Tuesday
November 8, 2011
November 8, 2011
By JAMES WOKABI cwokabi@gmail.com
Posted Tuesday, November 8 2011 at 00:00
Posted Tuesday, November 8 2011 at 00:00
Kenya is still far from experiencing real digital pay TV entertainment due to high pricing by providers.
Matters are not made any better with most providers being foreign.
Players have often voiced concerns hat the firms
cut their niche market among the well up in the community through high
pricing and content.
And it has not helped that over the last several
months, the local economy has experienced a crisis due to weakening of
the shilling and high inflation rates.
“Exorbitant pricing and elite-targeted programming
by some established companies have painted the service as belonging to
the high end consumers locking the common mwananchi from enjoying first
class viewing, despite existence of many providers in the market,” says
Mr Richard Bell Wananchi Group’s CEO.
The firm provides Zuku cable and satellite TV.
Multichoice Kenya general manager Stephen Isaboke, says expansion of pay
TV in Kenya depends on growth of household disposable incomes.
“While pay television penetration in Africa remains
quite low in comparison to other more developed markets such as Europe,
it is important to compare the average household incomes in those
markets with those of the average household in Kenya,” he says.
What emerges, the manager says, is a picture that shows there is growth in the middle class.
Pay TV providers in the country include MultiChoice’s DStv, Smart Tv and Zuku Tv, GOtv and My Tv.
“Meeting the basic cost of living for my immediate
family has in itself been a hard task, paying additional amounts of
money for TV services is an expensive luxury to me,” says a subscriber
who has abandoned the service until ‘things get better’.
Pay TV was launched in Kenya almost two decades ago by MultiChoice’s DStv.
For a long time, the South African-based firm operated as a monopoly.
The company has kept a strong hold in the market
through airing of high premium programmes including the English Premier
League.
The South African company has also stamped its
strong presence in Kenya through sponsoring and live broadcasting of the
Kenya Premier League matches and other local sporting events such as
rugby and athletics.
DStv’s premium channel provider Supersport now owns
the exclusive rights to broadcast Kenya Premier League matches after
signing a deal worth over Sh445 million.
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