By Juliet Gillies
- At the moment, there is a growing influx of streaming service platforms into Africa
- Disney Plus, Netflix, Apple TV, PBS are some of the leading brands making strategic expansion plans into Africa
- African countries rank high on the list of high discretionary income with Morocco, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria leading the pack
- African countries also rank high on list of ‘Percentage of internet users aged 16 to 64 who watch TV content via streaming services each month’
In a previous article here I reported on Disney+ continuing its penetration of markets around the world, with Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia on the launch list for 2022. But we can dig deeper into this to understand more about what is happening with digital on the continent and why Disney+ has selected these 6 countries.
First, let’s remember the old marketing adage of ‘catch them young’, as the younger they are when you ‘catch them’, the more you will earn out of them over their lifetime. So Disney+ is looking to Africa for new, young markets, given the much younger median age in African countries, compared to many other countries around the world.
For example, in the graph below, which is taken from the Hootsuite/WeAreSocial/DataReportal report for 2022, Japan is the oldest country, with a median age of 49.2. Nigeria is at the other end, with a median age of 18.2. But this dataset only shows a selected 48 countries.
However, the worldwide average will be for all countries. It is now at 31.4 and there are no African countries above that. The oldest country in Africa in terms of median age is Morocco (30.2), followed by South Africa (28.1), Egypt (24.8), Ghana (21.8) and Kenya (18.2).
Another important aspect in terms of subscription video-on-demand (VOD) is discretionary income.
Again, the Hootsuite/WeAreSocial/DataReportal report for 2022 gives us some indication of GDP per capita in some countries in Africa, and in comparison to other countries in the world, as per the graph below. It shows Singapore at the top, with US$98,526, and Kenya (US$4,452) at the other end of this dataset of 47 selected countries.
The worldwide average is US$17,062 and no country in Africa is above this. The highest is Egypt, with US$12,608, followed by South Africa, with US$12,096. The others in the dataset are: Morocco – US$7,296; Ghana – 5,596; Nigeria – US$5,187; Kenya – US$4,452.
A further important matter to consider is connectivity, as VOD operates on top of this. If we look at the internet adoption data in the Hootsuite/WeAreSocial/DataReportal report for2022, we see that Denmark, Ireland and UAE are at the top, with a 99% adoption rate (percentage of population). Kenya is at the other end of this dataset of 47 countries, with a 42% adoption rate. It is below the worldwide average of 62.5%, as are Nigeria (51%) and Ghana (53%). South Africa is above the worldwide average, with a 68.2% internet adoption rate. So are Egypt (71.9%) and Morocco (84.3%).
Not included in this dataset are the lowest internet adopters in Africa (and in the world, except for North Korea and Kiribati): CAR – 7.1%; Eritrea – 8%; Comoros – 8.5%; South Sudan – 10.9%; Somalia – 13.7%; Niger – 14.5%; Burundi – 14.6%; DRC – 17.6%.
We can also look at the Hootsuite/WeAreSocial/DataReportal report for 2022 in terms of ‘Percentage of internet users aged 16 to 64 who watch TV content via streaming services each month’. It shows Philippines at the top of the dataset of 43 countries, with 98.3%. At the other end is Japan, with 76.1%. The worldwide average is 93.5% and South Africa is above that, with 96.6%. The only other African country in this dataset is Egypt, which is below the worldwide average, but the difference is not significant – 91.2%;
Finally, we can look at the Hootsuite/WeAreSocial/DataReportal age breakdown for ‘Percentage of
internet users who watch TV content via streaming services each month’. It shows a gradual tapering off with increase in age group, with 16-24 year-olds at 96% and 55-64 year-olds at 83%.
So, the younger they are, the more they stream – and they are young in Africa. There is also a significant proporption of the total population in Africa that is still unconnected. This means a massive lucrative future market for streaming services.
