TSTV Making a dent in Africa’s pay TV market is an uphill battle against the continent’s biggest company

Yomi Kazeem 

October 06, 2017

Searching for signals. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Over the past decade, various pay TV newcomers have tried to take on DStv, the digital satellite service owned by Multichoice, an arm of South African media giant, Naspers. It is in a battle for a share of the 23 million subscribers that make up Africa’s fast-expanding pay TV market. So far, none has been able to win.

The latest to try is TSTV, a startup pay TV company that’s just launched in Nigeria. Perhaps in a sign of concerns around DStv’s dominance as a premium TV distribution platform, Nigeria’s government has already given TSTV its backing by promising a three-year tax holiday to help it get off the ground.

From a programming perspective TSTV’s hopes of traction are largely hinged on offering popular premium sports content, one of the key elements satellite and cable TV distributors have used to build loyal (and at times, resentful) subscribers around the world. But there’s just one problem with TSTV’s ambitions: it’s unclear if the company has any agreements to broadcast the most popular content of them all, the English Premier League (EPL).

TSTV lists beIN sports channels (which broadcasts the EPL in North Africa) as part of its programming package but that’s been shrouded in controversy with a purported letter from beIN refuting any agreement with TSTV making the rounds on social media in Nigeria. beIN did not respond to Quartz’s emails seeking to clarify the authenticity of the letter but TSTV has denied infringing on beIN’s rights.

TSTV did not respond to Quartz’s email enquiries.

But despite the latest competition in Africa’s largest market, DStv is likely to retain its hold there as it has elsewhere. Its dominance is down to a mix of its diverse content portfolio which range from exclusive rights to popular sports leagues to long-running investment in entertainment and movie content. Backed by Naspers, Africa’s most valuable company with a market cap over $100 billion, very few competitors can match DStv’s deep pockets. With more than 12 million subscribers DStv’s market share exceeds 50%, says Sa Eva Nebie, research analyst with Dataxis, a market research firm.

Its hold on broadcast rights of the EPL, arguably the most watched sports league in Africa, is an example of this. As the the value of EPL’s broadcast rights has risen sharply along with its global popularity in recent years, that cost presents a barrier to gaining market share for new entrants.

DStv has no such problem. Last year, it paid £296 million to secure rights to broadcast EPL in sub-Saharan Africa from 2016 to 2019, and, in April, it extended its agreement until 2022. Its hold on the rights have even come under government scrutiny: in Kenya, regulators have unsuccessfully tried to get the company to resell its rights to local channels to “level the playing field.