Israel Bolaji is the Manager and Head, Public Relations and Communications Unit, StarTimes Nigeria, a global Pay TV brand. In this interview with Jill Okeke, he speaks about what makes the brand the preferred choice in the Pay TV market in Nigeria, bordering on its unique selling propositions of affordability and pocket friendly posture as well as high technological edge cum offerings around its fifth anniversary in Nigeria . Excerpts.
You celebrated your fifth anniversary last month, can you give us a brief history of Star Times?
StarTimes, as we speak, is five years old in Nigeria. We celebrated our fifth anniversary last month. StarTimes, I must let you know, is a high end enterprise in digital broadcasting technology with global stature and pedigree. As we speak, we are in about 23 countries across Africa. We have strong presence in about fifteen. .
StarTimes is a digital TV operator known in Nigeria as NTA-Star TV Network Ltd. The company is a joint venture between Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Star Communication Network Co. of China. As a digital TV platform, we offer everyone the opportunity to afford, access and enjoy about 150 authorised television channels with programmes covering sports, news, movies, series, sports, entertainment, kid’s programmes, religion, documentaries, lifestyle, telenovelas, and others.
What is actually your vision?
StarTimes has a vision of becoming a global and very influential media group, while the mission is to ensure that every African household and by extension Nigerian is able to afford and enjoy digital television.
Will you say that this vision is being accomplished?
When StarTimes began digital television offering in Nigeria, digital TV was exclusively for the rich. Only a few people could afford it. It had been exclusively for the rich. It was very expensive. But, since the advent of StarTimes some five years ago, the story has since changed.
What new things did you introduce to celebrate your five years of existence?
To celebrate our anniversary, we signed a five-year exclusive deal with Bundesliga, for the best of sporting events and entertainment in the German top league. We have also launched four new sports channel and three movie channels, Iroko TV, Iroko Play and Iroko Plus. We also launched our HD decoder which means consumers can enjoy clearer pictures and have more options. Also, we have a promotion which started last week of July and running through September. This enables our subscribers to recharge for two months and get 50% discount on the second month. It automatically qualifies one for a raffle draw and a chance to win a trip to Germany. Ten lucky winners will be sponsored to Germany and there are other prizes like LED TVs with inbuilt decoders, generating sets and solar five mobile phones.
What is your unique selling point?
First, StarTimes is everything in one: system integrator, technology provider, network operator and content producer. This gives us the capacity to dictate the pace in the industry. So, our number one distinguishing factor is our affordability heritage. All our products have been very affordable and pocket friendly. We have the quality and we still give it out at a very affordable rate. We believe that it can be good and can also be very affordable.
You succeeded in demystifying Pay Tv brand in Nigeria, but how did you penetrate the market?
We are a mass market friendly brand. That has also helped us to penetrate the market. Our business direction and promotion has been geared towards exciting the masses. We also have a family orientation. That is also good. In our product development ideology, we have something for everybody. Let me give you an example; we have a dedicated channel for babies between the ages of zero and three. It is called baby T. We also have for teenagers and adults and various products that project us as family friendly. We are also a multi-cultural brand. We have the opportunity to tap into the Asian culture. We use our brand to project the Asian culture and African culture. So, we have a multi cultural angle plus our local partnership.
Many people do not understand your relationship with NTA. Can you please enlighten us?
StarTimes, formally known as NTA Star TV network, is a joint venture between the federal government of Nigeria and Star Communications Network Co. of China. We’ve been able to leverage on the Star Communications Network strength and the stature of NTA. NTA is a big brand in Nigeria. It is the only television station in Nigeria that covers everywhere. That has helped us with greater reach. There is no key area in Nigeria without the NTA. If you see NTA there, you will get StarTimes coverage. We can say the relationship has existed for five years now. And, the way it is, there is a localisation policy inherent in the partnership. Overtime, we have more and more localisation of the brand. As we speak, the larger percentage of the workforce are Nigerians. We have very few expatriates.
What is your market share?
I won’t talk about market share, but I will say that we’ve been growing and we are growing very fast. Our subscribers are in millions. And, that is a clear testimony of the acceptance of the brand in the last five years. I believe that we can attribute that to our affordable prices, our continuous commitment to growth, innovation and commitment to offer value.
How many channels do you have?
We have about 250 channels . In Lagos, for example , we have over 100 channels that you can enjoy on our two platforms. We have the digital terrestrial and digital satellite, one is called DTT and the other one is DTH.
What is Star Times doing to support digital switchover in Nigeria?
Nova bouquet is another step forward towards delivering digital TV to the unconnected in Nigeria. We realised that our package seems to be the most affordable and yet there are people who are yet to be reached and still not able to afford it. So, we said, what more can we do? As you are aware, The International Telecom Union (ITU) as the regulatory body wants all the nations of the world to switch over. We want to be able to further go down there and connect those who are not connected. There are people who have the decoder and they are not recharging. If we switch off analogue service now, that means no analogue television will work unless with a decoder. So, if we have people who don’t have a decoder or you have people who are unable to afford monthly recharge. It is a challenge . That means, they will not be able to have un-interrupted access to digital TV. That is why we developed NOVA. The most affordable one we have initially was N1200. So, we then developed NOVA which goes for N600 monthly subscription. It is so small that if you do the arithmetic it translates to a minimum of N20 naira per day and is what anyone should be able to afford. That’s why we are trying to accommodate more families to be able to afford and buy, and not only that, they should be able to maintain it. With just N600 per month, you watch about 30 channels. We believe that at least that would really help a lot of people to be able to access digital TV.
What more do you want to say to your subscribers?
Let me wrap up this way. For us as a brand, we are really very grateful to our consumers out there. I’m using this opportunity to appeal to them to continue to keep faith with us. We have lots of things to offer them and we are just coming up. We are ready and equal to the task to ensure every Nigerian household has access to digital TV. StarTimes will continue to strive to put smile on the faces of our subscribers.