Accessible and affordable

In Africa, StarTimes has adopted Digital Television (DTV) technology to establish a multi-frequency and multi-channel digital wireless TV transmission platform. It operates pay TV and mobile TV services, sells terminal products and provides signal transmission services for public and commercial TV stations.

Africa's geographical conditions had made it difficult for StarTimes to build a cable television network. Pang and his team therefore chose wireless technology that enjoys advantages over cable, in that it is cost effective, and covers a wider range of areas without the limitation of geographical conditions.

Besides, relatively weak purchasing power and different digital television standards, developed or adopted in different regions, are hampering Africa's migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television. This poses a challenge for StarTimes to promote digital TV in Africa, but Pang believes that this challenge means not only hardship, but also opportunity.

Data has proven its progress in the development of digital TV. StarTimes is doing well in Nigeria, as it signed up about 200,000 new subscribers within just nine months since trial operations in the country began in April 2010.

Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, Engineer Yomi Bolarinwa, said that the partnership between the Nigerian Television Authority and StarTimes has ushered digital technology into the Nigerian broadcasting system. It is now a key to the country's socio-economic development.

Its high audio-visual quality and excellent service has also been warmly welcomed in other African countries. "StarTimes set-top box is cheap [unlike its counterparts in the market]," said Mary, a digital TV user from Rwanda at the StarTimes' DTV Experience Center who declined to give her surname. "It is durable and gives clear signals. It has dozens of interesting channels, and it is relatively easy to install."

"A new technology has its value only when it becomes popularized," said Pang.

"Our [digital pay TV] price certainly should not be too high if we want every African household to afford digital TV. There is now an increasing demand [in this regard] from the African consumers that we should consider, and we should keep trying to meet them," he added.

According to StarTimes, its channels are carefully selected for the different needs of users, such as new documentaries, live sports, entertainment, kids and education. Beefing up its own digital sports programming, StarTimes won the 2012-15 free-to-air media rights for the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League in Sub-Saharan Africa.