Telecoms giant taking on Netflix in South Africa

MTN has announced the launch of its new MTN One TV streaming service in South Africa, which will compete with established providers like Netflix.

The service officially launched on 8 June 2026 in South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, and Ghana, with plans to expand to other regions across the African continent in the future.

Alongside free-to-view video content, One TV also offers subscription packages up to R30 per month, which allow access to more content.

In South Africa, the service is currently only available to people with a valid MTN phone number, which they will need to use when signing up.

In a statement released alongside the service’s launch, MTN said the aim of One TV was to make digital video content more relevant and accessible for African markets.

As part of the company’s Ambition 2030 strategy, the launch of One TV aims to create new opportunities for locally produced African video content.

MTN Group Chief Commercial, Strategy and Transformation Officer Selorm Adadevoh said entertainment was becoming an integral facet of digital participation in Africa.

“Through MTN One TV, we are leveraging the scale of our connectivity, fintech, and digital capabilities to make relevant content more accessible,” Adadevoh said.

“We aim to create new opportunities for Africa’s creative and digital economies. This is aligned with our ambition to deliver digital solutions for Africa’s progress.”

The rollout of One TV across the continent will take a phased approach, according to MTN, which said this will reflect local market needs, existing services, and partnership opportunities.

In an interview with BusinessDayTV, business writer Mudiwa Gavaza described the move as a way for MTN to add more value to their existing services.

“One of the biggest things that MTN has been trying to do is increase data consumption,” Gavaza said. “Voice is coming down, and SMS is coming down. They need to find ways to increase data usage”

“How do they do that? They either get people to consume more services, or they contribute to the services they consume. Video tends to be one of the biggest things that consumes data.”

South Africa’s turbulent streaming market

The launch of MTN One TV comes amid increased competition and volatility in South Africa’s video streaming sector.

In April 2026, MultiChoice shut down its Showmax streaming service, which launched in 2015 and at one point became the largest streaming service on the continent.

With its closure, the market became almost entirely dominated by international players such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.

The launch of One TV thus seeks to reestablish an African-centred presence within the continent’s streaming market, to fill the gap left by Showmax’s discontinuation.

“They say that they’re not competing with the likes of Netflix, but it does come at a time when Showmax has just come out of the market,” Gavaza said.

“People are looking for some of that cheaper entertainment, because we exist in a market that has a lot of free content. You’ve got the likes of YouTube in South Africa, as well as SABC.”

Gavaza explained that MTN’s goal with One TV was to specifically push for more locally produced content by appealing to local content creators by paying them for the rights to their content.

He said the launch of the service formed part of MTN’s strategy to integrate itself more into people’s homes, where the company has notably lacked a presence for many years.

The launch of One TV is not the first time a South African telecoms company has attempted to enter the streaming market, either.

Cell C launched its video streaming and entertainment service, Black, in November 2017, which it touted as the “future of entertainment”.

The service offered a range of options to subscribers, including video streaming, music streaming, concert tickets, and sports betting, amongst others.

The service was shuttered just two years after launch, however, after Cell C struggled to compete against more established services such as Showmax and Netflix.

MTN previously made a foray into the music streaming market as well, through the launch of its MusicTime service in 2018.

Through the dedicated MusicTime app, users would buy listening time in order to listen to music on the service, as opposed to paying a monthly subscription akin to Spotify or Apple Music.

This app was sunset in 2021, with the service migrated to MTN’s Ayoba “super app”, which has now also been shut down as of March 2026.