Pascal Oparada
These are not the best of times for subscribers of StarTimes, a pay-TV in Nigeria. The company has announced a staggering price increase, which left its consumers baffled.
The company had announced via zoom press briefing with select journalists that it had been heavily impacted by the VAT increase by the Nigerian government and the erosion of the local currency, the Naira.
Viki Liu, StarTimes brand and marketing manager, disclosed this during a virtual press conference on Friday.
The company said the price increase was due to increased value-added tax (VAT) from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent as well as the foreign exchange rate which had impacted its cost of operation.
“Our business is not exempted from the effect of the naira depreciation affecting all businesses in the country,” Liu said.
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“All of our foreign content is bought in dollars and to continually serve our subscribers the best content, the subscription price has to be reviewed upwards.”
With the price increase, its basic bouquet now goes for N1,700 from N1,300 monthly which now has close to 80 channels; classic bouquet will be as high as N2,500 from N1,900 monthly with close to 100 channels; while the nova bouquet still remains N900 per month with over 43 channels.
Liu also disclosed that smart bouquet subscribers would pay N2,200 from N1,900 monthly, and super bouquet subscribers N4,200 from N3,800 monthly.
“We hope our customers understand as we are not known for an incessant price increase. Rather, StarTimes’ subscription prices had on different occasions been reduced in order to make digital TV affordable for every Nigerian.”
He also explained that the company had expanded the content available to customers having added 15 new channels in the last six months; expanded its educational programmes for kids with more channels to provide the latest information on COVID-19; and also introduced the pay-as-you-go policy which enables people to subscribe on a daily or weekly basis.
It had promised its subscribers in June, when DStv, the leading pay-TV operator in Nigeria, reviewed its subscription upwards, citing inflation and tax issues. Consumers of DStv were irritated with the increase but quickly came to terms with it because it has added premium contents to its bouquets.
Not so with StarTimes, which seems stuck in the rut of lack of premium content. That is where subscribers raised an eyebrow with the increase. According to them, it is unfair for StarTimes to offload its financial burden on them because of government policy and not add value and justify the increase with good contents.
StarTimes is in a joint venture partnership with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), a state-owned broadcaster.
The reason for such a partnership is easily understood. StarTimes sought to leverage on NTA’s wide reach. NTA has a presence in the 36 states of Nigeria.
But the company seems to be surrendering to GOtv at a dizzying speed. Its major centres previously brimming over with subscribers now see them come in trickles.
Why?
In May last year, StarTimes Chief Executive Officer, David Zhang, said the company had invested over $220 million in StarTimes Nigeria in order to dominate the market and offer quality digital satellite services to Nigerians.
Analysts say the impact of such humongous investments is not felt because of the company’s alliance to a state broadcaster that is controlled by the civil service.
“The civil service in Nigeria is largely inefficient and corrupt. And for a private broadcaster to be so attached to it, the bureaucracy of the service will not allow it to grow, said James Enenche, a journalist and brand analyst.
Others have blamed the seeming lacklustre performance of StarTimes on poor content. They say while others were busy snapping up deals, the company was losing talents to new rivals like Kwese Tv, which is also gasping for breath under the chokehold of Dstv.
“Content is king and key to the survival of any digital television in any part of the world. Unless StarTimes looks for a way to strike a balance with the content it is offering subscribers, it will continue to hobble under the competition,” Enenche said.
Price offerings
StarTimes price offering is the cheapest in the market, despite the recent increase.
“But that does not guarantee patronage. In this clime, price is the same thing as quality,” he said.
“People are willing to pay a little extra if they are sure they will get premium service and good content,” Enenche added.
That is what StarTimes is battling to get right. Getting content producers to drive its development seems to be a herculean task.
The Internet
Presently, StarTimes ON, an online streaming service skillfully developed by the company is available on various app stores for free for subscribers online. Subscribers report of inability to use the app because of the high cost of data.
“StarTimes ON is our online video streaming service. It is the next generation of StarTimes streaming service. It introduces new features such as video on demand (VOD) live TV and lots of movies, sports and entertainment content all on the mobile app and free of charge,” CEO Zhang said.
But Enenche said it goes beyond having a streaming service and asking subscribers to link their smart cards to it. According to him, such measures can only serve short-term.
“The way forward would be for them to scour the globe and provide Nigerians good content. They should strike more deals with other global broadcasters and content developers. It does not matter if the price is a little higher, Nigerians would pay,” Enenche said.
Presently StarTimes has a continent-wide reach with presence in over 30 African countries and 10,000 villages with 1,000 of such villages in Nigeria.
Despite this reach, the company has not been able to break Dstv’s dominance in big markets like Nigeria and South Africa despite subscribers gasping under high fees by Dstv and GOtv.
A spokesperson for StarTimes, Kunmi Balogun, The Nigerian Xpress spoke to is tacit on what is the way forward for the company. He offered to furnish the reporter with an email address so he can properly talk on issues raised. He is yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.