Digital TV Research found that the market in sub Saharan Africa was dominated by three media groups: South Africa’s MultiChoice, France’s Vivendi, and China’s StarTimes/StarSat together accounted for 93% of the region’s pay-TV subscribers last year. While remaining strong players, these operators’ share is predicted to fall to 89% by 2024.

“Subscriber numbers will climb by 61% over this period, but pay TV revenues will rise by only 42% - indicating lower ARPUs. Pay TV revenues will reach $7.72 billion by 2024, up by $2.3 billion on 2018,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research.

MultiChoice had gained a total of 14.34 million subscribers across its satellite TV platform DStv and digital terrestrial TV (DTT) platform GOtv by end if 2018. This total is set to grow by 5 million to 19.37 million by 2024, said Digital TV Research.

At the end of last year, Vivendi had attracted 4.01 million subscribers to its Canal+ satellite TV platform and Easy TV DTT platform; a figure predicted to climb to 6.21 million by 2024.

The analysts predict StarTimes will enjoy the most impressive growth: from 7.75 million subscribers at the close of 2018 to 14.85 million by 2024. This will be a rise of 54% of the MultiChoice total to 77% of its total by 2024.