BY PATRICK GITHINJI
Public broadcaster KBC, in partnership with Swedish firm - NGB (Next Generation Broadcasting) has launched a new digital Pay-TV service.
Broadcasting under the KBC’s subsidiary - Signet, the new channel, dubbed Smart TV, will televise under the DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) platform. It promises to wage a concerted battle for viewer loyalties in the mass market-middle class segment with what the firm says is an affordable value-added TV offering.
Smart TV subscribers will be able to get a bouquet of between 17-20 high quality local and international channels, including African and Western movies, sports, news, children’s programming, and the latest updates in show business for Sh990 a month.
"In our Sports Channel, our subscribers will be able to view live weekend matches of the popular English Premier League, as well as catch McDonald Mariga on Italian Serie A," said Dan Kagwe, Chief Executive Officer — NGB Africa.
All the current free-to-air channels including KBC, Citizen, KTN, NTV and K24, among others, will also be available on the DTT platform with the added advantage of being in digital quality.
Smart TV’s maintains subscribers will only pay Sh5,000 for the decoder, which they can plug and play wherever they are in the country. There are no installation costs, and there are several billing options including topping up their subscription using top-up vouchers.
NGB has been developing its product for the last one year and hopes to attract about 100,000 subscribers by mid next year.
