Tag: StarTimes

StarTimes will air the first ever African Freestyle Football competition in Nigeria from 13 to 15 September to its subscribers across Africa, on ST Sports Focus channels 250/240.

This was made known in a statement by Tunde Aina, the Chief Operating Officer at StarTimes Nigeria made available to newsmen on Tuesday.

The competition, according to the statement is open to freestylers from across all of Africa, starting with the qualifying rounds and Nigerian championship on September 13-14 at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos while the best 16 male and eight female freestyle athletes in Africa will move on to the grand finale on September 15, where the first African male and female Freestyle Football champions will emerge.

“We pleased to be able to provide a live coverage to our subscribers. We are also broadcasting this event live on our mobile APP which makes it easy for non StarTimes subscribers to watch the games”.

Other side attractions include guest appearances from musical acts like Falz, Vanessa Mdee, Kcee, Mayorkun, Slim Case and Mr Real. International freestyle professionals and Guinness world record holder, Iya Traore, and Raquel Benetti, female freestyler from Brazil, will also be in attendance.

…as it lowers subscription fee

Subscribers of pay TV provider StarTimes, have started enjoying a reduced subscription rate on its’ classic bouquet which took effect on Saturday, September 1.

The Pay TV company had announced the reduction of its classic bouquet price from N2,600 to N1,900 in August, with an inclusion of 4 new premium channels EbonyLife TV, Fox, ST Nollywood, ST Kids.

The company said it took the decision to lower its highest bouquet price from Saturday to enable more Nigerians enjoy unlimited quality entertainment in sports, movies, drama and music at pocket friendly prices with the hope that the price reduction will further reinforce the its commitment to ensuring that Nigerians enjoy the best in digital entertainment for less.

StarTimes, one of leading digital TV operator had earlier declared a one month free access for all its subscribers in August, granting free access to all its new channels irrespective of the bouquet.

StarTimes serves nearly 20 mil-lion users with a signal covering the whole continent and a massive distribution network of 200 brand halls, 3,000 convenience stores and 5,000 distributors.

The company also owns a featured content platform, with 480 authorized channels consisting of news, movies, series, sports, entertainment, chil-dren’s programs, etc. The company’s vision is to ensure that every African family can access, afford, watch and share the beauty of digital TV.

In a move to improve on its entertainment offerings for its growing number of subscribers, StarTimes says it is adding 4 new channels at noextra cost to its classic bouquet.

The new channels include EbonyLife TV, Fox, ST Kids and ST Nollywood Plusall entertainment and movie and series focused, aimed at improving the quality of content offered by the company to its over 4m subscribers across Nigeria.

Read Also:StarTimes to lower subscription fee

The new addition is believed to be a bid to provide premium, homegrown content to a larger audience across Africa, as the company believes that this new offering will enrich the lives of its customers, keeping them better informed and entertained with some of the best entertainment productions in Nigeria and across the world.

Over the years, StarTimes have aggressively upgraded its content, providingmore channels for its Bollywood, Nollywood and sports audience with the recent live broadcast of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

As more reactions continue to trail the recent subscription price hike in Nigeria’s pay TV market, StarTimes, a leading digital TV in Africa has reduced its highest bouquet (Classic Bouquet) from N2,600 to N1,900.

StarTimes took to its twitter page @StarTimes_Ng to announce the price reduction in a series of tweets which now have over 100 retweets.
The tweets read: “We are aware of the recent price hike in subscription by D other pay TV network and sincerely think that Nigerians deserve better.

“The price increment is highly insensitive to the current economic hardship most Nigerians who also happen to be pay-TV subscribers are faced with.

“Since their price increment took effect last week, we have received tons of DMs, mentions & enquiries about our pricing, products and services by defecting customers.

“In view of this, we are happy to inform everyone that our highest bouquet (Classic Bouquet) will be reduced from N2,600 to N1,900 – With the inclusion of Ebony Life TV, ST Nollywood Plus & Fox.

“We hope that everyone who seeks quality entertainment at pocket-friendly rates jumps on this opportunity to do so.”

Nigerians seem to be opting for a less expensive option as they have taken to their social media accounts to react swiftly to the announcement.

Azeez Olalekan tweeted “Thank you StarTimes for reasoning with us Nigerians.” Another user, Obinna expressed surprise at the gesture tweeting “wow. I’m subscribing to classic bouquet right away”

Another intending subscriber, Bukky tweeted “This is nice. How do I get StarTimes and how much is the dish? Oyeyinka Esther also tweeted

“I’m coming back. I just wished you guys could give me one free dish. I used to have StarTimes.”

When asked what prompted him to buy a new dish and decoder, another new customer, Temidayo Lawal, an accountant who resides in

Abuja said “I have other bills to pay including school fees not to talk of house rent. At this point in time, paying ridiculous expenses on subscription is not wise for me. All I need is entertainment, movies and cartoon for my kids and StarTimes offers all of this.

My wife is addicted to Ebony Life TV, and for me I am only home on weekends, I don’t have time to watch TV during the week so I think if I can get all of these for only N1,900 there is absolutely no need to pay over N15,000 monthly on subscription.” He added.

StarTimes Nigeria and SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will see the two organizations partner towards supporting vulnerable families, with an emphasis on the empowerment of young adults, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The MOU will see StarTimes support SOS Children’s Villages programmes in Nigeria, specifically in broadening local learning opportunities and extending diverse industry experiences to youths from SOS Children’s Villages programmes. This will include technical and vocational skills training and mentorship while driving access to digital television in the programmes and exposing beneficiaries to learnings on the StarTimes platform.

“By partnering with StarTimes, SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria is helping to improve the lives of young people in the country and helping them realize and utilize their unique gifts, and this is in cognizance of the YouthCan! a project which was launched by SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria in 2017” said Eghosa Erhumwunse, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria.

Also commenting, Justin Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of StarTimes Nigeria noted that the company remains committed to empowering African youths with the right skills set to excel. His words: “Since we commenced providing affordable digital Pay-Tv in Nigeria, we have invested heavily in the development of youths and children in the country. Partnering with SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria gives us a better opportunity to drive our CSR effort towards making Nigerian youths more competitive globally in their chosen career by affording them a quality learning ground.”

The statement made available to newsmen states that for young people in or coming out of alternative care, their first job is not only the first step towards independence but often a matter of survival, which makes the difference between an independent life lived with dignity and a life plagued with further difficulties.

In Nigeria, statistics show that 42 million people are aged between 15 and 24 years, comprising more than 20% of the total population. Demographic rates are growing fast, which will increase the pressure the country faces in terms of job creation. Of this, youth make up 81.2% of the working-age population, but 33.1% of the total number of unemployed.

StarTimes Nigeria has announced a one-month free access for all its subscribers starting from August 1st to 31st, with the inclusion of Ebony Life TV, ST Nollywood Plus and Fox.

The pay TV giant also promised a downward review of its Classic Bouquet subscription rate from N2600 to N1,900 come September, at a time when other services providers are hiking subscription fee.

Meanwhile, the one-month free access on all decoders will ensure customers have access to its new channels, irrespective of their subscription status.

In a statement issued at the weekend, the company’s Public Relations Manager, Kunmi Balogun noted that this reinforces the company’s commitment to ensuring that its customers enjoy the best for less.

The statement reads in part: “Starting from September 1, all StarTimes subscribers will enjoy more entertainment for less. With the addition of new entertainment, movies and kiddie’s channels. We are aware of the economic challenges faced by many Nigerians and have resolved to allow them watch all channels for free this August and reduce our subscription rate come September 1”

The company added that it seeks to enrich the lives of its customers across the various territories where it operates. “We are constantly looking for new ways of delivering more value to our customers with the best local and international entertainment. We want to do our bit with this offering. While others are increasing prices, we find ways to lower ours to ensure customer satisfaction.”