Total broadcasting subscriptions fell 1.8% in a single quarter, from 1.58 million to 1.55 million.
According to the report, the reasons behind this are subscribers switching to internet-based IPTV services, and rising costs of set-top boxes driven by global chipset price increases.
Higher decoder prices made it harder for broadcasters to sign up new customers, even as existing ones stuck around, effectively freezing new customer growth while natural churn continued.
Despite the quarterly dip, the year-on-year numbers are still positive, up 4.9% from 1.48 million a year earlier. Digital terrestrial TV (DTT), led by GOtv and StarTimes, remains the largest category with 874,777 subscriptions, or roughly 56% of all pay TV subscribers in the country.
GOtv grew 21.3% over the year to 381,383 subscriptions while StarTimes barely moved, adding just over a thousand subscribers to reach 493,394.
Satellite TV (DTH) told a mixed story by provider. MultiChoice’s DStv grew 37.2% year on year to 259,047 subscriptions, the fastest growth of any pay TV brand in the report. Azam grew 26.2% to 37,978 subscriptions.
Meanwhile Wananchi’s Zuku satellite service shrank 16.4% to 157,051, and StarTimes’ satellite offering slipped 3.1%. Combined DTH subscriptions reached 643,947, essentially flat on the quarter but up 6.8% over the year.
| Provider | Subscriptions | Year-on-Year Change |
|---|---|---|
| DStv (MultiChoice) | 259,047 | ↑ 37.2% |
| Zuku Satellite (Wananchi) | 157,051 | ↓ 16.4% |
| Azam | 37,978 | ↑ 26.2% |
| StarTimes (Satellite) | — | ↓ 3.1% |
| Total DTH | 643,947 | ↑ 6.8% (flat quarterly) |
Cable TV is nearly gone entirely. Total cable subscriptions dropped to just 30,240 nationwide, a 54.8% collapse from the year before.
Every cable provider tracked in the report shrank or stagnated: Cable One fell 6.2%, CTN in Mombasa fell 33.9% to just 320 subscribers, and Wananchi’s cable offering, distinct from its satellite service, crashed 56.7% to 27,831 subscribers.
Only two tiny providers, Hirani and Wadani Cable, held steady at under 800 subscribers each.
Alongside broadcasting, the regulator also manages the radio frequency spectrum that underpins both TV and radio transmission.
In the fourth quarter, the Communications Authority assigned 10,554 frequencies for microwave links and 978 for FM sound broadcasting, both slight increases from the prior quarter.
Still, over the full financial year, both categories declined, microwave link assignments down 5.8% and FM broadcasting frequencies down 6.1%, mirroring the broader softening seen across traditional broadcast infrastructure even as some individual pay TV brands still managed strong growth.
