Nigeria, SA to be top Africa pay TV spenders by 2020

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Nigeria and South Africa will contribute more than half of Africa’s pay TV revenues by 2020 a new report from Digital TV Research has shown.

According to the research, Pay TV revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa will reach $6.22 billion in 2020, up from $3.54 billion in 2014 and $1.92 billion in 2010.

Excluding South Africa, pay TV revenues will climb from $0.83 billion in 2010 to $1.73 billion in 2014 and onto $4.12 billion in 2020, according to the report.

Satellite TV accounted for 92% of the 2014 pay TV revenues, although pay DTT will make inroads (contributing $802 million in 2020 – quadruple the 2014 total). Competition and take-up of the cheaper DTT packages will force ARPU down in most countries.

Of the 12.92 million pay TV subscribers at end-2014, 9.65 million were pay satellite TV and 2.81 million pay DTT. The pay total will more than double to 27.95 million by 2020, with satellite TV contributing 16.21 million and pay DTT another 9.44 million.

“Three companies [Multichoice (DStv and GOtv), Canal Plus andStarTimes] accounted for more than 90% of pay TV subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa by end-2014. However, we have outlined plans for at least 30 major platform launches in 2015 throughout this report – at least twice as many as in 2014”, Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, says.

According to him, “Kenya has shown – and will continue to show – considerable digital TV growth, but it may be showing signs of overheating. Kenya now boasts two pay DTT platforms, a cable network and four satellite TV operators, a country with only 2.87 million TV households”

Digital TV Research estimates that with future changes seen on the African pay TV landscape, at least 30 new platform launches are expected in 2015.