Nigeria leads pay TV in Africa

Nigeria is the biggest pay TV market in Africa, accounting for almost one-third of subscriptions, according to a report from international research firm S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Last year Nigeria accounted for 29% of Africa’s multichannel subscriptions and 22.4% of its TV households, the report stated.

The country’s multichannel TV sector saw a 9.1% increase in pay TV subscribers compared with the previous year, rising to 6.9 million. Multichannel revenues amounted to US$835m for the year.

Pay TV household penetration in Nigeria stood at 25.7%, with 60% of these households subscribing to pay DTT services and 34.8% to DTH services. In total, Nigeria’s multichannel market had more than 27 million TV households.

The report also tipped the Nigerian pay TV market for further growth, fuelled by increasing competition in the industry and the emergence of new pay TV companies such as Kwesé TV and TSTV, which launched in 2017.

Pay TV household penetration is estimated to reach 38.6% in 10 years, with multichannel revenues predicted to increase to around US$2.4bn by 2027.

Julija Jurkevic, senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: “Although ARPUs are much lower than in South Africa, leading to lower revenues, Nigeria may increasingly be an investment focus for operators due its size, low TV household penetration and rapidly growing middle-class segment that has disposable income for entertainment services.”

According to the report, StarTimes DTT is leading the pack as the top pay TV operator in Nigeria, accounting for around 36% of subscribers. This is followed by GOtv with 24%, DSTV (22%) and StarTimes DTH (4%).