Barely 18 months after promising heaven in the pay TV industry, Kwese TV announced that it is calling off its satelite television service.
Effective 1st November 2018, the company is changing its business strategy with a focus on a digital future. The pay TV broadcast network is shifting from delivering content via decoders to using Kwesé Free Sports (KFS), Kwesé iflix and Kwesé Play.
Where as it is clear that they are opting for the much more appealing streaming services, that is just the face to it. We take a look at the possible cause of the call off.
A stiff competition…?
In every other country you may look up to, ‘pay TV wars’ are a real deal that involve price disruption. This is dedicated to attract the customer, while keeping in mind that they want quality attached to the service.
Kwesé opted to offer a Premium service at a ‘ridiculously cheap’ stake just below $30. One would say such an offer is worth having, and taking, but the timing seemed just a little late.
The Ugandan market, for instance, saw the emergence of Chinese satellite TV company – StarTimes – targeting the low-end market with content for as low as $12. Like in many of the markets in which it broke-through, this forced DStv to launch Gotv to match up to the demands that StarTimes had not fulfilled.
Netflix effect
The internet is becoming cheaper by the day and besides YouTube and Twitter, many people would love to get their content from Netflix. Reason? Video-on-demand is becoming the millinneal’s daily bread, and this is just on the rise.
It is not clear just how many people use the service, but since its South African launch in January 2016, Netflix has seen a rise in the number of users and has caused a fall in pay TV subscriptions.
At least, MultiChoice has already seen the competition that Netflix is posing on her, citing the latter as the cause for the loss of 100,000 subscribers in the past year.
You can’t wonder anymore why DStv is marketing its DStv Now service much deeper, and why Kwesé acquired the largest stake in iflix.
Mobile trends
For every five to six steps you take on city streets, you wil find someone holding a smartphone. They could be using social media apps, calling out on a taxi, or even watching TV; as convenient as it comes.
The trends define it that content delivery puts mobile first, as the rest come in line. This is obviously the better way to go, given that it is easier to serve onself all through with just a tap away.
The experience that the World Cup brought about, with telecoms partnering with pay TV providers in Uganda to offer mobile TV bundles, you can ascertain that Kwesé’s decision is highly based on these trends.
Failed rights acquisitions
One of the key highlights of pay TVs is broadcasting live content. Africans are much into sports, and am sure a huge number was happy with the purple brand showing the 2018 World Cup.
However, the English Premier League is a bigger darling in Africa and the failure to broadcast more than a single game a week kept many away from Kwesé for better offers.
If you add this to the halt on the Spanish Copa Del Rey, failed take off of the French Ligue 1, and reported failure to pay for NBA and Euro 2020 rights; the direction Kwesé was taking seemed more predictable.
Re-definition
Kwesé has been all about choice; where viewers are able to choose what they want to watch, where they wish to watch it from, the viewing period that works best for them, and the price they find appropriate to them.
In the normal setting, this does not directly work with satelite television. The brand needed to stay focused to its goal of choice, but in the most suitable pattern. And Kwesé iflix and Kwesé Play suit in well.
Conclusion
There is quite a lot that could have led the company to shift goal posts, let alone sign new strikers. But one thing that is for sure is that the customer is King, and is the ultimate winner here.
At this time of the century, clients are nolonger interested in buying satellite dishes and decoders in bulk, when they can simply stream content on their laptops and smartphones.
