Bucking the US trend, African SVOD will see plenty of growth in coming years. Africa will have 18 million paying SVOD subscriptions by 2029, up from 8 million at end-2023.

Despite this fast growth, SVOD penetration will remain low, with only 7.7% of TV households paying for at least one subscription by 2029

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The SVOD sector in Anglophone Africa is evolving into a battle between Netflix and local player Showmax. Rich in local content and sports rights, Showmax now has access to NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures and HBO content.”

Netflix will have 7.55 million subscribers by 2029; adding 3.4 million from end-2023. Second-placed Showmax will have 4.40 million paying subscribers by 2029; nearly 3 million more than 2023.