South African online subscription television service, Showmax, has announced the launch of a new live-streaming sport feature, allowing South Africans to watch all live sporting events.
In a statement issued on Thursday, 20 June 2019, the online subscription service announced that it would be expanding its features to allow for live-streaming of sporting events. This will allow South African viewers to partake in the live viewing of the ICC Cricket World Cup and the AFCON football matches.
Showmax added that “The new sport section, which includes a range of extended highlights from major sports events, popular magazine shows, and live-streaming, is available on all Showmax apps and platforms except for Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation, and some smart TVs (support will be added for these in the coming months). The sport content is currently available exclusively in South Africa.”
The service was previously announced on Friday, 14 June 2019, but included only the live-streaming of the ICC Cricket World Cup. Due to the high demand and increasing viewership of sports in South Africa, Showmax increased its coverage to now include various other sporting events, primarily the AFCON football matches.
Niclas Ekdahl, CEO of MultiChoice’s connected video division, the company behind Showmax, explained that “Adding sport to Showmax is something fundamentally new for us and it’s a big deal. We’re preparing for a future when uncapped data is affordable to all in Africa and video on demand becomes the norm… Sport is the obvious next target and the only way to do that properly is to be able to stream it live”.