A presentation based on a large market research study on media, Internet and social media in Sub-Saharan Africa. The four reports from this study can be downloaded for free by going to www.balancingact-africa.com Look in the right hand column and click on the cover of the report/s you want to download.

1. CIMA – The Changing Media
Landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa
Russell Southwood
CEO
Balancing Act – http://www.balancingact-africa.com

2. Research Framework
 Overall Rationale
 Face to Face Surveys: Ghana, Senegal and Tanzania Plus
Northern Nigeria
 Feature Phone user Surveys (18-35): Ethiopia, Ghana,
Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
 Group and one to one interviews: Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal
and Tanzania

3. Predicting the Future
 Things You Know: For example, price of Internet or
Pay TV (GoTV – 900,000 subscribers)
 Things You Don’t Know: The Arab Spring and
Social Media.

4. Growth of the Internet
 What’s changed in last 3-5 years in terms of media
and comms? Group and one to one respondents.
Internet and more media.
 Interconnected – Two things drive more diverse
viewpoints. Cases of Senegal and Ethiopia.
 Media “haves’ and “have-nots” – Rural areas which
also lack Internet. 24% Internet use in rural South
Africa.

5. Steady Growth of Internet
Country 2006 or
2007
2009 or
2011
2013 Projected
2016
Ghana 1% 4% 21% 25%
Kenya 1% 11% e17% 20%
Nigeria 1% 5% 20% 25%
Senegal 2% n/a 17% 25%
Tanzania n/a 4% 17% 25%
Below 5%: DRC, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan
Example: Liberia – Internet (2.1%) and smartphones (2.6%)

6. Growth of device ownership:
Ghana example
Device Percentage ownership
Mobile phone 88%
Radio 84%
TV 76%
MP3 player 23%
Own Internet connection 21%
Laptop 19%
Desktop computer 18%
Tablet 15%
If sharing is included, the percentage for computer access increases
significantly

7. Mobile Device Pyramid
Ghana: 21%
Nigeria e20%
Kenya e17%
Tanzania 17%
Senegal 13%
By operating
System: Android,
Nokia, IoS,
Windows

8. Rise of mobile internet

9. Social Media: It’s Facebook way
ahead
Country Aug-10 Apr-11 Oct-11 Dec-11 May-12 Jun-12 Oct-12 Dec-12 Mar-14
South Africa 3.1 million 3.8 million 4.4 million 4.8 million 4.7 million 4.96 million 6.5 million 6.26 million 10.2 million
Nigeria 1.7 million 2.9 million 3.8 million 4.3 million 4.6 million 5.86 million 6.7 million 6.6 million 12 million
Kenya 864,760 1.03 million 1.3 million 1.29 million 1.39 million 1.4 million 1.97 million 2.04 million 3.8 million
Ghana 621,000 906,540 1 million 1.14 million 1.24 million 1.28 million 1.67 million 1.63 million 2.4 million
Senegal 299,340 447,840 578 880 620,260 660,080 665,880 678,420 675,820 1.02 million
Uganda 196,000 280,600 330,780 346,980 206,100 414,260 532,920 562,240 1.18 million
Tanzania 141,580 259,120 352,000 414,540 497,940 518,460 676,420 705,460 1.34 million
Botswana 86,060 112,180 138,140 167,180 218,100 223,660 286,740 294,000 460,000
Angola 63,860 112,180 277,640 322,300 421,960 433,520 597,460 645,460 1.8 million
Zambia 56,640 117,520 157,760 177,820 228,940 235,700 320,280 327,600 700,000
Malawi 46,660 79,040 95,820 112,100 134,700 139,540 209,300 203,840 360,000
Namibia 15,100 127,260 123,820 134,149 84,100 172,400 231,720 231,340 380,000
Sierra Leone 8,780 34,100 44,760 48,520 57,080 58,040 73,680 76,880 148,000
Uses: Messaging, social networking, media and campaigning

10. But there are others -Social Media
Competitors – Ghana example
Only respondents who used social media

11. How this changes media behaviour
Country/ac
tivity
Voice Internet Apps Social
Media
SMS
Ghana
Fun & Ent 25% 45% 50% 47% 23%
News 20% 14% 20% 27% 24%
Senegal
Fun & Ent 25% 45% 40% 14% 23%
News 20% 35% 3% 6% 1%

12. Internet for news and information and 62% had never used Social Media.
Getting News and Information:
Ghana
and Internet use for this reason declines with age. As you would expect, the
Internet is less well used in rural areas (16%) as against urban areas (25%) but the
the Internet than women: 22% to 17%.
In the general
population only
20% use Internet
to get news
and info

13. Getting News and Information by
Internet - Featurephone users
Country
Nigeria 69%
Kenya 68%
Ghana 63%
Senegal 62%
Ethiopia 22%
Younger demographic (18-30s)

14. Internet Summary
 Growth of Internet Users; Largely mobile. Future projections:
split by type of country: crudely 25% vs 5%
 Increased device ownership; Growing levels of smart and
feature phones. By OS: Android, Nokia, iOS and Windows
 Social media – Facebook dominates but Twitter, the opinion
formers social media
 People looking to get news both on the Internet and Social
media
 New Mobile Media?: News 24 into East and West Africa?
Every1Mobile?

15. Current state of Broadcast Media
in Focus Countries
Category/Country Ghana Northern
Nigeria
Senegal Tanzania
No of radio
stations
49 62 46 26
Key players (Ever
listened to by
25%+)
4 1 7 9
No of TV stations 8 30 17 19
Key players (Ever
4 2 11 8
watched by
25%+)

16. Understanding Broadcast Media
 Small number of professional companies, often in press,
radio and TV (eg Nation Group, New Vision, Channels TV,
Joy FM)
 Large number of unprofessional companies. Media as a
means of influence. Politicians in the shadows. Media as a
large toy train set
 Absence of data and transparency – “I’m the biggest TV
station in Kinshasa” No research to prove it
 Advertising – High levels of discounting
 Low levels of creativity: 60s programming template
 Fragmentation: More analog channels, vernacular, more DTT
channels, social media, Internet and You Tube
 Media Liberalisation – See data in report

17. The Digital Transition
Deadline: June 30 2015
Countries: Algeria, Kenya (hard-stop), Mauritius
Mauritania, Rwanda (hard stop) and Tanzania
(hard-stop) – and these countries may provide
valuable lessons for others.
Consequences?

18. African Newspapers’ Dilemma
 East African Newspaper: Sells 220,000 copies daily. Claims
each copy read by 25 people = claimed daily reach of 5.5
million people, a penetration of just over 20% of the 18+
population of the country. Industry experts 15-18 readers per
copy= daily reach of 3.3 million people.
 Online readership varies between 2-5 million unique users a
day, averaging around 3.5 million uniques a day. 55% of
these unique users are from within the country, giving an
average daily Internet reach of just over 1.9 million people.
However, on the days when it attracts 5 million unique users,
the Internet reach within the country is 2.75 million users.
 Another East African country, the Internet version of a key
newspaper is seen by 2 million unique users daily in the
country, a number that already exceeds the print reach of the
newspaper.
 Digital advertising arguments.

19. Issues for Media Development
 The Transition to Mobile and the Internet – How not to lose or
how to improve the news and info generating capacity
 Getting a more liberalised media landscape in the other half
of Africa – How? Pressures of the Internet?
 In a time of growth of fragmentation, how to improve the
overall professionalism of the sector?
 The Haves and the Have Nots – The Rural Media Deficit –
How best to address? Not a single media like radio? Media
as a right like Internet?
 The overall lack of innovation – Creating processes to
support existing a new media owners