A recent industry-wide survey conducted by Broadcast Media Africa on the state-of-play of OTT Content Streaming in Africa has revealed that among industry executives – especially within the broadcasting sector – the prohibitive cost of data (bandwidth) for the end users is still the main reason for not deploying commercial OTT streaming in their jurisdictions.
Survey figures showed a whopping 80% of respondents indicating that actual or perceived “Cost of Data or Bandwidth” actually is the biggest obstacle to commercial OTT Streaming and On-Demand Content taking off in many places in Africa.
Conducted as part of the activities ahead of the 3rd OTT Streaming Platform And Content Management Summit, to take place on Tuesday 21st – Wednesday 22nd of February 202 in Cape Town, South Africa, the survey, carried out amongst a focus group of broadcasters, telcos, content producers and distributors was to help understand where industry stakeholders are at with regards to the distribution of audio-visual content in a changed ecosystem that is being driven by streaming mindsets.
Snapshots of responses to other topic questions in the survey are as follows:
- 86% of participants said that it is “Very Important” for broadcasters to offer streaming services to their consumers
- Almost half (50%) of the people we surveyed say they expect the year 2025 – 2030 to be when OTT content streaming will exceed typical broadcast TV viewing in Africa.
- 43% of respondents said they currently fully rely on YouTube or Facebook, or other public products used for video sharing at nil or very low cost.
