Effective 1st November 2018, Econet Media – the parent company to Kwesé TV – is changing its business strategy with a focus on a digital future.
The review will see the pay TV broadcast network shift from mainly delivering content via decoders to three core services; Kwesé Free Sports (KFS), Kwesé iflix and Kwesé Play.
Coming in as the best competitor against MultiChoice’s DStv, Kwesé was launched just when the global pay television industry was in transition. This was when traditional content rights linked to linear broadcast channels were evolving into premium content rights moving towards digital media platforms.
Having acquired a controlling stake in mobile video-on-demand service – Kwesé iflix, and launching its own OTT service Kwesé Play, the company is now shifting guns to focus on providing streaming services, while slowly doing away with the decoder service.
What does this imply?
- A change in Kwesé’s direct-to-home satellite television service.
There is going to be a reduction in the number of third party channels available on the Kwese TV Bouquet, and the removal of Kwesé branded sports (excluding KFS) and general entertainment channels from the decoder service.
A revised bouquet carrying Free-To-Air, religious, and free news channels will be available to viewers for a minimal administrative fee (yet to be named) instead of monthly subscription fees. In Uganda, the Free-To-Air channels on Kwesé are Bukedde TV, UBC TV, NTV Uganda, and NBS TV.
Kwesé says that subscribers who have already paid their subscriptions for November 2018, or in advance, will receive refunds. The dealers, that could have stocked decoders in their outlets, will be in position to sell them off as FTA set-top boxes, or opt for a refund from Kwesé.
- Establishment of Kwesé Studios
Econet Media plans to startup its own content creation hub as it builds on delivering original local content on the revised platform. Through Kwesé Studios, the company will invest in coming up with its own program line up; as it offers a platform for producers, script writers, actors and directors across the continet.
Joe Hundah, Group President and Chief Executive of Econet Media, says that the development of the Kwesé Studios content hub will give Econet Media “a legitimate claim to being the home of African content”.
“We will now create a place where Africans can tell their own stories and shape their own narrative,” he says. Adding that “Refocusing our business offering across markets, is a strategic move which aligns our business to OTT and video-on-demand trends which present significant growth opportunities for Kwesé.”
The company is destined to revise its operational structures in all the 11 countries where Kwesé TV has presence, and this may result in changes to the company’s various business units.
