DTH free-to-air bouquets spreading across sub-Saharan Africa

Uptake of free-to-air DTH bouquets in Sub-saharan Africa

Along the line of well-established actors such as Freeview in the UK, DTH free-to-air bouquets are spreading around sub-Saharan Africa. These offers, which bundle free channels into identifiable packages accessible through the purchase of specific set-top-boxes, are currently received by more than 8 million households in the region – a number to put in relation with the current 23.4 million FTA households with regular satellite reception.

The distribution of DTH FTA set-top-box strategies has also been analyzed, as the one deployed by Strong Technologies. The manufacturer launched a hybrid pay TV and FTA bouquet called “MyTV”, that reaches more than 2 million households across Africa today.

Considering Dataxis projections, FTA DTH bouquet stands as a sustainable model with growth potential in several countries. In addition to the SouthAfrican Openview, which exceeded 1.5 million connected homes in 2019, the launch of the OurTV bouquet (Trefoil Network) in Nigeria last February and that of RCS Ghana, hosted on Eutelsat since April, bear witness to this success.