Research Highlights

In early 2025, the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) is on track to cross the 1 billion fixed broadband subscriptions milestone before the end of the year. Although this figure is impressive, especially considering that it is more than the rest of the world combined, one may argue that it reflects the demographic weight of APAC in the world. With over 4.4...

Standing at 36% in 2024, the smartphone ownership rate in SSA is set to increase significantly in the coming years. In 2028, over half of the African population will have at least one smartphone. Six countries - South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, the DRC and Ethiopia - currently account for 54% of Africa’s 460 million smartphone users. However, there are...

MBC Group’s Shahid closed 2024 as the leading OTT platform in the MENA region (excluding Turkey and Israel), with nearly 5 million subscribers and a 26% year-on-year increase. This growth was driven by exclusive Arabic original productions and strategic investments in premium sports rights. Shahid maintained a clear lead over Netflix, which, according to Dataxis estimates, reached 3.7 million subscribers...

Following the launches of Sony One and Google TV 2024, the only major TV manufacturers or streaming stick brands in the global top 10 that have yet to launch their own FAST channel platforms are Apple and Philips. Over time, offering a free content viewing platform and leveraging their advertising targeting capabilities to monetize it has become essential for TVOS...

Netflix ended 2024 on a strong note, posting a 16% year-on-year revenue growth. Dataxis estimates that yearly advertising revenues reached $1.3 billion worldwide. Netflix reported that the ad-supported tier represented 55% of new sign-ups in all available markets. Introduced in late 2022, Netflix's cheaper, ad-based plan now counts 70 million Monthly Active Users according to the company itself. In the...

Brasil lidera el mercado Ad-Tier de Latam. En 2024 el volúmen de cuentas se triplicó y totalizó 17.2 millones; 30% del total de cuentas. La opción con publicidad fue introducida por Netflix a fin de 2022 y en 2024 lo hizo explotar. Los Ad-tier también son ofrecidos por las plataformas líderes: Disney+, Globoplay, Max y, desde Q2 2025, por Prime...

Last week, Japanese mobile carrier KDDI announced it would start to provide Starlink’s direct-to-cellphone service. Quite remarkably, the “au Starlink Direct” offer notably enables users to get support from Google’s Gemini. Although not the first of its kind, this agreement is still pretty rare in the region and beyond, as it embodies how telecom operators can monetize AI on the...

Brazil leads the Ad-Tier market in Latam. In 2024, the volume of accounts tripled and totaled 17.2 million, 30% of the total. Netflix introduced the advertising option at the end of 2022 and exploded in 2024. Ad-tier is also offered by the leading platforms: Disney+, Globoplay, Max, and, from Q2 2025, Prime Video. Ad-tier plans contribute almost USD 500 million...

As of January 2025, Morocco has become the country with the largest Netflix library in the MENA region, offering around 8,400 titles to local audiences.  The expansion of Netflix's library has been a trend across MENA recently, and it continued between December 2024 and January 2025 in all countries except in Algeria and the UAE. Algeria saw a slight dip...

In a recent reflection on iROKOtv’s long journey, Jason Njoku wrote that “the market won.”  After a decade chasing subscription streaming in Nigeria, the economics just didn’t work.The service shut down its operations by 2023, having burned USD 100 million in investment before ultimately concluding that the domestic market couldn’t sustain a paid OTT Model. That experience captured the optimism...