Total pay TV subscriptions across Africa amounted to 15.9 million as of Q2 2015,
according to the latest research from Dataxis, an increase of 18% over the 13.4
million recorded in the same period last year.
Direct to Home (DTH) is still the dominant platform across the region, with
subscribers amounting to 12.6 million at end of June 2015, an increase of 17% over the 10.8 million which amounted at the end of June 2014. However, DTH market share fell
slightly from 80% to 79% over the period, while its share of actual growth was
down to 74%.
Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is the fastest growing platform, up 31% from
1.7 million to 2.2 million and increasing its overall market share from 13% in Q2
2014 to 14% in Q2 2015. Approximately 22% of all new subscriptions over the period were to DTT platforms.
Dataxis research also saw IPTV subscriptions increase 24% from 250 000 to
310 000, with Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services (MMDS) up 10% to
460 000 and cable seeing just 4% growth to 270 000.
Looking ahead, Dataxis forecasts 27.14 million pay TV subscribers at the end of 2018, with DTH accounting for 68% of the total, DTT 26%, IPTV 3%, MMDS 2% and cable just 1%.
