African OTT market to generate $1.7 billion by 2026

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

SVOD is the main revenue driver by a long way. SVOD revenues will reach $1,480 million by 2026; up from $299 million in 2020.

“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.”

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research

Netflix accounted for 57% of the region’s SVOD subscribers by end-2020. Its share will fall to 44% 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.