The competition for the pockets of movie and series binge watchers is hotting up in South Africa.
For only R1 a day, you can now binge-watch marathon sessions of your favourite TV series and movies as and when you want, JusFlicks – a new video streaming firm, has entered the South African video streaming market to compete against MTN’s VU, Netflix and ShowMax.
The offering will allow customers to sign up for unlimited subscription.
To be a user, you don’t require a dish or a decoder and you can cancel your subscription anytime as there are no contracts.
There’s no scheduling but rather instant access to thousands of hours of entertainment when you want, how you want.
JustFlicks said all you need is to be connected to the internet (a minimum of 1MB speed is required but the higher the speed the better the experience). The video streaming service is provided via a mobile or fixed broadband internet connection.
“More than 1000 hours of movie and series viewing for your entertainment pleasure. About 100 new titles added every month,” said JustFlicks.
JustFlicks is owned by Marble Gold 322 (Pty) Ltd, an unknown company.
The video-on-demand space is slowly maturing in SA
Even though South African subscription-based video-on-demand (SVoD) services have failed to attract the expected millions of subscribers, the technology is developing at an unbelievable speed with new players trying to attract subscribers.
Unlike the local mobile cellphone sector, which managed to attract millions of subscribers when it launched 20 years ago, SVoD, which is in its infancy, seems not to be doing that well.
The delivery of video content is shifting towards subscription-based SVoD and consumption habits are fast changing – a development that provides hope for revenue streams diversification for all players involved.
But earlier in February, VIDI collapsed.
VIDI, which was launched in September 2014, has offered both a monthly subscription option and/or an instant rental option across one platform.
VIDI’s end was written on the wall last year. Last year, TISO Blackstar said is set to exit its VoD business Vidi following poor take-up. Last October, Tiso Blackstar CEO Andrew Bonamour told Business Day newspaper that Vidi had not been a success and “we will exit over the next 12 months”.
Then, just four months later, the VoD player is shutting down.
VIDI was competing with Naspers’ owned ShowMax, PCCW Global’s ONTAPtv, MTN’s VU and Netflix, which entered the market in January.
