Advanced Television

Analyst: African OTT TV revs to reach $1bn

January 14, 2019

Sub-Saharan African OTT movie and TV episode revenues will reach $1.018 billion (€890m) by 2024 – up from $223 million in 2018. Despite this quintupling of revenues, Africa still has a lot of potential growth in the long-term, according to analyst firm Digital TV Research.

South Africa will account for 40 per cent of the region’s revenues by 2024, with Nigeria bringing in a further 22 per cent. From the 35 countries covered in the Sub-Saharan Africa OTT TV and Video Forecasts report, only 15 will generate OTT revenues of more than $10 million by 2024.

SVoD is already the main revenue driver for OTT TV and video by some distance. SVoD revenues will reach $782 million by 2024; nearly quintuple the 2018 total.

The report forecasts 10.21 million SVoD subscriptions by 2024, up from 3.03 million at end-2018. South Africa (3.46 million by 2024) will remain the leader, with Nigeria (2.56 million) in second place.

South Africa and Nigeria will together account for 59 per cent of the region’s SVoD subscribers by 2024, but this is down from 71 per cent in 2018. Therefore, the rest of the region is growing faster than the two main countries.

“Market dynamics have shifted over the last year,” advised Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research. “Despite its relatively high prices, Netflix has consolidated its market leadership. There have been many fewer platform launches, especially on a country level. Furthermore, several multinational players appear to have reined in their ambitions.”

The top five platforms accounted for 87 per cent of the region’s SVoD subscriptions by end-2018, with this proportion to be retained throughout the forecast period.

Netflix accounted for 45 per cent of the region’s SVoD subscribers by end-2018. The company will retain its market dominance by taking 39 per cent of the 2024 total (4 million subscribers). Netflix will take 64 per cent of the region’s SVoD revenues by 2024 – similar to the 2018 proportion.

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