PayTV services provider StarSat is eyeing 1-million subscribers in three years as it repositions itself in the highly competitive market dominated by MultiChoice

PayTV services provider StarSat is eyeing 1-million subscribers in three years as it repositions itself in the highly competitive market dominated by MultiChoice.

The Chinese-managed StarSat recently went on a marketing campaign to entice consumers to sign up with the company. The firm is mainly targeting rural and small-town households. StarSAT was formerly known as TopTV.

StarSat CEO John Yan believes that StarSat has attractive channel bouquets that provides value for money.

However, the platform has limited local content, compared with MultiChoice and StarSat plans to beef it up in the future.

“For some people, TV is the only form of entertainment, hence we have been aggressive in promoting our platform [in the low- to mid-level income market],” he said.

Since its launch about two years ago, StarSat has sold about 100,000 high-definition decoders, while the former TopTV platform has an estimated 300,000 standard-definition decoders in the market.

The company not only competes with MultiChoice’s DStv but with video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix and ShowMax, MultiChoice’s sister firm.

According to a recent report by research company Frost & Sullivan, the video-on-demand, and pay-TV markets are growing rapidly as significant internet penetration and smartphone adoption in Africa alter the manner in which consumers view content. But it is critical for service providers to gauge viewership trends, price sensitivity and technical requirements, says Frost & Sullivan.