African OTT TV revenues to reach $1 billion

Sub-Saharan African OTT movie and TV episode revenues will reach $1,018 million 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.

South Africa will account for 40% of the region’s revenues by 2024, with Nigeria bringing in a further 22%. 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.

Source: Digital TV Research

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% of the region’s SVOD subscribers by 2024, but this is down from 71% in 2018. Therefore, the rest of the region is growing faster than the two main countries.

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Market dynamics have shifted over the last year. 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% of the region’s SVOD subscriptions by end-2018, with this proportion to be retained throughout the forecast period.

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