[SatNews] According to Digital TV Research, payTV 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, payTV revenues will climb from $0.83 billion in 2010 to $1.73 billion in 2014 and onto $4.12 billion in 2020.
The fourth edition of the Digital TV Sub-Saharan Africa report forecasts that South Africa and Nigeria will contribute more than half of the region’s payTV revenues by 2020 for the 34 countries covered. Second-placed Nigeria will more than double its revenues from $449 million in 2014 to $1,148 million in 2020.
Satellite TV accounted for 92 percent of the 2014 payTV 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 payTV 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.
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said, “Three companies [Multichoice (DStv and GOtv), Canal Plus and StarTimes] accounted for more than 90 percent of payTV 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. 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 – too many for a country with only 2.87 million TV households?”
The Digital TV Sub-Saharan Africa report has been updated for the fourth edition to reflect the many changes that occurred in 2014 (and to highlight future changes, with at least 30 new platform launches expected in 2015). Published in January 2015, the PDF and excel report comes in six parts:
- Executive summary and regional forecasts, with handy comparison tables to reveal the best growth prospects
- New chapter on the main pan-regional players: StarTimes, DStv, GOtv and Canal Plus Afrique
- Regional forecasts summary from 2010 to 2020 by platform, by household penetration, by pay TV subscribers and by pay TV revenues
- Top-line forecasts (population, population per household, households and TV households) for 42 countries
- Country profiles for 35 territories
- Detailed country forecasts for 35 nations
Additional information is available at this infopage.
