Showmax to exit Polish market
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 13 December 2018

The Naspers subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Showmax is to close its operations in Poland on 31 January 2019 and renew its focus on Africa.

Headed by former Google executive Maciej Sojka, the Warsaw-based localised service offered international and Polish content on-demand, following its launch in February 2017. Since then, Showmax Poland had established local partnerships with Play, T-Mobile and Vectra.

As of April 2018, Showmax Poland had 1,257,885 subscribers, trailing Netflix with 1,981,507 users, according to data from Gemius/PBI. Poland’s foreign-owned SVOD platforms all lagged behind local services VOD.pl with 3.74 million users and TVP.pl – VOD with 2.43 million.

The news of the closure follows Naspers's announcement it would spin-off pay-TV giant MultiChoice – along with its DStv, SuperSport and Showmax assets – in a Johannesburg Stock Exchange listing in 2019. Showmax Poland is the only one of its companies providing video streaming services outside African markets.