Revenue from pay TV across Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to nearly double by the year 2020 to reach $6.22 billion per annum from $3.54 billion in 2014, a report from Digital TV Research showed on Tuesday.

The growth in revenue from pay TV will mainly be driven by the continents two largest economies, South Africa and Nigeria, which the report says will contribute more than half of the region’s pay TV earnings.

” Second-placed Nigeria will more than double its revenues from $449 million in 2014 to $1,148 million in 2020,” a statement from Digital TV said.

Earnings from pay TV on the continent has risen from just $1.92 billion in 2010, according to the report, while that of the region excluding South Africa has grown from $830 million in 2010 to $1.73 billion last year. This, the report say, could rise to $4.12 billion by 2020.

Digital terrestrial television (DTT) is expected to overtake satellite TV, which currently account for 92 percent of pay TV revenue, to contribute $802 million by 2020.

“Competition and take-up of the cheaper DTT packages will force ARPU down in most countries.”

Of the 12.92 million pay TV subscribers at end-2014, 9.65 million were pay satellite TV and 2.81 million pay DTT. The pay total will more than double to 27.95 million by 2020, with satellite TV contributing 16.21 million and pay DTT another 9.44 million, Digital TV said.

“Three companies [Multichoice (DStv and GOtv), Canal Plus and StarTimes] accounted for more than 90 percent of pay TV subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa by end-2014. However, we have outlined plans for at least 30 major platform launches in 2015 throughout this report – at least twice as many as in 2014,” Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said.

“Kenya has shown – and will continue to show – considerable digital TV growth, but it may be showing signs of overheating. Kenya now boasts two pay DTT platforms, a cable network and four satellite TV operators – too many for a country with only 2.87 million TV households?” he added.