THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 2 2014
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27
English Premier League or La Liga.
It’s also channels. CNN International
– exclusive. Cartoon Network –
exclusive. All the better-known
brands that people typically watch
in the UK or the US are exclusive.
This means that, as a new business,
you have to invest a great deal into
new channels and new content and
mass marketing, and your spend is
going to be higher because the
brands are not well known. So it
takes time.
There’s an issue there, and we
will address that issue through
regulatory and legal means. If you
look at the news, you’ll see that in
Kenya, the regulatory elements
there are beginning to make a shift
and are creating a situation where
there’s a bit more fairness, and now
MultiChoice is obliged to resell
content to those who are interested.
I talked to colleagues at other
African broadcasters, and I still
have very strong contacts at
MultiChoice. I think we all
understand it is the end of that
monopolistic style of doing
business from content providers.
They need to really wake up to that.
Business has previously been done
in places like Cannes or in South
Africa, but they are going to have to
start doing business on the ground.
Africa is many countries and
dealing with it as one entity is
going to be a problem for these
content providers, because when
the regulatory and legal wrangling
starts it’s going to really impact
their bottom line.
Also we are part of a broader TV
entity, called TV Continental,
which is a news station. So we have
studios, which puts us in a unique
position to start putting together
some interesting content and some
interesting shows.
Will you move beyond linear?
I’m originally a mobile media and
entertainment specialist, so I’m a
big believer, and I understand the
value chain and know mobile is key
to this industry. One of the reasons
I was hired to work at MultiChoice
was to launch a product called DStv
Mobile in Nigeria and in Ghana.
The system worked very well.
In Nigeria, the generation of
power – and the lack of it – is an
issue that affects people in their
daily lives. A certain amount of
power is generated via generators –
that’s very expensive. A great
many people wake up in darkness
and go to sleep in darkness. It
makes sense that you can charge
your mobile device and watch it
and be entertained. We have to be
careful we don’t make any errors,
but fundamentally, we must launch
that service. Interactivity is key. We
must be able to create something
like that for this market, so we are
looking at that.
So what is the biggest challenge?
Infrastructure is one. Getting
content from Place A to Place B is
not easy. Funding is another. And
power too is another area.
In Europe, you have a very
sophisticated infrastructure that
allows you to pass content
comfortably at reasonable cost and
price from one location to another.
Here in Nigeria it’s difficult.
Satellite is the best option.
Otherwise you start investing in
DTT platforms, which cost you up
to $2m a pop, and you have to
power them 24/7 with a generator.
The local industry is young, and
because of that, those who have
good experience and expertise tend
to be the ones that have been
trained outside of Nigeria.
Funding is a challenge too,
because here media and
entertainment is not necessarily
seen as an area where most people
want to put their money,
particularly because of the long
gestation period. Typically most
people want to put their money in
assets they can see and touch. The
industry, from music to pay-TV, is
ready to take off, but you are still
not seeing the institutional
investment.
Thank you, Mayo Okunola.
Amajor
challenge is
thatmuch
content is
exclusive
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