The number of pay-TV subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase by 74 percent between 2017 and 2023 to reach 40.89 million, according to a report by Digital TV Research. The Sub-Saharan Africa Pay TV Forecasts report estimates that subscriber growth will outstrip revenue progress. Revenues will climb by 41 percent to USD 6.64 billion by 2023, up by USD 2 billion from 2017.
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said pay TV competition in Sub-Saharan Africa is becoming more and more intense, especially given the launch of Kwese TV in fourteen countries during 2017. Murray said pay=TV operators in most countries have lowered subscription fees and or subsidised/given away equipment as competition intensifies. Not all of themare expected to survive in the long run, but several pay-TV operators are booming. The report says Kenya will continue to show considerable digital TV growth, but it is overcrowded.
Kenya now has two pay DTT platforms, a cable network and five main satellite TV operators, which Digital TV Research says is too many for a country with only 4.01 million TV households.
From the 23.49 million pay TV subscribers at end-2017, 13.78 million were satellite TV and 9.11 million DTT. By 2023, satellite TV will contribute 20.89 million and DTT 17.53 million. This means an extra 7 million pay satellite TV subscribers and 8 million pay DTT homes.
Nigeria will have the most pay TV subscribers by 2023, overtaking South Africa in 2021. The top eight countries will supply three-quarters of the total in 2023. Multichoice had 12.48 million subscriptions across satellite TV platform DStv and DTT platform GOtv by end-2017, which will grow to 16.66 million by 2023. Vivendi had 2.96 million subs to its Canal Plus satellite TV platform and Easy TV by end-2017; forecast to climb by nearly 2 million to 4.87 million by 2023.
StarTimes/StarSat will enjoy the most impressive growth: from 6.23 million subs at end-2017 to 13.42 million by 2023 – growing from half the Multichoice total in 2017 to 81 percent of its total by 2023.