Digital television households in sub-Saharan Africa will quadruple in the period until 2018, fueled by South Africa which will remain the dominant pay-TV revenue generator in this part of the African continent according to new research.
Digital TV Research predicts that digital television penetration will increase from 35% at the end of 2012 to a massive 95,5% by the end of 2018, at which time there will be an estimated 49 million digital TV households in Africa.
Sub-Saharan pay-TV revenues will reach a staggering $4,62 billion (R35,9 billion) by 2018, almost doubling in just six years from the $2,88 billion in 2012. According to the research South Africa will remain the dominant country when it comes to pay-TV and will remain the biggest pay-TV generator although the country's overall share of the total will decline from 61% in 2012 to 47% by 2018.
"Even we have been surprised by the pace of change and progress in the region's television market in the year since the last edition of this report," says report author Simon Murray about the growth of digital television in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa will have 33,8 million DTT households by 2018 - 25,7 million of those will be free-to-air TV homes and 8 million will be pay-TV subscribers - up from 4,6 million at the end of 2012. Excluding South Africa, pay-TV revenues will increase from $1,12 billion in 2012 to $2,46 billion in 2018.
Two-thirds (33,3%) of television homes are projected to have free or pay-TV DTT services by the end of 2018 according to the report, compared to only 11,7% at the end of 2012.
