It’s no surprise that British TV subscription-based streaming service BritBox is exiting South Africa’s video-on-demand streaming market, say analysts.
In recent years, SA’s streaming market has continued to heat up, with international players such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBOMax and Hong Kong-basedMark Walker, IDC South Africa country manager and VP of data and analytics in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, says the local audience for BritBox content is “niche” and therefore small in terms of commercial opportunity.
Independent analyst Nozi Dikgale points out the company is employing a “decline strategy” to exit. This could be driven by the market no longer being a fit with its strategic direction. “This makes BritBox an ideal platform for fans of British TV, which might have driven its success in some of its European markets. The challenge may, however, have been that such content did not appeal to a large enough segment of the South African market.”Subscribers, commenting via Facebook, have placed blame for the BritBox service closure in SA on the streamer’s outdated content catalogue and a poor library.
“They didn’t add new content. If you followed BritBox on Facebook, you’d see all the new episodes and series being released regularly elsewhere in the world by BritBox, but none of these were made available in South Africa.” BritBox says it will terminate its current annual subscription on 30 August, and will provide annual subscribers with a pro-rated refund to their original payment method.