Star Times tops 900,000 in Nigeria
September 26, 2012
By Chris Forrester
While most Africa pay-TV attention is usually focussed on MultiChoice and its DStv satellite operations, Chinese-backed NTA StarTimes is building a solid pay-TV business in Nigeria using digital terrestrial TV. StarTimes is a joint-venture between Nigerian TV Authority and China’s StarTimes media group.
Back in July, StarTimes Nigeria claimed 750,000 subscribers from 8 cities in the country. That number has grown to 900,000 mainly sourced from an additional two cities. Now StarTimes says it will extend its broadcasting coverage to an additional 26 cities by the end of this year.
NTA-StarTimes TV CEO Joshua Wang says the company plans to increase the number of channels to 80 by the end of this month.
StarTimes has similar activity underway in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Guinea, Tanzania and Central Africa.