Bucking the trend in the United States, African SVOD will see plenty of growth in coming years, Digital TV Research said in its latest report, which reveals that Africa will have 18 million paying SVOD subscriptions by 2029, up from 8 million at end-2023. Despite this fast growth, SVOD penetration will remain low, with only 7.7% of TV households paying for at least one subscription by 2029.
“The SVOD sector in Anglophone Africa is evolving into a battle between Netflix and local player Showmax. Rich in local content and sports rights, Showmax now has access to NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures and HBO content,” commented Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research.
Regarding platforms in particular, the “Africa OTT TV and Video Forecasts” report reveals that Netflix will have 7.55 million subscribers by 2029, adding 3.4 million from end-2023. Second-placed Showmax will have 4.40 million paying subscribers by 2029, nearly 3 million more than 2023.