Mohale and Somizi at their traditional wedding. Picture: Austin Malema
More than half of the TV shows and movies on Showmax is now local content.
This deliberate shift to local started more than a year ago with shows like The River and The Queen, and more recently with Lockdown and Kwa Mam’Mkhize. Now, the latest Showmax Original, Somizi and Mohale: The Union, is breaking viewing records.
The Somhale wedding just broke the all-time record for the number of views on its first day on Showmax, ahead of both the original series The Girl From St Agnes and the most popular international series ever screened on the streaming service.
Local content doesn’t just get views, it also brings in new subscribers. Showmax tracks first-views statistics – what’s the first show people watch after signing up – under the assumption that this show influenced the decision to subscribe.
Currently, six out of the top 10 most popular shows as ranked by first views on Showmax are local.
Speaking about the importance of local content, CEO of the Connected Video division of MultiChoice Niclas Ekdahl said: “We expected Somhale to do well but the response was even bigger than we’d hoped, and it goes to show how our shift to local content is paying dividends. In fact, the views of local content are up more than 40% in less than a year.
Mohale and Somizi at their traditional wedding. Picture: Austin Malema
“The key to supplying local content is realising it’s a marathon. Bringing on new shows and new episodes day in, day out, week in, week out is what our customers are looking for. And thanks to the decades of local content commissioning and production expertise sitting in this company, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing.”
Some of the most popular local content on Showmax are:
Somizi and Mohale: The Union started this Monday with an episode celebrating their traditional wedding, which merged their respective Zulu and Sotho cultures in a flamboyant celebration full of romance, gorgeous decor, dazzling chandelier cakes, champagne and multiple costume changes.
A new episode drops every Monday, from the road to their wedding, to their individual bachelor parties, and then their white wedding as the finale on 16 March 2020.
Watch the trailer:
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