ShowMax expands to Europe, with Poland its first destination

Africa seems to be just a tad too small for growing South African streaming company ShowMax. The Naspers-owned video-on-demand company today announced that it has infiltrated Europe, with a new service launched in Poland.

This is ShowMax’s first big foray into Europe, after it initially offered Afrikaans channel KykNET to Europeans, North Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders. To be fair, though, ShowMax’s Polish move is a substantial jump from its KykNET offering.

“This is a big deal for us, especially coming just 18 months after we launched ShowMax,” explains ShowMax head John Kotsaftis.

“With more than seven million people paying for online video in Poland and an overall population of more than 38 million, this is an exciting market.”

ShowMax Poland will offer hyper-local content to one of Europe’s fastest growing

Keeping with the service’s general mantra in the likes of SA and Kenya, Kotsaftis also explains that “catering for local needs” will be the key to expansion in eastern Europe.

“To deliver on this and be close to the market, we chose to set up operations in Warsaw, headed up by a respected Polish pay-TV and internet TV pioneer. This team is aggressively developing a strong portfolio of local content including commissioning original productions,” he adds.

Kotsaftis also explains that the service will be “hyper-local”, putting content from the eastern European company first, and international content second.

More details on the service will be announced in due course, Kotsaftis teases.