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A�Bruce Ndlovu
As the countrya��s film makers scramble to come up with content at the onset of the new digitization era, broadcast giant Showmax has followed Netflix in setting up its stall in Zimbabwe as the country and continent at large increasingly become a lucrative destination.
The Video On Demand (VOD) service provider announced Zimbabwe as one of 36 African countries where it had now set up services, which are likely position them as the direst rival of Netflix which rolled out its services on the African continent earlier this year.
Because it is owned by global broadcast giant Naspers, owners of DSTV, Showmax believes that it can crack the largely untapped VOD African market because of the prior success of its parent company with Africaa��s largest subscription service provider.
Showmax was first launched as a pilot project in South Africa last year, and has since managed to double the number since the start of this year. While Netflix is a popular phenomenon on social media, Showmax draws its strength from the fact that it is able to provide content that is tailored to the viewing needs of Africans.
This will particularly be relevant in Zimbabwe where DSTVa��s increasingly pricey services and the unfashionable local broadcaster has opened up a gap for other service providers to come in and hook viewers with content that agrees with their tastes.
At a cost of $7.99 per month with unlimited viewing, viewers will get access to content that ranges from Kiswahili language content to Bollywood and African film.
Meanwhile, to carter to the demands of the local market, Netflix announced the introduction of cellular data controls which give subscribers using its mobile app the option to control the amount of data used when streaming content on mobile connections. According to Netflix, an adjustment to the default setting will enable the streaming of 3 hours of content for 1GB of data.
Online Reporter