Television
After Showmax: The Nigerian Viewer Has Five Streaming Options Left. None of Them Is What Showmax Was.
Showmax closes April 30. Netflix, DStv Stream, Circuits, EbonyLife ON, and YouTube are what remain. NollyPrime maps each platform honestly — what it offers, what it lacks, and why none of them is what Showmax was: a platform that actively commissioned Nigerian originals at scale and had the subscriber base to justify paying for them.
Netflix Has Quietly Halved Its Nollywood Acquisitions Three Years Running. The Industry Has Not Fully Processed This.
In the first half of 2023, around nineteen Nigerian titles appeared on Netflix. In the first half of 2024, around ten. In the first half of 2025, five. The count has halved three years running with no announcement from the platform. The industry has not fully processed what this means for the producers who built their models around the streaming commissioning era.
WURA Season 4 Opened on Africa Magic. That Quiet Move Says Everything About What Showmax Became.
WURA Season 4 opened on Africa Magic on March 30, not on Showmax. No announcement was made. The show that defined Showmax's Nigerian identity has been quietly migrated to linear television as the platform closes. The distribution channel changed. The implications for Nigerian serialised television run deeper than any single programme.
The Weekend Is Now on HBO Max. The Studio System Did Not Get It There.
The Weekend — Daniel Oriahi's psychological thriller produced by Trino Motion Pictures — is now on HBO Max across fifteen countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It got there through Tribeca, BFI London, Screamfest, and a deliberate international sales process that most Nigerian productions never attempt. The deal is the headline. The infrastructure that produced it is the story.
Showmax Is Shutting Down on April 30. Nigerian Television Should Be Asking Harder Questions.
On March 5, 2026, Canal+ confirmed what its CEO Maxime Saada had been signalling since January — that Showmax, the streaming platform built by MultiChoice over eleven years, would be shut down. Subscriptions stopped renewing on March 31. The service closes entirely on April 30. Content migrates to DStv Stream, then eventually to a Canal+ app that does not yet exist in these markets.