South Africa's pay-TV industry has slipped below a critical threshold, losing nearly a fifth of its audience in just five years.
The number of pay-TV subscribers in the continent's most advanced media market fell to 6.7 million in the year to September 2025, down 9.6 from the previous year, according to the latest State of the ICT Sector report from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Icasa.
It is the first time subscriptions have dropped below seven million in at least half a decade. Over the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, the industry lost 1.6 million subscribers, a compound annual decline of 5.2.
