The largest pay-TV provider in Africa, MultiChoice Group, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with US media giant Comcast to develop a pan-African video streaming platform.
According to the firm, it will own 70% of the new streaming service, which will be based on Showmax, the streaming platform from MultiChoice.
It was noted that Comcast’s NBCUniversal will hold the remaining 30%.
Despite having the largest market share in Africa for pay TV, Netflix, Amazon’s streaming service, and Disney have made it difficult for MultiChoice to expand with Showmax.
MultiChoice is facing threats in a market where it has been a leader as streaming competitors are increasingly focusing their attention on sports rights in Africa.
“This is an appropriate time to step up its ambition and investment in the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and over-the-top (OTT) segments,” it said.
According to the firm, the new streaming service would bring together MultiChoice’s expanding investment in local content with a sizable pipeline of foreign material licensed from NBCUniversal and Sky.
In addition, to live English Premier League football, this will be supplemented with material from third parties including HBO, Warner Brothers International, Sony, and others, according to the business.
