Report: Africa set for 46m pay-TV subs
January 7, 2019
Sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to add more than 16 million pay-TV subscribers between 2018 and 2024 to bring its total to 45.63 million, according to the Sub-Saharan Africa Pay-TV Forecasts report from Digital TV Research.
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Subscriber numbers will climb by 61 per cent over this period, but pay-TV revenues will rise by only 42 per cent – indicating lower ARPUs. Pay-TV revenues will reach $7.72 billion by 2024, up by $2.3 billion on 2018.”
Three groups accounted for 93 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s pay-TV subscribers in 2018 – although this proportion will fall to 89 per cent by 2024. Multichoice had 14.34 million subs across satellite TV platform DStv and DTT platform GOtv by end-2018. This total will grow by 5 million to 19.37 million by 2024.
France’s Vivendi had 4.01 million subs to its Canal Plus satellite TV platform and Easy TV DTT platform by end-2018, which will climb to 6.21 million by 2024.
StarTimes/StarSat will enjoy the most impressive growth: from 7.75 million subs at end-2018 to 14.85 million by 2024 – up from 54 per cent of the Multichoice total to 77 per cent of its total by 2024