Africa Special 2015 | Page 18

overview061115_o 06/11/2015 10:29 Page 1 Digital fuels growth in Africa’s entertainment and media industry Advanced Television overviews the African Media and Entertainment sector and its prospects. fter more than a decade of digital disruption, the African entertainment and media industry has entered a new landscape – one where the media is no longer divided into distinct traditional and digital spheres, according to a report from PwC - Entertainment and media outlook: 2015 – 2019 (South Africa – Nigeria-Kenya). The Outlook forecasts that South Africa’s entertainment and media industry is expected to grow from R112.7 billion in 2014 to R176.3 billion in 2019, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4%. Digital spend is expected to fuel the overall growth. South Africa’s Internet access market will rise rapidly from R32.5 billion in 2014 to R76.2 billion in 2019, far ahead of any other consumer spend category, making it the largest contributor to A Sub-Saharan Africa pay-TV revenues to rocket to $6.2 billion Pay-TV revenues in SubSaharan Africa will reach $6.22 billion in 2020, up from $3.54 billion in 2014 and $1.92 billion in 2010, according to findings from Digital TV Research. Excluding South Africa, pay-TV revenues will climb from $0.83 billion in 2010 to $1.73 billion in 2014 and onto $4.12 billion in 2020. The fourth edition of the Digital TV Sub-Saharan Africa report forecasts that South 18 Africa Briefing convenience in when, where and how they interact with their preferred content. “Consumers are choosing offerings that combine an outstanding and personalised user experience with an intuitive interface and easy access. This includes shared physical South Africa’s total entertainment and media experiences like cinema and live concerts, revenues. which appear re-energised by digital and Vicki Myburgh, entertainment and media social media.” leader for PwC Southern Africa, says: “This The Outlook presents annual historical year’s Outlook shows consumer demand for data for 2010–2014 and provides annual entertainment and media experiences will forecasts for 2015–2019 in 11 entertainment continue to grow, while migrating towards and media segments for South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya: the Internet, television, filmed entertainment, video games, business-to-business publishing, recorded music, newspaper publishing, magazine publishing, book publishing, out-of-home advertising and radio. Aside from the Internet, the Outlook predicts that the fastest growth will be seen in video games, Source: PwC business-to-business and filmed entertainment. “But it is Internet access itself that is acting as a driver of revenues in video games and film, creating new revenue streams by making over-the-top Entertainment and media (CAGR %), and Nominal GDP growth, 2011–2019 (%) (OTT)/streaming or social/casual gaming viable to more consumers video and mobile. Increasingly, though, it’s and thereby cancelling out physical falls.” clear that consumers see no significant divide Music, magazines and newspapers, which will between digital and traditional media – what show only moderate consumer growth, are they want is more flexibility, freedom and three segments that face strong competition Africa and Nigeria will contribute more than half of the region’s pay TV revenues by 2020 for the 34 countries covered. Second-placed Nigeria will more than double its revenues from $449 million in 2014 to $1.148 billion in 2020. Satellite TV accounted for 92% of the 2014 pay TV revenues, although pay DTT will make inroads (contributing $802 million in 2020 – quadruple the 2014 total). Competition and takeup of the cheaper DTT packages will force ARPU down in most countries. Of the 12.92 million payTV subscribers at end-2014, 9.65 million were pay satellite TV and 2.81 million pay DTT. The pay total will more than double to 27.95 million by 2020, with satellite TV contributing 16.21 million and pay DTT another 9.44 million. According to Source: Digital Simon Murray, TV Research principal analyst at Digital TV Research, three companies [Multichoice (DStv and GOtv), Canal Plus and StarTimes] accounted for more than 90 per cent of pay-TV subscribers in SubSaharan Africa by end-2014. “However, we have outlined plans for at least 30 major platform launches in 2015 throughout this report – at least twice as many as in 2014. Kenya has shown - and will continue to show considerable digital TV growth, but it may be showing signs of overheating. Kenya now boasts two pay DTT platforms, a cable network and f