Star Africa Media, branded as StarTimes, a Chinese pay television service provider, has its antennae firmly set on transmitting across the entire African continent.

The service provider started its operations in Rwanda in 2009, but has now expanded its offices to more than 10 African countries. And many more are pending, awaiting licenses. 

"We hope Africa will keep its policies stable and provide a conducive environment for investment to allow us to reach as many people as possible," said Star Africa Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ken Xie.

"We are committed to help Rwanda achieve the International Telecommunication Union target to shift from analogue to digital broadcasting by 2012," Xie told ChinAfrica.

The Rwandan Government set 2011 as its cut off date in switching to digital broadcasting and has stopped issuing licenses to investors with analogue equipment.

"Our target is to equip the industry with advanced and professional DTV technology, and become the most influential operator in Africa," Xie said.

StarTimes has opened offices in Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea and Mozambique.

"In most of the East African countries we are leading the market, but the major goal is to reach out to many less privileged people on the continent," said Xie.

Star Africa's arrival on the scene not only boosted the pay TV industry, but has also tightened the competition in Rwanda by bringing the number of pay TV companies to three. The current outlets are DSTV, and Star Africa Media after GTV quitted the market.

Regional success

Many Rwandans have opted for StarTimes because its contract is affordable at $134 compared to DSTV's $304. Xie said this competitive cost coupled with the new technology it brings has helped the company penetrate the market.

StarTimes employs 2,000 people in Africa with 1,037 employees being locals and has helped in technology transfer through different training courses across their operations.

In Rwanda, StarTimes has opened eight outlets as dealer for their products like TV products, decoders and digital television across the country. Currently StarTimes clients have the option for buying the services through electronic payment.

Xie said his company has set aside $29 million for the whole process to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting for Rwanda in particular.

The StarTimes decoder operates based on the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial) standard, which requires no dish. All that is needed is an antenna, to pick up the transmission frequency, which comes along with decoder.

Xie said StarTimes has connected over 200,000 customers in the East African region, with 30,000 subscribers in Uganda, 8,000 customers in Burundi and 100 customers in Tanzania where they started.

Popular choice

Flora Kaitesi, one of the Rwandans who enjoys the services of StarTimes, says the pay TV came at the right time when people had no choice but to watch the national TV.

"StarTimes has been effective in providing us with the luxury of accessing different channels at an affordable rate," she told ChinAfrica.

Kaitesi, however, believes that more should be done in improving the signal strength and strike a balance on the number of English and French channels. She said that despite the signals not being interrupted by rainy season at times the skies are clear, but signals are weak and channels are not clear.

"Based on its technology, the StarTimes decoder is user friendly. I did not require a technician to install its unique plug and play device mechanism," she said.

Juma Rukumbi from Bujumbura, Burundi, said in the past very few people could enjoy channels of their choice because it was very expensive.

"We are very excited that with $6 someone is able to access 12 channels at StarTimes, unlike with DSTV that requires above $100," Rukumbi said.

StarTimes has been competitive in the areas of entertainment, wildlife, fashion and news channels like BBC, Al Jazeera and France24.

Tanzanian Mgwambati Faraja said despite 13 free channels in Tanzania many people still subscribed to StarTimes, which is widely represented in the country in over six of its 27 regions.

Tanzania also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tanzanian National TV Station to construct and operate Tanzania's National Digital TV Project, the second national Digital TV project following the Rwanda project.

At present, StarTimes has established a cooperative relationship with 60 program suppliers among which 50 channels are internationally known.

Over the next five years StarTimes plans to diversify its services to include wireless Internet and mobile TV.

(Reporting from Rwanda)