(Bloomberg) — Telkom SA SOC Ltd. said Netflix Inc. will no longer be available on the South African phone and internet company’s set-top box from October.
A deal between the parties has come to an end and will not be renewed, Content Executive Wanda Mkhize said in a statement, without giving a specific reason. Other content partnerships will be announced in due course, she said.
The move comes after MultiChoice Group Ltd., Africa’s largest pay-TV provider, signed deals with Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. to offer their streaming services through its new decoder. The continent is a small market for paid streaming video, with just a few million subscribers out of a population of more than 1 billion, and the U.S. giants have targeted it for future growth.
Netflix has started to produce more local content, debuting South African dramas “Queen Sono” and “Blood and Water” in recent years. The U.S. company has also appointed its first African board member, Zimbabwean media tycoon Strive Masiyiwa, in a bid to grow on the continent.
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