The slow pace of the digital migration in Africa can be seen as a dark cloud hanging over the African TV market. The arrival of digital terrestrial television (DTT) will revolutionise the African audiovisual and telecoms landscape - when it finally happens - but it will also require major investments.
DTT can change the balance of power between the legacy channels. This new market report from Balancing Act puts into perspective the current upheavals and untangles the real challenges of the years to come.
South Africas movie boom and its strong film industry will certainly benefit from DTT as several African countries have implemented local content quotas. African audiences want popular international programmes, but they also want African content they can relate to.
Consultancy and research house Balancing Act has focused on tracking the digital transition in African broadcasting since 2007 and looked well into the matter, watching DTTs impact in other regions like Europe. The company released this second reports edition on the topic in August 2013. This 160 pages' report (+ Excel tables and PPT summary presentation) highlights the fundamentals and true value of DTT, issues raised over the transition (e.g. huge costs and disruptive technologies), major opportunities and the potential options key stakeholders have to decide on. It was produced as a must read' for anyone involved in the digital transition in Africa.
Balancing Act found out that as of August 2013, only 8 countries in Africa have officially launched national DTT and close 2.5 million homes now have access to DTT bouquets either on a pay or free-basis according to various sources including recent claims made by StarTime and GOtv executives. In theory and from 2015, Africa's 100 million TV households will be able to access many more free digital TV channels in better quality. This represents lots of sales of DTT set-top boxes and digitally enabled televisions. But the difference between 2.5 million and 100 million DTT households is a very wide gap to close. The switch represents massive investments in digital networks and training across the vast African territories. More than 500 African TV channels will need to convert their operation to digital technology.
The report shows how the public DTT process is composing with StarTimes (from China) and Multichoice (from South Africa) moves. There is a detailed analysis on how far each country has progressed with their DTT rollout so far - from setting a DTT committee, regulations, a signal carrier, DTT trials, DTT bouquets, the DTT network to finally launching national DTT.
Key stakeholders like African governments, DTT receivers' manufacturers and TV broadcasters need to understand the full process in order to optimise their strategy and catch the DTT train at the right time. But this requires several complex stages over a very long period. Developing clear and detailed guidelines and roadmaps to facilitate the transition from analogue to digital currently is a hot priority not only for all African governments but also for local TV broadcasters.
Who will pay the huge bill to upgrade to DTT? Will it be the Government? National or foreign investors? TV broadcasters? TV advertisers? Or in the long run, will it be public that pick up the tab for the transition? For African governments, the objective is to make DTT widely adopted at home while securing public finances and expand the benefits of mobile telecoms' usage. Will they all be successful?
The report provides readers with easy to use tables and charts illustrating the current DTT state-of-play by country in Africa together with key African market data points: population, households, TV households, pay TV subscribers, list of channels, the number of internet users by country - all across 56 African territories. The reports gives a directory of DTT contacts and maps out the key Pay TV providers in Africa by number of subscribers. It is packed with 43 sets of tables, 11 charts, 8 graphs, and 3 maps. Data contained in this report come from face to face and phone interviews with local players, conferences with industry experts, guidelines, press articles and analysis from official sources.
____________
Reports overview:
Chapter 1 describes the current African TV landscape: it provides the main drivers to DTT, market sizing and lists the main TV players by country (FTA and payTV networks).
Chapter 2 describes DTT implementation on the African continent: it develops the fundamentals of DTT; 7 main benefits of DTT and 6 optional benefits. It lists 11 challenges to take into account and describes the main drivers of the transition from the consumers, broadcasters and governments' points of views.
The next sections looks at the current developments taking place in Africa, describes the 2 main African DTT service contenders and their market share, and lists the current number of DTT households by country. It also explains the impact the transition will have on the advertising sector.
It then gives a realistic outlook as to what the next 7 years will look like on the continent as digital migration gets rolled out.
The chapter then provides 24 detailed African country profiles, outlining what local governments and broadcasters have done so far towards implementing DTT.
Chapter 3 offers a strategy for TV broadcasters to get ahead of the digital transition's race. The chapter evaluates the risks for broadcasters and highlight 8 potential sources of funding. It reviews investments required and best practices in hardware, software and content.
More channels means more competition: DTT will affect TV broadcasters' potential revenues while at the same time, audiences are also attracted by local content accessible via Broadband internet, digital games and a mix of satellite free-to-air and pay TV bouqu
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
The slow pace of the digital migration in Africa can be seen as a dark cloud hanging over the African TV market. The arrival of digital terrestrial television (DTT) will revolutionise the African audiovisual and telecoms landscape - when it finally happens - but it will also require major investments.
