In sub-Saharan Africa, mobile operators captured 26% of subscribers to streaming and video-on-demand (SVOD) services in 2021, according to a report by the French company Dataxis. Groups like Globacom, Airtel, MTN and Orange even seriously worry global giants Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
In recent years, the streaming and video on demand (SVOD) market has been growing steadily in sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2018 and 2020, the number of subscribers nearly doubled to just over 5 million. Last year, it rose to 6.5 million, an increase of 30% over one year. This is according to a recent report by Dataxis, a French Business Intelligence company specializing in telecoms, television and the media.
Vodacom takes on Netflix
The agency notes that a growing number of OTT subscribers (video, audio and internet services) are now choosing applications from mobile operators. Indeed, the share of subscriptions to offers from telecom groups reached 26% in 2021, i.e. 1.7 million subscriptions out of the 6.5 million. As an illustration of this meteoric rise, Dataxis indicates that Video Play, the service created by the South African operator Vodacom, alone holds 17% of the market share in this region (1.1 million subscribers). . It ranks third, just behind the American giant Netflix (1.5 million; 23%) and the South African Showmax (1.8 million; 27.7%).
Mobile operators have taken advantage of the attractiveness of their Internet subscriptions to create adapted services. Some have decided to become full market players by launching their own all-in-one offers. The latter consist of voice and data telephony packages, access to television and streaming content. Globacom (Nigeria), Airtel (India), MTN (South Africa), Vodacom (South Africa), Safaricom (Kenya) and Orange (France) are among these multinationals.
Own offers and partnerships
It should be noted that Vodacom is behind Video Play, the third largest streaming platform in sub-Saharan Africa. For its part, Safaricom has launched its own mobile streaming website called BAZE. Globacom has designed the Glo TV mobile application offering television channels and streaming content. For its part, Orange offers its TV pass subscribers the possibility of watching the content offered on its mobile application free of charge. For its part, Airtel has chosen to offer a free mobile TV application, but only accessible via its internet packages.
We should also mention MTN, which has created local TV applications such as MTN TV Côte d’Ivoire and MTN TV Zambia or platforms such as Y’ello TV Guinea and Y’ello TV Rwanda. Some of the mobile operators are partnering with other players to have more scale. This is again the case of MTN, partner of multiple streaming platforms, including Wi-Flix, Showmax, StarNews and Kiwi (Cote Ouest Audiovisuel). Vodafone and Safaricom also collaborate with these companies. At the same time, they are closing in on competitors like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Productions steeped in local cultures
Telecom groups have been able to make a difference thanks to their content that takes local cultures into account. Showmax, for example, offers films from sub-Saharan Africa. In 2021, four of its top five productions came from this region of the continent. Faced with this profitable positioning, the global giants have begun to change their strategy. Netflix is making an entrance into Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, with co-productions. These different policies should increase the number of streaming and SVOD subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa in the coming years. This consumer benefit will be driven by the increase in the number of internet subscribers, which will increase to 709 million (+50%) by 2026.
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