African pay-TV competition heats up

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 19 Oct 2007

Pay-TV competition is increasing in Africa, with part of the battle between MultiChoice Africa and challenger GTV being fought in the blogosphere.

Last week, GTV, the broadcasting arm of pan-African telecommunications provider Gateway Communications, debuted in Namibia as part of its African 48-country roll-out plan.

Namibia is the seventh African country where the broadcaster has introduced pay-TV services since its initial launch in June. Other countries include Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, Botswana and Burundi.

However, heated debates on the broadcaster`s blog reflect vocal criticism of GTV`s strong focus on sports.

GTV bouquets

GTV MD Julian McIntyre says GTV Namibia offers 13 channels. The basic bouquet (G-Base) provides a range of news, sports, movies, popular series, kids`, music and religious content and costs N$190.

The second bouquet (G-Plus) adds G-Sport1, Sport 2, Fox Sports Africa and costs N$270. GTV also charges a once-off setup cost of N$1 950.

McIntyre says there are 200 000 households in Namibia that own TVs. "We`re aiming for the vast, vast majority that has been excluded from satellite TV up to now."

He notes that sport is a strong driver of pay-TV adoption in Africa, adding to the appeal of GTV`s offering. "GTV carries 80% of the Barclays Premier League and all the home games of the top 10 teams in the Italian Series."

Content quality

However, bloggers note that not everyone is interested in sports, and argue that the quality of family entertainment programming is low, as GTV offers the same programming they can get from Free TV, Namibia`s public broadcaster.

MultiChoice Kenya`s Richard Tembedza wrote in an article published in a Kenyan newspaper, and subsequently posted on GTV`s blog by a reader: "The competitor is launching with 16 channels and quite frankly, if you strip out the EPL (English Premier League) from its offering, I don`t know how 'premium` the rest of the offering is."

He argued that MultiChoice caters for all income levels, including the lower-income groups. MultiChoice offers three bouquets, with its premium bouquet consisting of 50 channels costing N$439. Its compact bouquet is priced at N$228 and the family bouquet at N$139 per month.

"We are talking of a lifestyle product here and Africans are tired of being told what they can and cannot afford. We are demanding the best - not a quickly stitched-up offering," he stated.

MultiChoice Africa spokesperson Caroline Creasy adds that the company will also compete with challengers through technology innovation on platforms used to deliver that content to consumers.