ShowMax unveils live streaming service

Saturday Night Live Polska streamed live on YouTube and ShowMax’s website

South Africa-based SVoD service ShowMax has added live streaming capabilities to its platform.

ShowMax introduced the service through the launch of Saturday Night Live Polska, a local version of NBCUniversal (NBCU)’s format, in Central and Eastern Europe.

SNL Polska streamed live on YouTube and ShowMax’s website and was then uploaded to the SVoD platform for on-demand viewing.

Akash Bhatia, ShowMax’s chief financial officer and member of the SNL Polska project team, said working with NBCU and the ShowMax Poland team to bring the format to Central Europe brought an “extra layer of anxiety.”

“The show is, of course, famous for airing live, which is something ShowMax had never done before,” he said. “Our engineering team pulled off a massive coup, turning ShowMax from an on-demand-only platform to having live-streaming capability in just three months.”