We are running out of things to do in quarantine so what better way to help people on the same boat we’re in than to dive into the different streaming services on offers in South Africa, like Netflix, Showmax and Amazon Prime Video, to see which one offers more content for less Randelas.
South Africa’s cable TV is losing the fight to streaming
With the advent of lower data prices in South Africa coming to fruition — thanks to the epic data must fall ruling — streaming has seen gains.
This bodes well for streaming services like Netflix, Showmax and Amazon Prime Video.
The attraction in streaming is hurting cable networks like Multichoice who are losing their footing in the industry.
What’s worse, streaming subscription fees are much cheaper, the platforms are ad-free and the large volume of high-budget content is driving more people to ditch the costly DStv packages.
Is Amazon Prime Video cheaper than Netflix in South Africa?
Thanks to the great research done by My Broadband, we finally have a clearer picture of what the streaming competition looks like in South Africa.
As it turns out, Showmax is still the cheaper option in Mzansi. Based on the latest prices for the competing streaming services, Amazon Prime Video comes in second place with the highest content count for a flat-rate monthly fee.
These are subscription fees for Netflix, Showmax and Amazon Prime Video for 2020:
Amazon Prime Video
Price: $5.99 flat-rate (R115 per month at Tuesday 28 April’s currency exchange)
Video quality: 4K
Content load: 10 606 movies, 1 173 TV shows
Concurrent viewings: 3
Netflix South Africa
Price: R99 basic, R139 standard, R169 premium
Video quality: Basic (SD), standard (full HD), premium (4K)
Content load: 3 303 movies, 1 580 TV shows
Concurrent viewings: Basic (1), standard (2), premium (4)
Showmax
Price: R99 flat-rate
Video quality: Full HD
Content load: 778 movies, 410 TV shows
Concurrent viewings: 2