Despite a challenging pay TV environment in Africa, the continent is seeing an expansion and acceleration in content supply, distribution networks and operators, according to a Digital TV Europe report in Telecoms.com.
The pay TV environment across sub-Saharan Africa has evolved quickly over the past year or so, with new players emerging to challenge the until-now unimpeded dominance of South Africa’s MultiChoice and its DStv platform, the report said.
Newcomers to the industry face an established and powerful incumbent, a lack of
established distribution infrastructure and an extremely price-sensitive market—with consumption of pirated content widely seen as a viable substitute for legitimate services.
With these challenges in mind, new entrants are taking a variety of forms, ranging from relatively straightforward direct-to-home (DTH) challengers to DStv and operators hoping to ride the much-delayed wave of digitization of terrestrial infrastructure, to small, agile companies attempting to take advantage of new distribution channels such as mobile, Digital TV Europe reports.
Africa is not one market but many, with widely different conditions between and within individual countries.
South Africa and Nigeria are large, relatively rich but diverse countries with established
production bases for TV. A growing number of industry participants increasingly see East Africa as a particularly dynamic market for pay TV services, with a significant number of competitors emerging to challenge MultiChoice.
One of these, Wananchi Programming-backed Zuku TV, has expanded out of its Kenyan base to launch low-cost direct-to-home services in adjacent countries including Tanzania and is now looking to expand this year into Uganda and Malawi.
An Ethiopian launch may happen in 2015, with Rwanda another potential target market according to Wananchi Programming managing director Hannelie Bekker.
There are other newcomers to the market. There is at least an emerging consensus that Africa’s huge base of mobile users is there for the taking if it is presented with a compelling, affordable and distinctive product, Digital TV Europe reports.
