the new Showmax platform. We are thrilled that we’ve been able to keep Showmax Premier League and bundled Showmax plans unchanged, bringing all 380 Premier League matches to millions of football fans in Africa and continuing to focus on making streaming affordable and effortless,” says Showmax CEO Marc Jury.

Showmax Entertainment will revert to its original R99 per month, which was the launch price in 2015, while Showmax Entertainment Mobile will be priced at R45, at the low-end of mobile streaming prices globally.

At the heart of the new offering is the world’s first standalone Premier League plan for mobile, with all 380 games offered live on Showmax Premier League for just R69 a month. 

“There are currently just over 450 million smartphones in the hands of individuals across Africa … and more than 250 million avid football lovers on the continent,” says Marc Jury, CEO of Showmax. “Showmax Premier League is a game-changing product that gives individuals a ticket to the football they love, wherever they are, on the device they always have with them, at a price that’s impossible not to love.”  

“Africa is incredibly important to the Premier League and our clubs; 20% of TV audiences on any given matchday come from Africa,” says Richard Masters, Premier League CEO. “We are delighted with this Showmax initiative, which puts the Premier League in your pocket at a new price point so that millions more can enjoy our fantastic competition.” 

In addition, there are two more Showmax plans available to customers in 44 African countries: Showmax Entertainment on mobile for an unbelievable R39 a month at launch, as well as the Showmax Entertainment plan, where the monthly price falls from R99 to R89 per month.  

Core to the success of Showmax’s streaming ambitions in Africa is a new technical platform that is robust and built to scale. With the launch of Showmax, the Peacock streaming platform will be active in more than 70 countries and is continually enhanced by the combined expertise of thousands of engineers. The world-class platform has brought millions of viewers popular events such as Super Bowl LVI, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 final, the Olympics and WrestleMania 39. On 13 January, Peacock’s exclusive AFC Wild Card Game became the biggest live-streamed event in US history, reaching 27.6 million viewers and a record 16.3 million concurrent devices. In 2023, Comcast won a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for its sports viewing experiences across Peacock, Sky and Xfinity.  

“Peacock’s best-in-class technology platform will deliver a world-class streaming experience to Showmax audiences,” said Patrick Miceli, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Direct-to-Consumer & International, NBCUniversal. “The Peacock platform was designed from day one to support both live and on-demand content, including the biggest live sporting events, so we look forward to extending that capability and reliability to the new Showmax.” 

Alongside the Premier League, the new Showmax also opens the door to a thrilling entertainment universe spanning a wide range of stars and stories across multiple genres. With no fewer than 21 new Showmax Originals launching in February alone, there will be more than 1 300 hours of Showmax Originals produced in the coming year, representing a significant 150% increase in production output compared to the year before. 

Showmax will also continue to draw from the likes of Paramount, including Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Halo S2 in February, and HBO, with new seasons of House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, True Detective, and The White Lotus on the way. 

Showmax’s content offering is further boosted by its focus on the African market and strengthened by the vast creative and commercial presence already established by MultiChoice. “Nobody understands Africa like we do. Showmax is putting the continent first with a powerful streaming service that will revolutionise streaming in Africa in 2024,” says Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO.  

This payment ecosystem is facilitated by Moment, another MultiChoice joint venture partner. Working with more than 200 payment partners such as banks, mobile money providers, retailers and payment schemes, Moment is building the broadest pan-African payments network. In addition, DStv customers will continue to have the option of adding Showmax to their DStv bill each month and benefitting from significant discounts. Showmax will be announcing additional partnerships soon that will offer even more value to customers. 

The new Showmax app will become available in app stores from 23 January 2024 onward, as part of a staggered migration process across 44 markets. This is an ongoing process that starts next week and will be completed in February this year. Existing Showmax customers will begin receiving communication with information on how to access the new app this week and by 12 February 2024 the new Showmax will be live in all markets. 

The new Showmax will have three plans: Showmax Entertainment, Showmax Entertainment Mobile and the exciting Showmax Premier League. Powered by SuperSport and made for mobile users, Showmax Premier League is the first standalone Premier League mobile streaming service ever to launch in Africa and will take every single match of the world’s most popular football league to every corner of sub-Saharan Africa.  

As it prepares for relaunch, Showmax released a first look at a completely refreshed logo and brand identity. “We can’t wait to share the new Showmax,” says Showmax CEO Marc Jury. “We have an incredibly powerful new technology platform, a bold brand that truly represents our driving spirit, and a content slate that is unmatched. No other streaming service in Africa can offer what Showmax is bringing to the table in the new year.” 

Showmax’s migration onto the global Peacock streaming platform means it’s ready to scale, and scale fast. The robust platform is used across the globe and is a leader in sports streaming, having successfully live-streamed the Super Bowl to more than six million users simultaneously.  

Known for its track record of setting trends with Showmax Originals, Showmax will be ramping up its content slate across the continent in December in preparation for the relaunch. The diverse lineup includes its first 2D animation, Twende, about an adorable boda-boda driving pangolin, as well as second seasons of record-breaking bromance Adulting, smash hit reality series Kwa Mam’Mkhize and Nigerian hit Wura, not to mention the reunion of The Mommy Club. And that’s not all, with launches on the way for Convict Conman, a new true-crime series (from the producers of Devilsdorp, Rosemary’s Hitlist and Steinheist); Trompoppie, a murder mystery series set in the competitive world of high school drum majorettes; Nigerian legal drama Agu; first Nigerian Original feature film, School Run, and reality series Sports Wives. Every Wednesday until 27 December, Showmax will also be releasing new episodes of their breakthrough CANAL+ co-production Spinners, the first African show ever selected for Canneseries.  

For fans of international content, the new Comcast partnership guarantees Showmax an ongoing supply of hit content, as the media giant owns the likes of Universal Pictures, NBC, Peacock, Sky, DreamWorks Animation and Telemundo. 

Viewers can expect international titles on Showmax to radically increase in the new year, with December’s lineup already including The Super Mario Bros. Movie (the biggest animated opening of all-time, and the biggest global opening of 2023), Fast X (which was the #1 international opening of 2023), Emmy®-nominated Poker Face and King Arthur epic The Winter King. Already home to the three most nominated shows at this year’s Emmys®, Showmax will continue to draw content from Banijay, BBC, eOne Fremantle, HBO, ITV, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros, among others. 

Showmax continues to go from strength to strength. It was recently named one of the RoW40 (40 Trailblazing Companies that are beating the West) by the New York based global non-profit Rest of World who said, “These emerging market pioneers are outmanoeuvring Silicon Valley.” Nigeria’s 2023 BrandCom Awards also recognised Showmax as ‘The Most Innovative On-demand Video Streaming Platform’, noting that, “The video streaming service has demonstrated exceptional creativity, originality, and innovation within the on-demand streaming industry”. 

“Streaming in Africa is about to take off and we’re ready to change the game,” says Jury. “We have all the ingredients in place to become the number one streaming service for Africa.”