PwC’s latest Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook, covering 2026 to 2030, frames the continent’s entertainment and media sector around a question that is increasingly institutional rather than purely commercial: who controls the audience relationship, and who is accountable for how data, content and artificial intelligence are governed as the industry digitalises. The full report is available at https://www.pwc.com/ke/en/publications/entertainment-and-media-outlook.html.
The analysis, which examines South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria between 2025 and 2030, argues that technology is lowering the barriers to content creation while leaving distribution concentrated in the hands of a small number of platforms. Those platforms, the report notes, influence content discovery, audience access, advertising delivery and creator revenue. In response, PwC’s authors call on media businesses and creators to build assets they can control, including intellectual property, trusted brands, direct customer relationships, first-party data and multiple routes to market, giving them greater control over how audiences are reached, understood and monetised.
Nowhere is the accountability question sharper than on artificial intelligence. The report identifies AI applications in translation, subtitling, localisation, content discovery, recommendation, audience segmentation, campaign optimisation and production workflows, applications it says are particularly relevant where linguistic diversity and fragmented audiences limit content reach. But it sets a clear condition: the value of AI will not be determined by how much content it produces, but by whether that content becomes more relevant, discoverable and commercially valuable. Copyright, licensing, attribution, source verification, misinformation, privacy, bias and brand safety, the report states, will require clear accountability and human oversight.
The market context behind these governance questions is substantial. Connectivity remains the largest entertainment and media revenue pool in all three markets, forecast by 2030 to account for approximately 60% of total revenue in South Africa, 75% in Kenya and 66% in Nigeria. The quality of access is changing too: 5G penetration is forecast to reach 86.8% in South Africa, 51.6% in Kenya and 35.3% in Nigeria by 2030, while fixed broadband grows faster than mobile services, expanding audiences for streaming, gaming and connected television.
Meanwhile, advertising is becoming central to how these digital audiences are monetised, and growth is shifting toward formats that offer stronger audience insight and clearer links to commercial outcomes. Video internet advertising is forecast to grow at 18.2% a year in Kenya, while retail paid search grows at 17.2% a year in Nigeria and is expected to overtake traditional paid search by 2028. In South Africa, connected television is expected to play a more prominent role as smart-TV penetration and streaming adoption increase. For advertisers and media owners, the report concludes, reach alone is no longer enough; trusted first-party data, effective activation and credible measurement will matter more as attention fragments across broadcasters, publishers, retailers, streaming platforms, creators and social media.
The three markets differ in scale and character. South Africa is the largest and most mature, supported by advanced communications infrastructure and a sophisticated advertising ecosystem. Kenya is one of Africa’s leading mobile-first digital economies, underpinned by connectivity, digital payments and online engagement. Nigeria combines the fastest overall growth with a large population, expanding digital audiences and rising entertainment consumption. “Across these different growth stories, one thing is becoming clear: technology is creating more ways for audiences to connect, but lasting value will come from understanding the people behind those connections,” the outlook states.
On video, over-the-top streaming is among the fastest-growing categories in all three countries, yet the report does not forecast the immediate displacement of traditional television. South Africa shows the clearest reallocation, with OTT growing as traditional television declines, while in Kenya and Nigeria both categories continue to grow. Traditional television is expected to remain the larger video segment in all three markets through 2030. Affordability will shape streaming’s trajectory: average OTT revenue per subscription in 2030 is forecast at US$76 in South Africa, US$54 in Kenya and US$42 in Nigeria, against a global average above US$100, keeping pricing, bundling and advertising-supported models central to market development.
Gaming follows a similarly accessible path, with revenue forecast to grow faster than the global market in all three countries, reaching US$698m (R12.7bn) in South Africa, US$133m in Kenya and US$431m in Nigeria by 2030. Smartphones allow participation without a console or dedicated gaming computer, and in Nigeria social and casual games represented 77% of gaming revenue in 2025.
Digital engagement is also strengthening discovery without replacing demand for collective entertainment. Cinema revenue is forecast to rise from US$24m (R757m) to US$59m (R1.1bn) in South Africa, from US$5m to US$8m in Kenya and from US$10m to US$29m in Nigeria, with Nigeria recording the strongest growth at 22.8% a year and local films accounting for almost half of its box-office revenue in 2025. South Africa’s music, radio and podcasts market is forecast to grow from R8.0bn in 2025 to R10.6bn in 2030, and the commercial value of shared experiences extends to sponsorship, tourism, hospitality, retail, transportation and merchandise.
The report’s overarching conclusion is that the next phase of growth will increasingly be shaped by who owns, understands and sustains the audience relationship, a framing that places data stewardship and oversight, not content volume, at the centre of the industry’s development. Whether regulators, platforms and media owners can agree on who answers that question may determine how the sector’s next chapter unfolds.