Pay-TV subscriptions in Kenya grew at a slower pace of 2.4 percent to 6.4 million in the year to March 2024, due to tough economic conditions and the spread of streaming services on improved internet connectivity, new data from the Communications Authority of Kenya shows.
This marked the second straight year of slowing subscription growth — considering what happened in March 2023 when subscriptions grew 3.1 percent to 6.2 million — bucking the trend from March 2022 when the sector recorded an 8.5 percent jump in subscriptions to 6.01 million from 5.5 million the year before.
The slowdown in subscriptions in the year to March 2024 came amid rising food and commodity prices even as pay-TV providers raised their minimum prices to reflect rising production costs.
For example, MultiChoice Kenya Limited, a pay-TV provider, has made up to three upward revisions to DStv subscription prices in the year to March 2024, dealing a blow to home entertainment budgets.
The latest increase for the review year, which came at the end of March, saw the price of the DStv Premium package rise to Sh10,500 from Sh9,900 while the Compact Plus package rose to Sh6,500 from Sh6,200.
Lite package subscribers’ fees have increased to Sh700 from Sh600, Family package subscribers have moved to Sh2,000 from Sh1,850, while Compact package subscribers have suffered a Sh200 price hike from Sh3,500 to Sh3,700.
During the year to March this year, the Authority issued a total of 69 new licences for both television and radio broadcasters, bringing the total number of permitted service providers to 685 compared to 616 in March last year.
The total number of operating TV broadcast stations has increased from 195 last year to 219 this year.
During the first three months of this year, direct-to-home (DTH) and cable subscriptions declined for the first time by 1.6% and 0.4% respectively, while digital terrestrial television (DTT) subscriptions grew marginally by 0.8%.
The report stated that “Digital terrestrial broadcasting remained the most popular platform for accessing subscription streaming services with 4.5 million subscriptions, followed by direct terrestrial television broadcasting with 1.8 million subscriptions, representing 70.06% and 28.71% of the total number of subscriptions to streaming services respectively as of March 31, 2024.”
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