Huge spike in streaming subscriptions in South Africa

First National Bank has released data that shows there has been a big spike in subscriptions to online video and music streaming services in South Africa in the past two years.

Consumer spend on services such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Amazon Prime Video, Showmax, Netflix and YouTube has increased by about 70% from the period before Covid-19 up to end-June 2022, the bank said on Wednesday.

FNB’s retail customers are spending as much as R190-million/month on these platforms, said FNB Retail CEO Raj Makanjee in a statement.

The bank said customers are increasingly using its “virtual card” offerings to subscribe to these streaming services, driven by eBucks rewards on Netflix and Spotify subscriptions.

Since the launch in 2021, over three million virtual cards have been activated, FNB said.  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media