BBM launches DiscoverTV streaming media service for Africa

Messaging service BBM now has its own streaming video service.

Dubbed DiscoverTV, the service aims to provide Africa’s 1.1-billion smartphone users with “a wide variety of award-winning short form shows, selected from a diverse range of mobile movies, channels, cartoons and documentaries”, the company explains in a press release.

This content is available from within the BBM mobile app’s Discover menu.

Alongside the content, the payment payment methods are also better suited to the continent’s mobile-first market.

Users pay R1 per day for “unlimited access” to their favourite channel, but can use the service for free for the first month.

BBM DiscoverTV is the company’s new mobile video streaming service aimed squarely at the African market

“The service is easy and convenient, as all subscriptions and additional data costs are managed by users’ respective mobile phone networks,” the company adds. The service is also free of advertising, and is usable via WiFi or cellular networks.

Once one of South Africa’s most commonly used messaging services, BBM has since become a “social ecosystem“. And although its status wanes across the world, the BlackBerry brand remains fairly strong in South Africa.

In 2014, MyBroadband noted that three of South Africa’s most used devices were BlackBerry handsets.

Last year, digital analytics company Effective Measure revealed that BlackBerry devices were used more than Apple handsets in South Africa, claiming 13% of the market.

BBM DiscoverTV is now available on the Android and iOS apps.