Review of DSTV Now vs Showmax vs Netflix

I have been switching between DSTV Now, Showmax and Netflix these last 6 months. And in today's post I'll give you my own review of the different offerings.

DSTV Now
If you already have DSTV then you should try the DSTV Now. It allows you to access your DSTV subscription on your computer, tablets and phone. And if you are part of a family with an active high cost DSTV bouquet, then this is a good choice. 

Mutltichoice included a value add. You can watch on demand movies in addition to the live TV. I loved this extra. And they put very good movies on a weekly basis that you can browse through and watch the ones you like. 

Just know that you'll have to link the DSTV Now to your smartcard and DSTV subscription.

Showmax
Showmax is Multichoice competition to Netflix. For less than what Netflix charges you'll get access to lots of movies (maybe thousands). 

They've got a large collection of high quality TV series. Lots of HBO series. Including Game of Thrones and popular (newer) HBO series. That's one thing they have that Netflix doesn't have. Another plus over Netflix is that all their movie collections are available for Nigeria. Unlike Netflix where many of the good and new movies are not available for Nigeria (but available for US) even though it's same monthly charge. A third plus for Showmax is the much richer collection of African movies and series. Even the Big Brother Show was available on Showmax.

One negative. though slight, is that not all the movies on Showmax have subtitles. I love subtitles. It's part of the reason I stopped going to the cinemas. Another issue to grapple with is that locating the good movies can be a lot of digging on Showmax. What I do is I search using the name of popular actors/actresses. With that I was able to locate very excellent movies I never got to see by just scrolling or browsing the genres.

Netflix
Netflix has the largest collection of movies compared to the other two.

They've got excellent series. But not always true for the movies for those of us in Nigeria. For every one very good movie you find there are 3 you won't find but someone else in US will find on Netflix. So I have just resolved to running a concurrent ExpressVPN subscription so I can always change my location to US or Canada and be able to see more great (and new) movies.

Another negative I have with Netflix is that their self-produced movies (not series) are crappy. I have tried many times to locate an exception and I failed each time. They are great at intriguing movie themes and even story line, but still the entire outcome is poor. I just avoid them even when there is an A-list actor in it. 

Netflix is more expensive than Showmax. But compared to DSTV Now, it will depend on the DSTV bouquet you are on, though I can say at a value for money parity, Netflix is cheaper.