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Pay TV: Nigerians agitate for pay per view [Sun, The (Nigeria)](Sun, The (Nigeria) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Just like the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry over a decade ago, another sector that is also enjoying a boom is entertainment, where pay television is fast becoming the vogue. With the influx of other pay television companies like Continental Satellite (ConSat), Star times, DaarSat, MySpace, into the country, long after South Africa's dominant operator, MultiChoice, owners of DSTV and Gotv, landed in Nigeria, competition also thickened as well as brought a form of relief to subscribers. However, the expected joy was short-lived as they pay far more in terms of subscription to these cable companies without a corresponding usage in most cases. Most of the cable companies have little or no distinction in terms of pay model and considering the peculiar situation of the country where factors like power, natural environment and disasters are major challenges. Speaking at an industry stakeholders forum recently, the Managing Consultant, Telecom Answers Associates, Titi Omo-Ettu, noted that much as pay television has redefined the system in terms of its richer content and viewership, much dynamics is expected especially as technology evolves on a daily bases. "Why can't we have a Pay As You Go (PAYG) model for pay TV, just as we have prepaid in the GSM sector where subscribers are given the option of prepaid and post-paid services. I sincerely wish these operators are also looking towards that direction. It is painful that once you pay N9,000 for just a month, you may not watch it more than four times. Why? you ask. Power supply in the country has not improved as promised, most times you rely on generating sets for more serious jobs and at other times, you have to contend with bad weather that affects the satellite. "That is why I think the PAYG model should be adopted by these companies. Remember, during the GSM per minute billing era, the existing companies said that per second billing will never be possible until Globacom changed all that. I think this should be food for thought for them because we cannot continue to pay for so much that is not used eventually," he said. In South Africa last year, a cable company, Sabido Investments, owners of E.tv, launched its open view high definition (HD) where consumers will only have a one-off cost of buying a satellite dish and decoder including installation. It is tagged, "pay once, enjoy forever," thereafter there are no monthly charges. Although pay TV services have predominantly employed a subscription model largely because they were factored as luxury for the high and mighty in society. However, a school of thought has posited that PAYG is a mass- market strategy that will have a significant monetisation potential. According to this model, competition between free-to-air and pay TV services, which has intensified considerably during the past few years, is driving the need for a mass-market strategy. "Over-the-top (OTT) services and innovative 'TV everywhere' offerings are hot topics in the pay TV sector, though the monetisation potential for such services continues to be unclear. By contrast, prepaid PAYG services could have more significant monetisation potential. The prepaid PAYG model is already very prevalent in the mobile world and is often cited as a key driver of the tremendous growth in mobile subscriber bases, particularly in emerging countries. In the pay TV sector, pay-per-view (PPV) premium content has been around for years – almost as long as pay TV itself in the USA. However, beyond premium content, pay TV operators have not launched significant PAYG services." They further disclosed that as new entrants enter the market and technology infrastructure improves, there is a growing recognition that price skimming or 'creaming' the market is not a sustainable strategy. Instead, a mass-market strategy is likely to be more effective in the long term, particularly as a means of building upon the economies of scale for content. Competition between free-to-air (FTA) and pay TV services, which has intensified considerably during the past few years, is also driving the need for a mass-market strategy Commenting on this through e-mail to Daily Sun, the then Director General of the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Mr. Emeka Mba, explained that for starters, there is no European model for pay TV and that different countries have varying degrees of competition within their borders. "OTT services are beginning to impact the market for pay TV services and broadcasting in general across the globe, especially in more advanced regions like Europe. Comparing Nigeria to Europe is not very helpful. However, I would say that despite the challenges, Nigeria has one of the most active and competitive markets for television services in Africa. What we hope to achieve over the next three to five years is more competition that would help grow the market for more participation by local pay television content services." Mba also stated that there are basically two underlying issues regarding pay as you go model for pay television services, the first being that the economic dynamics of pay television is not exactly the same as telecommunications services. This makes a simplistic pay as you go model impossible to implement, without huge costs both to the operators and consumer sides. The post Pay TV: Nigerians agitate for pay per view appeared first on The Sun News. (c) 2014 The Sun Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |