By Aisha Sambo
Internet connectivity is growing rapidly across Africa, from last year reports highlighted over seven African countries moving up by more than five positions in the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla.
It’s no surprise why global, regional and local players are racing to Africa, not just to provide internet services but also streaming services. The scramble is real.
Internet Services
Over the first 11 months of 2022, fixed broadband speeds grew 28% faster than mobile download speeds (17%) compared to the Index’s November 2021 figures. Lowly-ranked African countries made the most significant strides last year. Malawi moved nine positions to 148 while Djibouti and Congo jumped seven slots to 153 and 103 respectively, while Mauritius, Lesotho, and Guinea improved their rankings by five places each to settle at 113, 127 and 154.
Previously among the lowest-ranking countries, Burkina Faso moved up the most places in Africa’s mobile internet speeds, shifting 22 places to rank 102. The country will also benefit from a partnership between Orange Telecom and off-grid network operator, Vanu, to deliver technology upgrades across 1,070 sites in three countries. 170 of those will be in Burkina Faso, 700 in Côte d’Ivoire and 200 in Liberia. In early in 2022, Burkina Faso also completed the first phase of a national fibre backbone project to connect its capital city to 145 more municipalities and neighbouring countries.
Rwanda made the biggest leap in fixed broadband speeds, with the result that its position in the global rankings rose by 47 places. The country’s internet penetration stood at 60.6% by the end of 2022, with its international bandwidth capacity rising by 29.4%. Among Africa’s largest economies, Kenya rose by five slots to 87 and Nigeria by one position to 92 in their mobile internet speeds rankings. However, Egypt and South Africa both saw their mobile rankings fall—by six and nine slots respectively, to positions 91 and 64. Despite falls in their mobile rankings, both countries saw improvements in their fixed broadband internet speeds, improving by four and a single position to 84 and 97 respectively.
Botswana and Uganda were already seated higher in the global rankings, and moved 15 places each—to 47 and 57 respectively. Mauritius also made significant strides in mobile internet speed with a ranking rise of 13 slots—to position 74—as Sudan moved up 11 slots to settle at 112
Despite tough economic conditions in African countries, some countries continue to invest in network upgrades expected to pay off in the future. For example, MTN President and CEO, Ralph Mupita mentioned in a statement about MTN’s financial performance that securing 4G and 5G spectrum in South Africa and Nigeria which are their key markets cost an additional $412 million excluding the $950 million investment to accelerate the network. Most recently, the much-anticipated operation of Space X’s Starling is now available in Nigeria. However, only available to those who have dollar cards to make payment for the hardware online. Aside from the hardware that cost $600, subscriptions for the service cost $43 a month. Starlink is expected to compete with the likes of MTN, Airtel, Globacom, 9mobile and hundreds of other local internet service providers in Nigeria. Already providing secures via fibre or satellite. The competition may be stiff for Starlink as the rollout of 5G by MTN and award of 5G licence to Mafab Communications and Airtel will soon come to pass.
Streaming Services
With the rapidly increasing internet connectivity in Africa, a youthful population, and growing middle-class, Africa offers an even greater growth opportunity for streaming services. By the end of 2021, video-on-demand (VOD) subscriptions in Africa were over 5 million with revenues from subscription amounting to 638 million. These numbers have been projected to 14.7 million with revenues tripping to $2 billion in 2027. Market leaders such as Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime have had to look beyond the borders of their home markets. Getting a lion’s share of Africa streaming market required Netflix and Showmax to invest more in local content as well as user experience, since the content is a mobile-first market.
By the end of 2021, Netflix had an estimated 2.6 million subscribers which is about 1.1% of its global subscriber base. The total number of Netflix subscribers in Africa is projected to grow to 5.6 million by 2026. While Netflix global spending on content declined by 5% in 2022, the streaming service is investing more than ever on African original content. According to Dorothy Ghettuba, Netflix head of African originals, they’re searching for Squid Game-like global hits from the continent. Since 2019 Netflix has been putting money behind some African originals. Among them are star-studded reality show Young, Famous and African featuring celebrities from across the continent, teen crime drama Blood and Water and Queen Sono, another crime drama, among several other titles. This is in addition to many more licensed older titles. Netflix recently signed several multi-project partnership deals with leading African filmmakers and production companies. Its 2022/23 slate includes The King’s Horseman, the film adaptation of Nobel prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka’s play Death and the King’s Horseman. In 2021, Netflix rolled out its first-ever free plan in Kenya in a bid to attract paying customers.
In another instance, Showmax, one of Netflix’s biggest challengers in the African markets, is breaking necks with local content such as Temptation Island South Africa, Big Brother, and Real Housewives franchises for Lagos, Abuja, Johannesburg, and Nairobi, to hit series such as Pepeta, Tinsel, Halita, The Johnsons, Blood Psalms, and Crime and Justice Lagos. Showmax is accessible to Nigerians, South Africans, Kenyans, and Ghanaians. Its parent company MultiChoice also owns DSTV, the continent’s largest pay TV service with 22 million subscribers. This has given it some edge in understanding and owning localised content. The company understands the market and how to access a vast variety of content catalog and broadcasting rights. MultiChoice Studios is the largest producer of original content in Africa with over 73,000 hours of co-produced and commissioned titles in its library, in 22 languages. With over 22 million paying subscribers across 50 countries in Africa, built up over nearly three decades, Showmax entering into the African market makes for a great opportunity to capture Africans who are used to paying to access films and TV shows.
Even legacy media companies in Africa have also entered the race with international platforms attempting to gain a foothold. In Kenya, for instance, Royal Media Services (RMS) which runs the country’s most popular TV and radio stations, launched ViuSasa in 2017. The content on the channel is mostly produced locally, and in South Africa, public broadcaster SABC launched its own streaming service SABC+ in November 2022. The numbers behind Internet connectivity and streaming in Africa tell a tale of a scramble, however nessesary, as our youthful population begin to gain more access to participate on a global scale. Some specialists in the industry have sighted worries of this rapid growth such as, lack of media literacy needed to receive and deduce the vast information available on the internet, privacy concerns, social disconnect, job security, depersonalised warfare, digital media manipulation amongst other things.
The increased competition and scramble is a net positive for African audiences as well as creatives in the industry. Competition creates more opportunities for everyone from actors to filmmakers among other professionals, and offers audiences a greater variety of choice. Nevertheless, African filmmakers, actors and industry professionals should not betake quick to hop on the streaming bandwagon simply to be on it, but should instead ensure that deals reflect the industry’s massive growth. Whilst all this rapid growth is exciting to witness, it is important to keep questioning the authorities behind the technology and ownership structure most media companies have (monopoly). Hoping that this growth does continue at a rate where our population can not only adapt easily to it, but use it to learn and teach others useful and truthful information.