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Johannesburg - ShowMax turns one on Friday clocking up 10 million views, equivalent to 700 years' worth of TV shows and movies.
ShowMax chief product officer Barron Ernst said it has been an insanely busy year for the ShowMax team.
“My intention isn’t to boast, because we’ve got loads more to do, but dispassionately I’d say we’ve achieved a fair amount in that time,” Ernst said.
He added that enabling content downloads, setting up data usage caps, putting together a cash voucher system and implementing multiple user profiles were some of the tougher technical challenges they had solved, with additional tweaks and upgrades taking place on an almost daily basis.
“On top of that, since the launch we’ve added support for AirPlay, Apple TV, Chromecast, the DStv Explora, and more smart TVs,” he said.
Fin24 has reported on a spike in streaming content usage after the launch of services like ShowMax and Netflix.
READ: YouTube is SA's gateway drug to streaming content
Technology analyst Arthur Goldstuck previously told Fin24 that ShowMax is the dominant streaming service in SA.
“ShowMax is the the biggest platform for streaming content with a high marketing presence within the country. The service is heavily marketed in the country while Netflix has no marketing presence," said Goldstuck.
According to ShowMax statistics, the peak viewing time is between 18:00 and 23:00, with the absolute peak at around 20:00.
The service is most used on Sundays.
Ernst said a recent survey of just over 1 000 respondents found that internet cost is the main reason holding people back from subscribing.
READ: Top 5 smartphones for streaming ShowMax, Netflix
“Only 15% of people find normal TV easier to use. Somewhat surprisingly, only 9% said that they don’t subscribe because they can pirate the content illegally,” he said.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cost and availability of decent internet connectivity is the biggest hurdle, but we believe there are elegant solutions, some of which we’ve already deployed and some of which are still in the works,” Ernst said.
* ShowMax is part of Naspers, parent company of Media24 and 24.com, which runs Fin24.
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