PWC made the forecast in the fifth edition of its ‘South African Entertainment and Media Outlook’ which also featured data about Nigeria.

The outlook includes historical and forecast data on segments such as Internet, television, filmed entertainment, radio, recorded music, consumer magazine publishing and newspaper publishing, educational book publishing, business-to-business publishing, out-of-home advertising, video games, and sports.

In the report, PWC predicts further that Nigeria’s media consumers via mobile Internet will increase from 7.7 million in 2013 to 50.4 million in 2018.

According to the PWC, the Internet will be the key driver for Nigeria, where the number of mobile Internet subscribers is forecast to surge from 7.7 million in 2013 to 50.4 million in 2018.

PWC also predicts in its report that the television market in Nigeria will become a $1 billion-plus market in 2018 and the value would be derived from advertising, subscriptions and license fees. The market is expected to grow steadily.

“Although broadband penetration may be high as in the case of Nigeria this does not necessarily mean that a country scores highly. At 0.6 percent of the average GDP per capita in Nigeria, the cost of mobile broadband services is too high,”the report states.

PWC notes that the objective of the survey is to measure the state of connectivity for all markets in sub-Saharan Africa with a population of over 10 million, adding that findings presented in the index highlight those markets that offer the greatest potential for the future consumption of entertainment and media services because of their relative maturity in terms of connectivity.