Naspers’s video-on-demand service, ShowMax, has gone live in Kenya, with the company introducing a new, lower-priced tier, called ShowMax Select, in the East African nation that costs US$3/month (about R45/month).

ShowMax Premium, priced at KSh880/month (about R120/month), provides a full range of international and local content, while ShowMax select, at KSh330/month is a “mobile-first, data-optimised product” that offers reduced data consumption with a specific focus on local content, and is paid for using M-Pesa.

M-Pesa is the mobile payments platform introduced by Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest mobile operator.

“Both tiers allow subscribers to either stream content or to download up to 25 shows to watch offline. Downloaded content is valid for 30 days,” ShowMax said in a statement.

Data usage is charged separately and works with a customer’s existing data bundles.

“Kenya has different needs and tastes to other countries and deserves something designed specifically for Kenyans,” said ShowMax GM John Kotsaftis.

ShowMax features local Kenyan shows such as Real Househelps of Kawangware, Churchill Live, Auntie Boss and Kona.

Subscribers can choose from a number of different download video quality levels. Using the most data-efficient setting, downloading a 20-minute TV show will use approximately 80MB, the company said.

“Kenya has all the right ingredients: tech-savvy consumers, rapidly expanding Internet connectivity, and an appetite for quality TV shows and movies. So why hasn’t Internet TV taken off yet?” said Kotsaftis.

“It doesn’t matter how good your service is if you don’t first solve the data challenge for customers, particularly for the majority of people who rely on mobile Internet,” he said in the statement.

“That’s why we designed data-saving features and the ability to download content into ShowMax from the outset. With these features and a strong focus on local content, we think ShowMax will finally crack the Internet TV model in Kenya.” — (c) 2016 NewsCentral Media