African OTT to Bring in $1.7 Billion

Digital TV Research is forecasting that African OTT movie and TV episode revenues will reach $1.725 billion by 2026, up from $392 million in 2020.

SVOD is the main revenue driver, reaching $1.48 billion by 2026, up from $299 million in 2020. Netflix accounted for 57 percent of the region’s SVOD subscribers at the end of 2020. Its share is forecast to fall to 44 percent by 2026 (6.26 million subscribers, but triple from 1.99 million in 2020). Disney is not expected to start in the region until 2022, although it will have 3.13 million paying subscribers by 2026.

South Africa will contribute a third of the region’s revenues by 2026, with Nigeria bringing in a further fifth.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Regional players Showmax and MyCanal have upped their game in face of this added competition. Both of these platforms have sister pay-TV companies. However, the SVOD platforms are emerging in their own right.”