bring the popcorn, i wanna sit back and watch this war.
.
Rival operators have again accused
MultiChoice Africa-owned DStv of
locking up premium content such
as the English Premier League and
the Tusker Premier League from
them and using the exclusive
rights to monopolise the market.
In a battle that has now spilled
over to the industry regulator,
DStv competitors say the
companys rebuff to calls for it to
begin sharing its exclusive content
with other players has helped it
restrict the market to itself,
denying Kenyans access to
affordable entertainment.
ANTI-COMPETITIVE BEHAVIOUR
In an interview with the Sunday
Nation last week, Wananchi Group
Limited, the company that runs
Zuku TV, said it has written to the
Communication Commission of
Kenya and the national
competition watchdog over the
anti-competitive behaviour of
DStv.
We have written to the
regulators, both the CCK and the
Competition Authority of Kenya,
informing them that we will be
lodging a formal complaint about
anti-competitive practice by DStv.
Our experts, both legal and
economic, have been appointed
and are compiling a detailed
dossier which will be lodged
within the next three months,
Wananchi Group Limited managing
director Richard Bells said in an
email exchange.
Chinese pay TV firm StarTimes has
also been on the front line calling
for the government to force DStv
to share the exclusive content with
other players to improve universal
access to entertainment and
information.
MARKET DIFFERENTIATION
However, MultiChoice maintains
exclusivity is the driver of pay TV
market because it distinguishes
subscribers of one provider from
others.
During a visit to Kenya a few
months ago, MultiChoice Africa
executive chairman Nolo Letele
said the argument that DStv
should share its content with other
providers does not hold water.
Exclusivity is the principle on
which pay TV works. The only
reason a customer will want to
stay with a particular provider is
because they get what they cant
get from a different provider.
Sharing rights would affect our
revenues, Mr Letele said.
Though CCK director general
Francis Wangusi said there is no
regulation requiring content
sharing among the pay TV
operators, it is common global
practice, especially in the western
world that pay TV providers dont
share their content.
Pay-TV companies can only attract
subscribers who have the option of
free-to-air television by
significantly differentiating their
services from those of rivals.
The main method of doing this is
to acquire exclusive rights to a
defined category of material.
