By Pascal Oparada
The dish and the decoder are about to go into extinction if the current onslaughts by internet geeks are sustained.
Statistics show there is a serious reduction in consumers renewing their subscription of various Pay Television, and timely too.
In the last two years, Dstv has lost over 350,000 premium subscribers in South Africa alone to streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu. That is a huge loss considering the pay television’s influence in Africa.
The stranglehold Dstv has on the industry in the continent is gradually chipping away as subscribers find cheaper ways of viewing what exactly it is offering them via the internet.
Dstv fights a two-pronged war in Nigeria. On the one hand, it is fighting the likes of StarTimes, a satellite television, which disrupted its dominance in Nigeria, and which it sought to acquire, with Gotv another satellite television.
On another hand, it is waging an onslaught against the likes of Kwese, new entrant into the market, which has won Nigerians’ hearts by offering free sports station on terrestrial television.
Gradually, Dstv through Gotv, diminished StarTimes dominance and took over the market and surreptitiously stopped the emergence of Tstv, which promised another disruption with Pay Per View system.
Experts have blamed StarTimes’ poor marketing strategies for the loss to Gotv.
The reason is not far fetched. Disruption is happening at a dizzying speed and taking the dish and decoder off air.
The chairman of Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) and owner of Channels Television, John Momoh, in a recent event organised by BON, said that despite the disruptions, people would still be hooked to their various favourite television programmes.
But, according to him, the only thing that would remain constant is content.
“The best way to invent the future is to invent, adapt and innovate”, Momoh said.
It seems that the invention and adaptation is what many of the satellite stations are struggling to achieve.
“In the face of intense competition for audience attention, you have to pay attention to our product.
“It is a question of survival. There is no shortcut here. It has to be unique, it has to be targeted and it has to be passionate, said StarTimes Chief Consultant, Michael Deanam.
According to Deanam, it is not about changing mindset, the paradigm and approach to your product in terms of viewing this threat, it is about innovation.
“It is important in Nigeria because the Nigerian audience is lapping up video on mobile in a way that far exceeds any country in the world”, he said.
And this is true because with just N2,000 you can subscribe to any channel on irokotv, Nigerian owned streaming site and watch on the go.
And with Netflix’s foray into the ravenous Nigerian market, the gulf seems to have widened for Pay TV stations to catch up.
Recently, YouTube, owned by Google, launched YouTube TV to take on Netflix and Amazon, the dominant streaming sites. Soon, YouTube TV would be heading to Africa and Nigeria in particular.
And this would be buoyed by Nigerians’ love for the internet.
According to Nigerian Communications Commission, internet users have hit an all time high of 91 million in the country. This further jeopardizes Satellite television’s survival in Nigeria.
The battle ground may soon shift from pay television to telecommunication companies and no longer between the dish and decoder.
Pay television stations need to adapt, partner, innovate or be swept away by the impending tsunami.
