We welcome more players on pay TV market - StarTimes

Customers wait in the StarTimes care lounge located at Soliz House in Kampala last Thursday. StarTimes Uganda vice president Aldrine Nsubuga says although there has been phenomenal growth in subscriber numbers, government has not marketed the digital migration enough. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE

What you need to know:

StarTimes is the leading pay TV service provider in the market with more than one million subscribers on the service. We spoke to Aldrine Nsubuga, the StarTimes vice president, about digital migration and how it has impacted on their operations. Below are the excerpts:

It is two years since Uganda went digital. How has this impacted your operations as a pay TV?
We have seen phenomenal growth in our subscriber base and it is down to the fact that for anyone to watch TV you need to have a decoder. We are thankful that the offers we have as StarTimes have been convincing and attracting the people to choose us. In terms of impact for us, it has pushed our business in the right direction. It has also helped us to appreciate the value of good content in the business of TV.

Now the competition is tight. It is no longer a question of who has good content, but relevant content. The discovery is that people appreciate local content more than foreign content. Among the top five most watched channels across the pay TV service providers you will find that four out of the five are local channels.

To what levels has this increased subscription numbers?
As I speak today we have hit the one million subscriber number base. Before digital migration, we were at about 450,000. After digital migration we have added on 550,000 more subscribers. But this has not just happened in one day.

We have had to be more innovative to keep ahead of our competition. Innovation does not just mean providing content which is relevant to our customers but products which speak to the times. We have recently re-introduced the StarTimes digital TV which is now one of our major products in the market. We want to be a one stop shop for all products. Customers come to me for a decoder, dish and antenna. Why not come to me for a TV set as well? We also have projector TV for those who want to take TV viewing to greater heights. People see us beyond just a pay TV subscriber. We are now a media company. Digital migration has impacted the way we do business.

How have you been able to stay afloat despite the cutthroat competition?
We were able to study and understand what matters to the TV viewer. We understood that once TV was going to be switched off then the immediate need was going to be the cost of accessing the TV. We knew that price was going to be important and we lowered the cost of entry.

So our position at the advent of digital migration has been the cheapest and easiest way to migrate through cost.

Secondly, on top of the platform with the entire local free to air channels, we also went a step further to develop our own local channels. For instance, Sanyuka TV, Face TV for music only, Salaam TV for Islam, and Bollywood channel which has Indian movies dubbed into the local language. We have gone the extra mile to understand what the locals want. We have also gone ahead to establish business partnerships with the local channels.

The third thing is we have been very flexible and adaptable. We have been able to continue to do market survey to understand what ticks. We have introduced pay per view service as a payment option. It is convenient for those who do not watch TV every day to pay from what’s in their pocket. Shs2,000 will give viewers a day and a half depending on what package they choose. This also means people who are so busy can choose to pay only when they have time.

Another aspect was the issue of football. We understood early that you can only sell what you have. Once we could not secure the premier league, we opted for Bundesliga, Serie A and we have gone out to market it.

We are proud to have given alternative sports content which people are now enjoying. The last thing we have done is getting the content that we promote on TV and trying to be relevant. We have taken the football beyond the screen and taken it to the community. We have chosen to sponsor local football. We recently announced a Shs3.2b KCC sponsorship over the next four years, and Shs1.6b for SC Villa over the next three years.

What share of the digital pay TV market do you control as StarTimes? Where else do you operate? Is the story different?
The one million customers we have put us at a market share of 70 per cent in Uganda. We are in the entire East African region, in West Africa we are in Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, in Central African Republic, among others. We are in 24 African countries with a total subscriber number of 11 million people as a group. We are market leaders in many of these countries.

What are some of the challenges that you face today in doing business in Uganda?
The first challenge is that majority of Ugandans who rely on TV find it expensive to use pay TV services. As StarTimes we demystified the expensive satellite concept by unveiling it to them but also making it affordable both for the hardware and subscription from as low as Shs10,000. The other challenge is more from the regulatory front. The regulator has not marketed the digital migration enough. On the market, the free-to-air decoders are way too expensive with the cheapest decoder starting at Shs100,000.

The challenge for us is we are not licensed as a free-to- air decoder distributor and as such cannot avail these decoders to the public. The lack of these decoders in the market has created a need in the market which has been left to the pay TV service providers to fill up.

The other challenge is content providers are relying on us to push their content to the free-to-air but we are not obliged to push the content. Marketing local content has been left with the service providers. To address this, StarTimes has been able to seek strategic partnerships with the content providers. Government has also not aggressively marketed digital migration to the rural areas. On the business front it affects the rate of growth and sales because people upcountry are not sure if they are switched off or the signal has just gone off.

Any other successes and breakthroughs for the company?
StarTimes has been in the market for six years and we are already market leaders. We have also made the pay TV concept friendly. Previously people thought pay TV was about class but today it is consumed by everybody. We have also been able to change people’s mindsets to appreciate local content. Some of the best performing channels are the local channels. They are doing very well. We have also been able to help the regulator to position and give value to local content. The quality of programming for the local content providers has also improved because of the need to win over viewership. For example due to various companies coming in to sponsor local football, it has brought back the competition among the local football.

Some customers complain that paying monthly fee is expensive for them in the long run. How is StarTimes addressing this?
We have been able to appreciate the aspect of pricing and tried to lower the cost of our service. Due to this our competitors have been forced to reduce the cost of their service, which was not the case before. The players have also reduced the prices due to the competition in the market.

What is your market outlook for 2017?
The upcountry digital migration promotion will become official. The rollout of those additional transmissions is going to happen. Already 17 centres were up and running and they are going to equip and install more centres. I am looking at further growth of the pay TV sector with more players coming on board to compete in the space. We are also looking at creating more partnerships and better content in the industry.

Aldrine Nsubuga

Mr Aldrine Nsubuga, the StarTimes Uganda vice president, faults the free-to-air decoders, saying they are very expensive with the cheapest decoder going for a minumum of Shs100,000.

Shs3.2b

AMOUNT OF MONEY STARTIMES GAVE TO KCC FOOTBALL CLUB AS SPONSORSHIP FOR FOUR YEARS
Source: StarTimes