Communiqué 60: Why Africa needs million-dollar media businesses

For too long, African media has relied on Western donors and funders to stay afloat, while struggling to keep up with an unforgiving business landscape. It’s time to change that.

Presented by

---

1. Festival notes

When we talk about the media in Africa, we are more often focused on the social and political contexts than the economic ones. We talk about how the media can change lives and hold power to account. We talk about how it can impact our societies and uplift our people. But we hardly talk about how it can become an economic engine.

Perhaps it is because we think of money as a taboo subject. Perhaps we think that speaking of it, especially within the context of something so sacred, will betray our intentions and corrupt our souls. Those concerns are valid. But here’s something that’s also valid: this industry will continue to weaken and stutter until it figures out how to be commercially sustainable.

This line of thought formed the basis of my workshop at the Africa Media Festival in Nairobi last week. I designed the session to spark conversations about how African media practitioners and entrepreneurs think about the business models and commercial ecosystems that uphold the industry.

I told my audience that I was not just there to share my ideas, I wanted to have a conversation and a debate. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that last part, because by the end of the workshop and until the end of the festival, questions kept pouring in from people who were there and others who weren’t.

By the end of last week, it was clearer to me than ever that we need this conversation. Africa needs more million-dollar media businesses. We intend to build one with Communiqué. But we can’t be the only ones aiming for and actively discussing the possibilities.

2. Much-needed context: Media =/= journalism

When most people hear “media,” they immediately think of journalism—newsrooms, reporters, and breaking stories. But the media is so much more than that. It is more than newspapers, television anchors, or investigative reporting.

Media encompasses any means of communication: broadcasting, publishing, social media, the internet, etc. It also spans several sectors, such as entertainment, lifestyle, and professional niches.

Media includes the old and the new, the major TV studios, and the independent creator with a smartphone. No event crystalized this better than the 2024 U.S. presidential elections. Influencers and social media creators took center stage. Podcasters and TikTok voices became more consequential in media discourse than ever before. So, anyone still thinking about “media” without including this subset is living in the Ice Age.

Beyond political discourse, media encapsulates the movies we watch, the songs we stream, the podcasts we are beholden to, the 90-second videos we are addicted to, and the memes we hold our laughter to during work hours.

And yet, when we talk about building Africa’s media industry, we often think too small. We focus narrowly on journalism and miss the bigger picture. If Africa wants to build multi-million-dollar businesses, we must first expand our view of media and embrace its full scope—entertainment, cultural products, digital platforms, and the content that drives influence, innovation, and wealth creation.

3. State of affairs

Africa’s media industry is vast and covers a large audience. However, its economic impact remains relatively small compared to its global counterparts.

The African media market is projected to generate $35.86 billion in revenue in 2025. The largest sector of this market is gaming, with an expected market volume of $13.86 billion. But for context, the U.S. will generate over $569.70 billion within the same period.

Africa’s biggest contribution to the list of global media companies is Naspers, Multichoice’s former parent company. As of February 2025, it had a market cap of $35.67 billion, much of this driven by non-media sources such as retail and venture capital.

Most people consider Multichoice to be Africa’s biggest media success story. But Canal+, a French media conglomerate, is about to acquire it.

Things are bleak by all indications. For some people, this is all the more reason to be worried. For others, this is the rudest awakening and the clearest indicator that the continent needs more media companies that can stand on their own two feet.

But first, let us examine why we are where we are.

4. Why African media companies struggle

1. The industry is relatively young: Many of Africa’s most prominent media companies did not exist until the 21st Century. Multichoice, the most dominant, came to life in 1995, and Trace was born in 2003. A handful stretch back to the 1900s: Media24 was established in 1915 and The Nation Media Group was founded in 1959. But neither of them has grown its influence beyond the continent. There’s context to this: several countries dealt with decades of colonialism in what many consider the media industry’s golden years. So, there were bigger wars to fight than the need for expansion. But this is the reality, and we cannot have an honest conversation without mentioning it.

   A Crunchbase sample size of 760 media companies shows the average founding year for Africa’s top media companies to be 2008. All of them have raised a combined $796.1 million in funding, with only 18 acquisitions at a total price of $25.3 million. Again, this is in no way encouraging. Not to the ordinary eye, at least.

   This late start and watery monetary value indicate that the industry still has a lot to figure out.

2. Historical foreign dominance: Decades of colonialism have shaped Africa’s media ownership structures and systems of influence. Even after independence, African nations relied on BBC, CNN, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse (AFP) for news. Until the 2000s, there were rarely any continent-wide media giants; instead, global players dictated narratives. Today, companies like MultiChoice still rely on Western-produced content, even though they operate in Africa. All this has repercussions.

3. Misaligned audience expectations: The biggest consequence of media colonialization is that it has shaped (and in many ways contorted) audience expectations. For instance, Hollywood and European films, Korean dramas, and British/American news media have set the quality benchmark. But this often means that when consumers compare their local productions to Hollywood blockbusters, they dismiss their products as “low-budget.” Some even go as far as characterizing anything from their market as “lower quality.”

   It’s the same in other sectors of the industry too. African news audiences instinctively trust foreign media over local outlets, and many African journalists, filmmakers, and producers subconsciously frame their work through a Western or foreign lens.

4. Limited economic capacity: This may be the biggest reason African media companies have struggled. The market is shrinking: the audience exists in theory, but their purchasing power is low in actuality.

   Media companies are only as rich as their audiences. Western media thrives because: audiences pay for subscriptions (Netflix, The New York Times, Spotify), and buy merchandise, tickets, and premium content. African media struggles because everyone wants premium content, but few can afford it. Disposable income is low, and most people can’t afford subscriptions. Furthermore, traditional paywalls and advertising models are difficult to sustain.

5. Too much sameness: I’m going to list a few points here, and let me know if you disagree with any:

• Many African media companies lack differentiation, leading to an oversaturated market with identical offerings across news, entertainment, and digital content.

• Competition is good but should encourage innovation, not duplication. Instead, we see a cycle where the same content gets recycled with little to no originality.

• In Nigeria, mainstream newspapers—Punch, Vanguard, The Nation, Tribune—often cover identical stories with minimal investigative depth. The observed differences are mainly in their allegiance to the side of the political discourse their founders/backers belong to.

• The African streaming space is filled with platforms like Showmax, ViuSasa, Airtel TV, EbonyLife TV, and IrokoTV. Yet, none have truly disrupted the market the way Netflix has done globally or Max and Disney+ did locally in the U.S.

• Reality shows like Big Brother Naija, Nigerian Idol, Project Fame, and East Africa’s Got Talent are carbon copies of American and European reality shows. The formats, judges, and even set designs barely incorporate regional elements that make them distinctly African.

5. How do we build million-dollar media businesses?

With all that’s been said, what does the path forward look like? What do we need to do differently?

1. Functional media for the working class: We need more Afrocentric media products targeted at helping professionals increase their professional knowledge and earning capacity. This means we need more niche media products. The logic here is simple: if we produce more media that helps people earn better, they are more likely to spend on media.

2. More product thinking, less charity work: For too long, several African media companies have relied on (Western) donors and funders to stay afloat while struggling to keep up with a fast-changing and unforgiving business landscape. That needs to change, and product thinking is the way. We can no longer create media just because we “feel” like it. We must first consider the economics and business implications of our ideas before running off to execute them.

3. Local content, international consumers: African audiences are the primary consumers, but global markets have the capital to sustain premium content. Afrobeats and Nollywood’s short-lived romance with Netflix and Amazon Prime shows that there is demand for African content in markets.

4. The case for consolidation: American companies like Disney, Time Warner, and Comcast grew and sustained their growth through mergers and acquisitions. Consider a scenario where major West African media outlets like Punch and The Nation operate under one parent company. Punch could focus on local stories and vox populi, while The Nation could become the go-to source for political discourse. In East Africa, Nation Media Group and Standard Group are good examples. South Africa’s Media24 as well. The recent alliance of Sinema Focus (Kenya), What Kept Me Up (Nigeria), and Akoroko (pan-African) to form the African Film Press is a step in the right direction. But there could be more.

6. The Communiqué roadmap

In Communiqué 36: An African $500-million media exit, I outlined the steps for a hypothetical African media company to attain a $500-million valuation. That essay was the foundation for my workshop at the Africa Media Festival. But it is also the basis for going all in with Communiqué.

My thinking can be summed up this way:

1. Start operations in one strong media market (e.g., Nigeria or South Africa) and then expand strategically into other major economies, such as Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Francophone Africa.

2. Adopt a scalable model that allows content and operations to work across multiple markets.

3. Prioritize niches with long-term economic value and high monetization potential. This means developing content and services tailored to industry professionals, decision-makers, and influencers.

4. Avoid over-relying on traditional media revenue streams like ads and subscriptions. Instead, explore multiple revenue sources, such as:

• Platform-based services (e.g., Bloomberg Terminal model)

• Network-based monetization (events, memberships, consultancy)

• Exclusive industry reports and high-value content

• High-value partnerships

5. Expand through acquisitions and consolidation. We do not plan to build every new idea from scratch.

6. Exit or continuous growth. We won’t be here forever, so we must think about what this company will look like long after we’re gone.

7. Curtain call

Back to the original question: why does Africa need million-dollar media businesses? Here are a few reasons:

1. We need an environment for media practitioners to build impactful and financially rewarding careers. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. It doesn’t look great when our media personalities spend decades investing so much in the industry and then have to live their twilight years in penury or succumb to political pressure.

2. We need exit paths for media entrepreneurs. Exits are signs of market maturity, which is a sign of economic growth. Economic growth then signals (or at least creates an atmosphere for) cultural and political power. Our media companies shouldn’t have to die when the founders grow old, get tired, or leave this world.

3. To keep the industry attractive to coming generations and enforce high standards. Young people are attracted to industries that promise them profitable careers as much as they promise personal fulfillment.

Perhaps someone reading this will say I’m giving away too much. Maybe, maybe not. But I’d rather have a forest than a handful of resilient plants in the desert. So, in that spirit, I’ll leave you with the formula we’re working with at Communiqué: