The long, slow death of mobile competition in selected Africa markets – finding a way out of this dead end

5 August 2022

Several decades ago competition was introduced to the new African mobile markets. Competition was supposed to deliver three things: cheaper prices, better service and innovation. Several decades later Russell Southwood looks at how ideas of competition have stalled in key African markets. When first launched, the unstated assumption about competition was as follows. If there were two competing mobile operators, they would tend to copy each other’s price offers and the market would stay the same. Initially there was some support for two-company competition. When MTN entered Uganda it bought innovative pricing (pre-pay) and quickly expanded the market. But this…

Canal+ Group continues to make moves that will see it become the dominant Pay-TV player across all Sub-Saharan Africa

12 August 2022

Vivendi-owned pay TV operator Canal+ is increasingly flexing its commercial muscle across the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. As an independent, South Africa’s Multichoice finds itself much less powerful than it once was. Russell Southwood looks at what Canal+ is up to. In early July Groupe Canal+ SA increased its stake in Multichoice to 20.12% after a series of small incremental increases from 15% to the current position. MultiChoice said it has filed the required notice with the Takeover Regulation Panel as required in terms of section 122(3)(a) of South Africa’s Companies Act. Canal+ had previously offered a multi-million dollar takeover…

Sub-Saharan Africa's Broadcasting Landscape

Balancing Act is pleased to announce the publication of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Broadcasting Landscape and Nine Key Markets. The report is a joint publication with one of the continent’s leading providers of mobile-based research and insights GeoPoll.