Over 74 percent of Kenya’s youth population aged between 18 and 24, are still glued to traditional free-to-air (FTA) television, a new report shows, pointing to the impact of limited access to costly paid viewership options.
The latest data by the Communications Authority (CA), however, showed that 26 percent of the age group popularly known as Generation Z, consumed pay-TV in the quarter ended September 2024 ---the highest level among all age demographics in the country.
“In Kenya, free to air (FTA) TV enjoys a notably broader viewership compared to pay TV. For both Pay TV and FTA TV, reach does not vary by gender. However, the reach of pay TV is slightly higher among individuals aged 18 to 24 years, with it being higher for this age group than the older folk,” notes CA in the report.
The findings by CA come in the wake of a study report released last year by the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications, which showed that seven out of 10 young Kenyans living in urban areas rely on traditional TV as their number one source for general information.
The CA data further shows that pay-TV subscriptions are more concentrated in urban settings with 25 percent of urbanites having active subscriptions during the period compared to 14 percent of rural dwellers.
The regulator said during the 12 months to March 2024, pay-TV subscriptions grew at a slower pace of 2.4 percent to 6.4 million, stifled by biting economic hardships and the proliferation of streaming services on enhanced internet connectivity.
This marked the second consecutive year of low growth 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 slowdown came amid increasing food and commodity prices even as pay-TV service providers also increased their minimum prices to reflect growing costs of production.
Pay television channel MultiChoice Kenya, has for example raised its charges for the fourth time in under two years as it battles the increased cost of business which is now being loaded onto customers.
MultiChoice disclosed losses of ZAR 4.148 billion (Sh 34.8 billion) in the year that ended in March 2024, attributing the damages to the sharp depreciation of local currencies in Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, and Angola, increased taxation in some markets, and growing administration costs.
