Showmax opens EA office in Nairobi to drive expansion

Showmax entered the Kenyan market in 2016 amid growing competition in pay-television. The company has been expanding local programmes and movies available to subscribers.

“Our new office in Nairobi forms the heart of our operations in East Africa and is key to this localisation strategy,” said Showmax in a statement.
Kenyan Showmax subscribers can now watch the movie Nairobi Half Life and the comedy Classmates.

Showmax is accessible in 44 African countries. The company last month said that it had hit 20 million cumulative views in the markets with Kenya accounting for the second highest customer-base after South Africa.

Showmax is owned by Naspers which is also behind pay-TV company MultiChoice. It is seen as Naspers’ answer to a changing entertainment environment in which existing pay-TV companies have to contend with Internet-streaming and illegal downloads.

Other international content providers have pursued the content localisation strategy. For instance, the expansion of American content-streaming firm Netflix to European countries has been accompanied by the development of content targeted at those markets.

Netflix also came to Kenya in 2016 as did Amazon’s Prime Video. However, it is not yet clear whether these companies plan to adopt a localisation strategy in Kenya.

“Although there is a limited amount of local content available at launch in some countries, we will add more as the service grows in popularity and we better understand what our members want to watch in each region,” said Netflix in a statement to the Business Daily.

The entry of the video-on-demand service providers in Kenya has seen traditional pay-TV firms begin to compete on price points. 

Multichoice earlier this week said that it was going to freeze annual subscription fees for its DStv and GOtv products.

Exclusivity is also shaping up to be a key battleground for Kenyan viewers. There are ongoing challenges to Multichoice’s continued hold of exclusive rights to broadcast Premier League matches.

Kwesé Sports, owned by Zimbabwean Econnet Wireless, is posing a challenge to Multichoice’s sports exclusivity advantage. The company recently beat out Multichoice to win the rights to broadcast NBA games in Africa.