The deal, which was finalised last week, will include multiple shows available through the service in 2020 and 2021.
Showmax has signed a distribution deal with UK-based Jetpack Distribution for more than 153 hours of content from the latter’s catalogue broadcast across a range of devices in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa.
Some of the shows which will be available through the service in 2020 and 2021 include BES’ comedy animation Kitty is Not a Cat (seasons one and two), animated series Rainbow, Butterfly, Unicorn, Kitty (season one), adventure comedy animation The Barefoot Bandits (season one), Friends (seasons three to five), pre-school animation Yoko (season one), and Greenstone’s dystopian live-action thriller The Cul de Sac (seasons one to three).
Commenting on the deal, Jetpack CEO, Dominic Gardiner, said: “In the last few years, we’ve been increasingly focused on building a rich and diverse catalogue, one that spans beyond our heartland of comedy animation; breaking new ground where possible.
This deal demonstrates that we can offer a great deal of choice and variation for one network. While consistently delivering high quality and enduringly appealing content.”
Showmax Head of Content, Candice Fangueiro, added: “Our business has fundamentally changed over the past few months with SVOD usage jumping dramatically, and kids’ content, in particular, has been extremely popular. The timing for this deal, which adds a wide range of new kids shows, couldn’t be better, and it’s a perfect complement to the total revamp of the kid’s section that we recently completed, giving parents full control over what their kids can see.”
