Showmax hires former HBO executive
South African media giant, Naspers has hired a former HBO executive, Akash Bhatia as chief financial officer for its Netflix competitor, Showmax.
Bhatia has previously worked at US media companies such as HBO and NBC Universal. He currently serves as vice president of finance at Naspers’ classifieds business.
Showmax launched in South Africa on 19 August, offering a subscription video on demand (SVOD) service for a monthly fee of R99.
The service offers subscribers access to over 11,000 hours of TV shows – made up of over 750 titles, 850 seasons, and 19,000 episodes – as well as a selection of over 400 movies.
It launched ahead of global streaming company Netflix’s entry into the South African market, which launched with a reduced selection of titles.
One of the key aspects of Naspers’ strategy with Showmax was to expand outside of South Africa, to take on Netflix head-on in various markets.
Naspers will target over 15 million subscription VOD viewers outside South Africa, it said, previously.
“What attracted me to Showmax is the growth potential and how they’re tackling expansion,” Bhatia said in an e-mail to Bloomberg.
“The approach of being locally relevant in everything from content and functionality to payments and partnerships makes a lot of sense.”
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