Report Predicts Over 20 Million Homes in Sub-Saharan Africa to Have Digital TV by 2020

A new report published by Digital TV Research predicts that more than 20 million households in sub-Saharan African will purchase a digital TV by the end of this decade to take the number to 68 million.

However, this means that there will continue to be more than 100 million homes without a TV set and TV penetration of total households will only reach 38.4 percent by 2020, Xinhua reported.

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The Digital TV Sub-Saharan Africa Forecasts report also projects digital penetration will exceed half the TV households in Sub-Saharan Africa very soon, noting that nearly every home will be converted by 2020.

"This reveals the long-term potential for the region, with plenty of growth expected beyond the forecast period," Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said in a statement.

"The construction of next generation broadband networks will ensure that satellite TV and DTT will not be the only growth areas."

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According to the report, analogue terrestrial switchover will account for much of this growth, with more than two-thirds of TV homes receiving DTT signals by 2020 -- up from fewer than a fifth at end-2013.

Around 28 percent of TV households will have satellite dishes (pay and FTA combined) in 2020.

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Satellite TV accounted for nearly the entire 2013 total, but pay DTT will make inroads (contributing $742 million in 2020). Competition and take-up of the cheaper DTT packages will force ARPU down in most countries.

According to the study, Sub-Saharan pay TV revenues will reach $5.35 billion in 2020, up by 69 percent from $3.17 billion in 2013 and triple the $1.80 billion recorded in 2010.

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The report said that of the 11.01 million pay TV subscribers at end-2013, 8.50 million subscribed pay satellite TV.

The report also pointed out that South Africa supplied 4.84 million of the 2013 total pay TV subs, and will grow by 2 million to 6.85 million in 2020.

Nigeria will triple from 2.12 million in 2013 to 6.15 million in 2020. Excluding the relatively mature market of South Africa, the number of pay satellite TV households will more than double between 2013 and 2020 to 8.17 million.

Source-IANS