Africa (Sub-Saharan) Digital TV News

Canal+ France subscribers down 542k; International up 505k in year to end-3Q 2016
Nov 9, 2016 – Vivendi has released financial statements for the first nine months of 2016. Canal+ Group had a total of 11 million individual subscribers, a year-on-year decrease of 19,000.
News categories: Vivendi, Canal+ Group, Vincent Bolloré, Africa, France, Poland, Results, Satellite, Subscribers, Vietnam

South Africa begins analogue switch-off
Oct 25, 2016 – South Africa began the first phase of Analogue Switch-Off (ASO) on Friday, 28 October 2016 in the Northern Cape. This major national milestone forms part of the country’s Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) process.
News categories: Ministry of Communications, Digital TV, South Africa, Terrestrial

Intelsat 36 begins service for Africa's MultiChoice
Oct 6, 2016 – Intelsat (NYSE: I) has announced that the Intelsat 36 satellite has entered service, providing broadcasting and direct-to-home (DTH) services for Africa’s MultiChoice, the leading DTH platform in South Africa.
News categories: Intelsat, MultiChoice, Brian Jakins, Africa, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Satellite, South Africa

ShowMax launches mobile video in Kenya
Oct 5, 2016 – ShowMax has launched a two-tier service for watching TV and movies via the internet in Kenya. ShowMax Premium has a range of international and local content. ShowMax Select is a mobile-first product, paid for using M-PESA.
News categories: ShowMax, John Kotsaftis, Digital TV, Kenya, Mobile, Streaming

Middle East & Africa SVOD subscriptions to climb fivefold
Oct 5, 2016 – Although there have been many launches in the last couple of years and more to come, the Middle East & Africa SVOD sector will still be very immature with only 20 million paying SVOD subscribers by 2021.
News categories: Digital TV Research, Simon Murray, Africa, Digital TV, Market Research, Middle-East, Mobile, Streaming, Subscribers

Econet and TiVo’s Cubiware announce partnership in Africa
Sep 12, 2016 – Cubiware (NASDAQ: TIVO) has announced a partnership with Econet. As a result of the partnership, Cubiware will combine efforts with STB vendors to deliver the latest iteration of CubiTV middleware in Africa.
News categories: Cubiware, Econet, Jakub Gorski, Joe Hundah, Africa, Digital TV, IBCShow, Middleware, Satellite, Set Top Box

Nigeria's CTL first to deploy Conax Contego-as-a-Service cloud-based security
Sep 6, 2016 – Conax (SIX:KUD:S) has announced Nigerian terrestrial pay-TV operator CTL Cable as the first customer to deploy the newly launched Contego-as-a-Service cloud-based content protection platform.
News categories: Conax, Communication Trends Limited, Tom Jahr, Ofem Ekapong Ofem, Content Protection, Digital TV, IBCShow, MMDS, Nigeria

Intelsat 36 launch adds DTH capacity for Sub-Saharan Africa
Aug 24, 2016 – Intelsat (NYSE: I) has announced the successful launch of Intelsat 36, designed to enhance Intelsat’s media neighborhoods serving Africa and the Indian Ocean regions. The Ku-band payload was built to support South Africa's MultiChoice.
News categories: Intelsat, MultiChoice, Stephen Spengler, Africa, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Satellite, South Africa

Africa Pay TV subscribers to reach 30 million in 2021
Aug 9, 2016 – Pay TV subscribers in Africa will reach 30 million by 2021, up from 16 million in 2015, according to Dataxis. Digital satellite pay TV subscribers are expected to be 20 million in 2021 compared to 8 million for DTT.
News categories: Dataxis, Priscilla Tirvengadum, Africa, Digital TV, Market Research, Satellite, Subscribers, Terrestrial