The boom in local film and TV production sparked by the launch of major streaming video services over the past six years is about to gain further momentum.
This month, Disney+ joins Netflix, Showmax, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and Britbox in an entertainment bonanza that is likely to see constant churn between the streaming providers.
Already, market leader Netflix has seen its first drop in subscriber numbers in 10 years, albeit a small loss — about 200,000 subscribers globally in the first three months of the year.
However, its shares plunged more than 35% when the streaming giant warned that it expected to lose another 2-million customers over the next quarter.
The losses can be attributed to resistance to increased subscription fees and its withdrawal from Russia — which cost it 700,000 subscribers.
However, the absence of once-routine robust growth can also be put down to more compelling offerings from such competitors as Disney+, which has been able to entice viewers with the entire Marvel and Star Wars franchises, along with the classic Walt Disney slate of movies and series.
All this content will be available to South Africans from May 18, along with vast catalogues from Disney properties such as National Geographic and Fox, home of The Simpsons.
SA will be among 42 countries in which the service will launch in the coming weeks, helping to double its current 129-million subscribers globally.
According to Christine Service, senior vice-president and general manager of Walt Disney Africa, the company expects to grow its subscriber base to between 230-million and 260-million by the end of 2024.
“We also expect that to be our break-even year,” she said during a Disney+ showcase in SA this week.
Netflix has 221-million customers globally.
Service said South African subscribers would have access to more than 1,000 films, more than 1,500 series, and 200 exclusive originals, and the range would expand over the next 12 months.
As with Netflix and Showmax, it would work with local producers to ensure “relevant content” is available, with the aim of creating 60 local productions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by 2024.
Among material in development and due to air this year is a science fiction series from Nigeria, Iwájú (The Future), made by a pan-African comic book company called Kugali, and set in Lagos.
Showmax and Netflix have a large catalogue of locally produced shows, which will overshadow Disney+ on regional relevance
Among the features of Disney+ for local subscribers will be audio in multiple languages and it will allow four concurrent streams.
However, it is not offering a low-resolution, lower-cost version for mobile users, like rival Showmax does. The local service last week launched a new option aimed at the mass market, in a bid to fend off subscriber migration to the new arrival.
It announced a Max Data Saving mode, which uses just 50MB/hour, on the iOS mobile version of its app, and plans to add it to the Android app shortly. Standard quality video, the lowest at which Disney+ streams, uses about 700MB/h, while high-definition can use 1.4GB/h-3GB/h.
The new Showmax option supplements existing low and data savings modes, which use up to 300MB/h and 100MB/h respectively.
Barry Dubovsky, COO of MultiChoice Connected Video, which houses Showmax, said the service is designed for Africa, which he describes as “a mobile-first continent where the cost of data remains a barrier to streaming”.
“Showmax was the first streaming service in Africa to make mobile downloads possible for offline viewing and the first to launch a mobile-only plan, so we want to keep tailor-making Showmax for African realities.”
Showmax Mobile costs just R39 a month for use on a single device, compared with R119 a month to subscribe to Disney+.
A high-end offering, Showmax Pro, which includes news and live sport, is also available on mobile-only plans, at R225 a month.
Both Showmax and Netflix have built up large catalogues of locally produced shows, which will allow both to overshadow Disney+ on regional relevance.
This month alone Netflix launches two new African series, Blood Sisters from Nigeria and Savage Beauty from SA. In the past week, it also launched its first podcast from the continent, Never Late|African Time, hosted by Andy Maqondwana of Kaya FM and Zweli Mbhele of 947 Radio, and streaming on YouTube.
On May 25, marked as Africa Day across the continent, it will unveil an extensive new content collection called From Cape to Cairo. Coming a week after the launch of Disney+, it will raise the stakes for the newcomer to prove its local credentials.
Netflix drew a line in the sand for local rivals at the end of March when the company surprised the fourth South African investment conference with a pledge of more than R900m for productions in this country.
The contribution to the South African creative industry is to be made over the next 18 months. It will cover four productions — one international and three local — that will be filmed in SA.
“Netflix is committed to South Africa for the long term and we’re investing in talent both in front of and behind the camera,” said Shola Sanni, Netflix director of public policy in Sub-Saharan Africa,
“Since our launch in 2016, we’ve been working with South African creators and distributors to bring high-quality stories that showcase the best of South Africa’s creativity and talent to a global audience — and this is only the beginning.”
Netflix will also work with the industry on skills transfer or training initiatives to contribute to the South African creative industry's growth.
Over the past five years, she said, Netflix had invested more than R2bn in South African productions, creating in excess of 1,900 jobs.
By December 2020, more than 80 South African films and television series were available on Netflix. The company estimates that for every one local view of a South African title on Netflix, there were 26 views by households outside SA.
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