During a recent trip to Ghana, Babajide Kolade-Otitoju caught up with Multichoice Africa CEO, Eben Greenling, and engaged him on a number of issues regarding PayTV and Multichoice’s short and long term goals
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Q: What has been greatest challenge facing Multichoce Africa lately?
A: Probably, the biggest challenge is for us to stay ahead all the new technologies that are coming into the business. We see a lot of developments like IPTVs, mobile TVs and others. There are always new technologies so we always want to stay ahead technologically. So, for us to develop these things we make sure we introduce our technologies in business. To us, progress is making sure we stay ahead.
Q: There is also the issue of capacity. Does your company have the capacity to take care of all these?
A: Definitely. We are always looking at the long-term and building sustainable business. When we launched the business it took us a long time to be profitable. But we’ve built a fairly stable business now which is generating good cash for us and now we are investing that cash back into new technologies and new content and making sure we provide Africa with the best entertainment that we can.
Q: You’ve also had to expand to some of the places where you were not known some years back. How would you say Africans are taking your brand?
A: If you look at the DSTV brand, including some of the brands on our platform like Supersport and MNET, they’re probably some of the biggest brands in Africa. It’s very much a trusted brand. People know if we promise something we deliver on the promise. So the DSTV brand and other brands on our platform are definitely very well supported throughout Africa.
Q: What will you say is responsible for that level of support; is it the level of local content?
A: I think it is the mix between local and international contents. If you look at what we provide, there’s something for everyone in the family on our bouquets. We provide sports, news, kids, documentaries. So there’s entertainment for everyone in the house. Also, what we promise in terms of entertainment, we deliver it consistently. And we’ve done a lot in terms of developing local content in Africa. If you look at Africa Magic and AfricaMagic Plus, those are channels that come out of Africa with content produced by Africans, especially Africa Magic with all the Nigerian movies which have been very popular and successful for us. That actually led to the launch of Africa Magic Plus, where we want to make sure we deliver something for everyone on the continent and also cover movies, series and documentaries from the rest of Africa. For sports, we are developing and putting a lot back into sports in Africa. We’ve started to cover the Nigerian Football League and putting a lot of money into it. For us, it is really a long term view we are taking on that and we want Nigerians to support the local league and not to worry about what is happening in Europe or other places. The most important soccer for people should be their own soccer. We also want to see that an African nation wins the World Cup and it should not always be Italy, France or Spain. So we’ve started with the Nigerian Football League. We’ve now invested in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Angola football and obviously in the South Africa PSL as well. So a lot of effort is now going back into football on the African continent. In Nigeria we are also getting involved in the basketball league. The sport is also becoming very popular in Nigeria, so we are putting in a lot of money through Supersport.
Q: Talking about Africa, my mind stretches to the FIFA World Cup which South Africa will be hosting very soon. What’s your company’s plan to ensure elaborate and very effective coverage of the tournament?
A: For us, the important thing is that everyone in Africa is proud of the World Cup and everyone can see the World Cup. So we are working with Free-to-Air broadcasters in Africa to make sure all the signals get to the countries, that once they are authorised they can put it out to Africa. So, we are ready to ensure that the people in Africa see the World Cup that is happening in South Africa because it is really important to us that it is a successful event. If it is successful it will come back to Africa again.
Q: In Nigeria, your company has lost the rights to the English Premiership. How do you intend to bounce back from the loss?
A: The English Premiership is one of the programmes on our bouquet. We still have some of the Premier League on our bouquet, obviously not the bulk of it. But, again, there’s more to pay TV than just the Premier League. The whole family doesn’t watch the Premier League and you’ve got to provide entertainment for everyone in the house. We might have lost the Premier League but our coverage of international soccer is still unsurpassed. We covered more than 100 World Cup qualifying matches on Supersport. We have the Italian league, obviously the Nigerian league and we are doing a lot of productions on the Super Eagles matches and Nigerian subscribers will be able to see a lot of these on Supersport. Then, we’ve got the FA Cup and Champions League next season. So there’s still a wide variety of football for Nigerians, and also any other sport. We are very keen about our coverage for the Olympics and hopefully, people will be able to follow up on Nigerian athletes and others taking part in the Olympics. So, for us, Premier League is important but if you look at the investment that is going into international soccer now, we said we’d rather take the money and put it into Africa than taking ridiculous sums of money and paying it for site-holders in Europe.
Q: The Nigerian music scene is on a kind of ascendancy. The artistes are doing very well and there is less emphasis now on foreign music, which makes a lot of people happy. Do you plan in the future to exploit this growing interest in music produced by Nigerians?
A: I think we’ve already done a lot on that part, like with the Big Brother Nigeria where we featured some of the Nigerian artistes. That really made not only Nigerians but the rest of Africa to begin to follow Nigerian music. We are really trying to see if we can get someone to produce a Nigerian music channel for us in Nigeria to put on our platform. Again, once it goes on DSTV, we will take the Nigerian music not only to Nigerians but the rest of Africa as well. Like what is happening with Nollywood movies which are now very popular in the whole of Africa, we also want to use that platform in taking Nigerian artistes to the rest of Africa.
Q: Looking at the countries under your watch, where would you want to see rapid improvements in terms of the level of subscribers?
A: I think our business is really in its infancy. If you look at our penetration in Africa, it’s very low. It’s probably sitting at around one or one and half per cent in Africa. So, across, there is a massive opportunity on the African continent. For us, Nigeria is one big market focus areas in Africa, so also Angola, Kenya and Zambia. But across the board, every country presents opportunities for us to grow the market in Africa. At this stage, we are putting a lot of effort and money into our business in Nigeria, not only to develop our business but also to develop other businesses by investing in producing raw materials. We are training people to do the productions. We are proud that the last Nigerian FA Cup final was produced by an entirely Nigerian team and they did an excellent production. So we are proud of what we’ve achieved in Nigeria. Those guys can now go on to do high quality soccer productions anywhere in the world.
Q: There’s a lot of tourism potential in Africa. Given the favourable weather that we have, it ought to be a prime area for tourists all over the world. How can Multichoice be involved in showcasing the tourism potentials of Africa?
A: I agree that in terms of what is on offer in Africa, it can go a long way. There’s a lot of beautiful places in Africa and the weather is great. I think it is not only about bringing international tourists but also people in Africa. Like people in Nigeria going to Kenya or Kenyans going to Nigeria or South Africa. If we could start getting and putting them on our channels we can start to showcase Africa. We are also looking at the new resort opening in Nigeria and see how we could facilitate situations where people could see what is on offer in Nigeria and go back to their country and tell the story. So there is a lot we can do about that.
Q: Looking at the bigger picture, what would you want to be remembered for as someone who passed through Multichoice Africa and had the opportunity to set many things right?
A: My vision really for Africa is to have digital television in every home on the continent and it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. I think we’ve done well enough in the last two years. Three years ago, we said we wanted to double our subscriber base by 2010. We managed to do that by 2008. And we are developing and introducing a lot of new packages that make digital television affordable for almost everyone in Africa. We’re recently looking at bringing out a package that is going to be $3 a year. A lot of people can afford that. So, it’s really a long-term vision to make sure everyone in Africa has access to digital television. It doesn’t matter what platform: satellite, IPTV or cable. We are willing to make it available to everyone in Africa.
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