cisco_cisco 31/10/2014 16:16 Page 1
The African opportunity
Africa’s TV pay-TV market
remains dominated by two
players but new
challengers and new
markets presage an era of
change and progress.
common mistake is to see
Africa as one generic region.
It isn’t, there are many
distinct regions as well as differences
between individual countries,” says
Jason Lobel, SP Video Leader, Africa for
Cisco.
One common theme, though, is the
presence of MultiChoice. “Most people don’t
realise how established the traditional pay-TV
market is and how hard it's been for new
players to gain momentum.
Most new entrants have
struggled to remain in the
market”
“The recent history of payTV can be seen as the story of
the gorilla and the dragon –
that is the Chinese-backed
Star Times. China is well
known for its major
investments in Africa in all
sectors and in broadband and media it is no
different; ZTE, Huawei and Star Times are all
big players.
“A
Star Times has made real inroads with its
$10-$15 packages, gaining around three million
subscribers and, of course, MultiChoice has
responded with its lower cost DTT service
GoTV which is also doing quite well with about
a million subscribers.
But, of course, any price is too high for
many consumers in Africa, and this brings us
to the other major area of TV development
across sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past
several years, liberalisation has seen dozens of
Free To Air (FTA) commercial channels
flourish all across the continent, generating
local content and massive audiences.
Today, many of those channels are
wondering how to handle the analogue switch
off. FTA players want to be on as many
platforms as possible to
maximise their audience
reach, but however are
against only being available
on pay-TV platforms, which
are the leading the way in
rolling out DTT in Africa.
There is a real possibility
that the pay-TV STB will
become the de facto STB
after analogue switch off.
FTA players are concerned their viewership
will decline as their channels become
fragments on multichannel pay-TV. It would
be difficult for DTT to attain
national coverage. DTH is
“There are many distinct regions.”
20 Africa Briefing
needed as a gap filler in the rural areas, and
with that comes the need to encrypt.
A classic example is Cisco VideoGuard client
OpenView HD (OVHD), which scrambles,
despite being Free To View (FTV). Encryption
is an important part of the proposition for two
reasons: Audience measurement is notoriously
poor in Africa and so if viewers need to register
to receive the signal at least the broadcaster has
a handle on how many viewers there are and
where they are, and this audience can then be
sold to advertisers.
Second, many programme rights will have
been bought for only one country or region and
so geo-blocking is an important service
provided by the encryption technology. Also
advertisers don’t want a commercial made for
“Encryption is an
important part of the
proposition.”
one market to be seen in another. Subscribers
to OVHD register by text message which
automatically provides the subscriber’s
location.
Of course, with a free service, keeping the
cost of the STB down is paramount and we
have tailored our solution accordingly; it is
VideoGuard for
OpenView HD
Exactly a year ago, Cisco revealed that
its VideoGuard conditional access
solution had been selected by Platco
Digital to help provide the whole of the
African continent with access to
affordable multi-channel HD TV.
Initially deployed in South Africa,
Platco’s free-to-air multichannel
satellite television platform, enables
South Africans to access to over 15
new channels, offering HD television
with no subscription, a first in Africa.
Placto is a sister company of South
African independent broadcaster e.tv.
The company says OpenView HD
opens the world of multichannel free
to view television to every South
African. Viewers only pay a one-off fee
which includes a set-top box, dish and
installation and there are no monthly
subscriptions.
OpenView HD transmits from two
transponders on the SES-5 satellite at 5
degrees East.