Digital TV Research forecasts 9.99 million over-the-top (OTT) subscription VOD (SVOD) subscribers across 35 sub-Saharan Africa countries by 2023, up from 1.56 million at end-2017. Although massive growth is expected to take place, the research house estimates that SVOD revenues will only be $775 million by 2023 as some platforms are very cheap.
South Africa (3.37 million by 2023) is expected to remain the leader, with Nigeria (2.61 million) in second place. South Africa and Nigeria are expected to account for 60% of the region's SVOD subscribers by 2023, down from 74% in 2017. The rest of the region is growing faster than the two main countries.
The top six platforms accounted for 90% of the region's SVOD subscribers by end-2017, with that proportion expected to be retained throughout the forecast period. Despite being relatively expensive, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is expected to account for 40% of the 2023 total (4.03 million subscribers).