Streaming wars in South Africa – Netflix vs Showmax vs Amazon Prime Video and more – BusinessTech

Netflix may have the largest market share in South Africa’s video streaming industry, but it does not have the most titles available in the country.

South Africa’s entertainment industry has seen a substantial shift. Netflix’s launch in 2016 ended MultiChoice’s monopoly on high-end international content.

When it launched in South Africa, the world’s largest streamer was followed by other streaming giants, including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+.

Before the launch of these streaming giants, MultiChouce launched its streaming service in Showmax.

Using Q2 2024 data from JustWatch, Netflix is still the biggest player in South Africa’s Subscription Video on Demand war, with 31% of the market share.

JustWatch’s market share calculator is based on 310k monthly users on JustWatch in South Africa who select their streaming services, click out to streaming offers, and mark titles as seen.

Amazon Prime Video has a 26% market share, while Showmax comes in third with a 25% share.

Mubi secured the fourth spot at 7% with a 3% gap over Apple TV Plus.

It should be noted that viewing figures are a closely guarded secret in the SVOD space, making JustWatch’s data the best approximation of the country’s biggest streamers.

Cost and number of titles

Despite being the most popular streaming service in South Africa, Netflix is also the most expensive, costing R199 per month when taking out the comprehensive Premium version.

Showmax’s most expensive package includes its Entertainment and Premier League offerings and costs R140 per month.

Disney+ Premium is not included in JustWatch’s data and is the third most expensive, costing R139 per month, alongside MUBI.

Apple TV+ will send customers back R125 per month.

The cheapest is Amazon Prime Video, which costs a mere R79 in South Africa.

According to JustWatch’s data, Netflix has 6,667 on-demand titles in South Africa.

Showmax Entertainment has 1,543 titles, while Apple TV+ has 226 titles.

Although the cheapest, Amazon Prime Video has the most titles available in South Africa at 8,852.

Although Apple TV+ may have the fewest titles, it does allow for six concurrent streams—the most of any streaming service.

This is two streams more than Netflix and Disney+ Premium and three more than Amazon Prime Video.

Showmax Entertainment and MUBI allow for two concurrent streams.

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