by Thinus Ferreira
The battle for streaming in South Africa and eventually across the rest of the African continent is basically a three-horse race, with Netflix, MultiChoice's Showmax and Amazon Prime Video which will be the big three battling it out for stream TV supremacy.
Disney+ from the Mouse House will be in 4th place as the group of video streaming services battling to add subscribers are set to collectively add another 10 million customers over the next six years.
According to the latest market research and projections from Digital TV Research, the number of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscribers in Africa is expected to reach a whopping 18 million by 2029 - up 8 million subscribers six years from now, compared to the end of this year.
Video streaming penetration is however expected to remain low in Africa by 2029 at just 7.7% of TV households who will be subscribing to at least one streaming service by then.
According to Digital TV Research's latest projections, the biggest video streamer in Africa will be Netflix with 7.55 million subscribers by 2029. Netflix is expected to add 3.4 million subscribers from this year.
Netflix will be followed by Showmax, with MultiChoice which plans to unveil a retooled "Showmax 2.0" at the end of this year done in partnership with Comcast's NBCUniversal.
Showmax will reach 4.4 million subscribers by adding another 3 million, while Amazon Prime Video will hit 3.14 million subscribers, with Disney+ in fourth place with 1.54 million subscribers. Apple TV+ trails with 251 000 subscribers by 2029 across Africa.
Paramount Global's Paramount+ is still to launch in South Africa, while Warner Bros. Discovery has also been silent about a launch date for its rebranded Max, previously HBO Max, which is not yet available in South Africa.
