PAY TV ERA demands quality

If you don’t have quality sports on offer, GISHINGA NJOROGE writes, it will be an uphill struggle staying in this pay television business during the digital migration era...

The Fifa World Cup is coming, and other relatively minor events such as the Commonwealth Games and the Youth Olympics that will be of television viewing interest.

But pity the poor sports folks. They do not know what is in store for them; whether, for example, they will be able to watch some of the events that are only five months away as in the case of the “Mundial” in Brazil which kicks off in Sao Paolo on June 12.

Usually in the past they would have a long wait without information only for the bomb shell to be dropped on the eve of the Fifa World Cup or the Olympic Games that KBC (the Government-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) would not afford, say, the  Sh40 million to pay for transmission access from a rights holder.

The events of the past few weeks regarding the migration to digital broadcasting point at the possible end to the “free-to-air” TV era. The wananchi has even less hope that  KBC will this time  “bring” to him/her for free the action from Brazil.

Things have moved rapidly. Despite murmurs over the expense many are subscribing to pay television. In fact, there is a whole lot of excitement. For a Sh500 monthly fee, former KBC viewers can now have a selection of 70 channels under a service now called KBC/Signet.

Marketers have been waxing lyrically about how cheap this access is. They point  at the unprecedented offer covering the subjects of entertainment, movies, lifestyle & culture, sport, documentaries, news & commerce, children, music and religion.

But whereas there are some happy customers one representing a significant segment said there is still a big void: “It (the offer) indicates there is sport but there isn’t. I don’t think so. I will have to go hunting for sports bars to watch football, including our local league.

“You’ve got all this other stuff -- soaps, comedy, history, religion, nature, business, travel -- but the sport is rubbish; old repeats, talk shows and fillers. You want to watch these only if you have seen the real ‘live’ stuff earlier.

“But that’s what they are calling sport in this low offer packages. You certainly will not have the EPL (English Premier League), the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) leave alone the World Cup or the Olympics.”

He is right. Virtually everything else is available on the cheap rates, except sport and especially the premier events normally broadcast “live.”  For those, to upgrade from the “free-to-air” culture you would have to spend, for example, between Sh5,600 to Sh6,255 on a decoder and monthly premiums of  Sh2,399 to Sh6,970.

Sport is so much in demand and it will be the difference between the players in a competitive field after the digital migration.

Multichoice/DStv have top class World and African football, Rugby, Cricket, Athletics, Formula 1, Golf, Tennis, and most major world competitions across the board. They hold the ace card in the contest against Zuku of Wananchi Group , the Chinese-owned Star Times and KBC/Signet.

But you cannot tell how long they will continue to have the advantage. It is not because they have such financial muscle that none of the competition can do anything about it.

Previously, when the Fifa World Cup and the Olympic Games came around here in Kenya, there was always skirmishes about someone unfairly holding on to a monopoly. Indeed over the last Fifa World Cup (2010, in South Africa), some people were hauled into court over broadcast rights contracts.

This type of war had precedents. In Britain in 1994 BSkyB TV gained a complete monopoly of the English Premier League broadcast rights. First there was outrage when a rival company, ITV, took BSkyB to court accusing them of  unfair trade practice.

It was ITV’s belief that their bid details [including the offer of 262 million pound sterling] were leaked to BSkyB before the decision on the EPL deal was taken and that someone at the League advised BSkyB to increase its counter bid.

BSkyB retained the rights paying £670m 1997 - 2001 deal, but was challenged by On Digital for the rights from 2001- 2004 and were forced to give them 66 live games a year.

Following a lengthy legal battle with the European Commission, which deemed the exclusivity of the rights to be against the interests of competition and the consumer, BSkyB’s monopoly came to an end from the 2007-08.

In May 2006, the Irish broadcaster Setanta was awarded two of the six Premiership packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters. Sky picked up the remaining four for £1.3bn.

Many saw it that, at last someone had challenged Sky’s monopoly and that their law unto themselves had become history. Earlier, BSkyB owner Rupert Murdoch had described sport as a “battering ram” for pay-television, providing a strong customer base.

Shortly after buying the EPL rights, Sky gained 400,000 new subscribers, with the majority signing up for premium channels which helped BSkyB reach 3.5 million households by mid-1994.

In Kenya not having sport, at the very least, puts a handicap on any player going into the television market in the upcoming digital era.

The competitive environment has suddenly changed. Those who virtually held a monopoly in this country and have been able to secure content across the board are in for a shake-up. At the very least they may have to share high value sports content very much the same way as BSkyB had to,  or in fair competitive bids,  lose a number of other sports, international or local, in the future.

One of the early criticisms from sports lovers about the KBC/Signet pay TV offers is of course lack of worthwhile sport. This is the pioneer digital signal distributor in Kenya and to have no sport fails to excite Wananchi.

What Wananchi may also be unaware is that MultiChoice Kenya is a joint venture between KBC and MultiChoice Africa Limited. MultiChoice Kenya is the premier subscriber management services provider in the Kenyan pay TV market and to many sports fans they identify it with the SuperSport cannels.

Over long time in their history, KBC has shown capability of  satisfactory “live” broadcasts and the comprehensive coverage of the 1987 4th All Africa Games come to mind. However, they have never been consistent in delivery. They have never covered a full season of  the local football league or followed a whole calendar of any other sport.

In their relationship with Multichoice for the last 15 years it appears obvious that KBC largely left matters of sport to their foreign partners. These guys are Pay TV merchants and the mwananchi was left with nothing on the “free-to-air” KBC channels [never mind the occasional one-off  “live” soccer game ]

In other countries, such as Britain and South Africa, the BBC and the South African Broadcasting Corporation [SABC] run on the money of the taxpayer, tried to put up a fight for the citizens. At least SABC have the rights for the numerous soccer internationals of their national team “Bafana Bafana”.

For a long time BBC managed to at least hold on to the “people’s sports”, notably cricket when pressure mounted from pay TV competitors.  One of their lowest moments was to sadly surrender Test cricket to Sky Sports but the “Beeb” exclusively and excellently covers cricket on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and BBC 4 Long wave.

Nevertheless BBC TV did not give up and they still have for its viewers the Olympic Games, all 2014 and 2018 Fifa World Cup matches “live”, all Euro 2016 [soccer] matches, 16 FA Cup live games including the Final, Six Nations Rugby,  Wimbledon tennis and the British Open gold -- not bad at all.

In contrast KBC virtually have nothing running; the occasional transmitting of the Olympic Games and World Athletics Championships notwithstanding. The worst condemnation is for their complete lack of interest to develop a department comprehensively covering sport “live” and improving the quality of their highlights, documentaries and talk shows.

Does the national broadcaster’s stunted growth in sport have anything to do with a deliberate intent to leave the turf  for their partners [read Multichoice]? Have KBC literally been throwing their sports viewers with meager resources at the mercy of their highly commercial pay TV partners?

The scramble for the pay TV in this country and the East and Central African region will pick up rather than be discouraged by the fact that so many citizens dependent on “free-to-air” service face a hard time ahead.

East Africa alone has the very much untapped population of 141 million people. Multichoice/DStv best market is in South Africa with only a population of 51 million and clearly the target of, for example 46m people in Tanzania, 41m in Kenya, 34m in Uganda and a staggering 91m in Ethiopia is enticing.

There is huge thirst for television coverage of sport in this region some of which like in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia is huge. There is no lack of awareness about this among local investors.

 The Tanzania Vodacom League goes on full “live” coverage when it resumes this weekend, a new Azam TV having signed with the Tanzania league clubs and the national football federation a three year-deal over broadcast rights.

The recently-launched Azam Media platform will support more than 55 African and international channels for a monthly subscription. It will include three domestic channels, will broadcast  “live” and recorded Tanzania Vodacom Premier League matches, and carry the top free-to-air channels in each of the countries it will cover covers.

From its target home market in Tanzania, the platform will be commercialised rapidly across East Africa before being extended across sub-Saharan Africa, said sources at Azam owners of  one of three biggest soccer clubs in Tanzania.

Azam TV began their soccer operation with “live” broadcasts of the recent Mapinduzi Cup soccer tournament in Zanzibar attended by Kenya teams Tusker and AFC Leopards and Uganda’s Uganda Revenue Authority at the eventual Cup winners Kampala City Council.