Pay-tv subscriptions in Kenya grew by a slower 2.4 percent to 6.4 million in the year ended March 2024, new data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows, stifled by biting economic hardships and the proliferation of streaming services on enhanced internet connectivity.
This marked the second consecutive year of slowed growth in subscriptions- taking a cue from March 2023 when subscriptions grew by 3.1 percent to 6.2 million—bucking a trend from March 2022 when the segment posted an 8.5 percent jump in subscriptions to 6.01 million from 5.5 million the previous year.
The slowdown in subscriptions in the year to March 2024 came amid increasing food and commodity prices even as pay-TV service providers also increased their minimum prices to reflect growing costs of production.
For instance, pay-TV service provider MultiChoice Kenya Limited had made up to three upward reviews in its DStv subscription rates during the year to March 2024, dealing a blow to household entertainment budgets.
The last increment for the review year, which came at the close of March, saw the DStv Premium package set for the highest price shift to Sh10,500 up from Sh9,900 while the Compact Plus package shot up to Sh6,500 from Sh6,200.
Consumers on the Lite package had their charges grow to Sh700 up from Sh600 as those on the Family package transitioned to Sh2,000 from Sh1,850 while the Compact package subscribers suffered a Sh200 price hike from Sh3,500 to Sh3,700.
During the year to March this year, CA issued a total of 69 new licenses to both TV and radio broadcasters, bringing the total number of permitted providers to 685 up from 616 in March last year.
The total number of operational TV broadcasters jumped from 195 last year to 219 this year.
During the first three months of this year, subscriptions to Direct-to-Home (DTH) and cable broadcasting services fell for the first time by 1.6 percent and 0.4 percent respectively, while those of Digital terrestrial television (DTT) grew by a marginal 0.8 percent.
“DTT remained the most popular platform to access subscription broadcasting services with 4.5 million subscriptions followed by DTH with 1.8 subscriptions accounting for 70.06 percent and 28.71 percent of the total number of subscriptions to broadcasting services respectively as of March 31, 2024,” said the report.
