How hot is local streaming content? Showmax gives us the facts and figures

To honour the success of Somizi & Mohale: The Union on Showmax, the company on Thursday revealed a host of interesting facts about the streaming platform’s local content.

“The Somhale wedding just broke the all-time record for the number of views on its first day on Showmax, ahead of both the Showmax Original The Girl From St Agnes and the most popular international series ever screened on Showmax,” the company said in a press release.

To mark the rise in quality local content, here are five facts you didn’t know about Showmax.

More than half of first-video shows on the platform are made in SA

According to the company, 60% of the first-viewed shows after users sign up to the platform are local.

The platforms streams about 200PB of data every year

That’s the equivalent of 100 000 2TB hard drives in total, or data transfer rates of around 548TB every day, or 22.8TB per hour.

Most people watch streaming content on their smartphones

“Looking at viewing hours, mobile devices make up around 45% of the total, with lean-back (smart TV, media player, etc) making up around 35%, and web viewing accounting for the remaining 20%,” the company explained.

More Showmax users watch on Android than iOS

80% of the service’s mobile users sport Android phones.

Local content has become even more popular in the past year

According to Niclas Ekdahl, MultiChoice’s connected video CEO, local content views went “more than 40% in less than a year”.

It’s clear from the stats that local South African content is becoming more and more popular. Just today, Netflix also launched its first South African original series Queen Sono too.

Feature image: Shereesa Moodley/Memeburn