Owners of the new Video on Demand (VoD) service ShowMax, launched in South Africa this month, believe that the service is scalable and could be launched in other African countries.

Owned by Dstv's parent company Naspers, Showmax allows subscribers to watch movies, series, children's shows, documentaries and other programming online, by streaming to a Smart TV or on a mobile device.

Widely seen as Naspers' response to the announcement by earlier this year by Netflix of its intention to launch in South Africa, take up of the service has been ahead of expectations according to Showmax head of communications Richard Boorman.

"Our focus at the moment is on South Africa and on getting that right, but I think it is fair to say that it is a scalable product."

Boorman told ITWeb Africa that expansion into the rest of Africa is near certain because of improvements to connectivity.

"There are a million ADSL lines already just from Telkom and for anyone with one of those ADSL lines generally they are going to have a reasonable data allowance or no data cap at all so for those guys its a no brainer. The other thing is the massive investment in fibre to the home, you're having these "fibre hood popping" up in Joburg, Cape Town and Durban. We are launching this almost kind of preemptively. We know it's coming, so we need to be ready and we need to have the offering so that as people get connectivity, they can use the product."

Fixed LTE, WIFI and 3G are going to allow more people access, although it would be to a lesser extent. The decision to launch in South Africa was based on the country's solid infrastructure, compared to counterparts on the continent.

"SA is at present the largest market if you are looking at fixed line connections in Africa, but in terms of market potential that's another question because places like Nigeria have the potential to surpass South Africa in the longer term."

ShowMax has also tried to achieve a balance between international and local content by sourcing material from global studios like HBO, Time Warner, CBS and MGM, and including local content from Mzansi Magic, Kyknet and SABC. The current cost of subscription is R99 per month for access on five different devices.

Report on VoD services in Africa

Hot on the heels of ShowMax's launch is a report which reviews existing VoD services, drivers, challenges and opportunities in Africa. The report was compiled over a ten month period by two analysts on behalf of UK based consultancy 'Balancing Act' and is due for release on 1 September.

"The report will save research time and cut costs and is essential reading for anyone involved, or planning to engage in the African OTT/VoD sector. Executives trying to identify who/where the existing and upcoming VoD players are in Africa will find the answer in this piece of research. The report is part of standard market intelligence for VoD, telecoms professionals and for TV broadcasters active in African regions." reads a description of the report by Balancing Act.

The 193 page report will include, among others, a list of over 100 VoD platforms related to Africa (130 as of the end of Aug. 2015), VoD mobile apps profiles for key platforms, a selection of 20 Nollywood-related VoD platforms, as well as a selection of thirteen African telecoms operators about to- or have already launched VoD.