MultiChoice Will Win Back EPL, Others -Hundah

Joseph Hundah new managing director of MultiChoice Nigeria Hundah is described as having a solid understanding of Africa and the challenges faced by the media on the continent.

He has a deep knowledge of the Nigeria media landscape, culture and economy having worked in Nigeria in the last 18 months.

The new Multichoice boss has led a revolution in the quality and quantity of uniquely African programming screened by DStv.

Hundah spoke to chike onwuegbuchi and hilary okeke on a wide range of issues.

Multichoice and Rights to English Premiership

First, I would like to correct that misconception that we are a monopoly. Multichoice is not a monopoly because in my view, a monopoly is when you are the sole industry player in any particular industry. Here, there have been other players: Trend TV, My TV and so on. There are lots of other players in the industry. I think by the nature of our dominance in the industry, it gives the impression that we are a monopoly. I think there are more than 10 pay-TV licenses in Nigeria now and some of those licensees are still in operations today. Where I do agree with you is that we are dominant in the market and face competition – that is part of our challenges in this business. That been said, I still maintain that competition is good because through competition, we have become better in what we do, our marketing has improved, our product offering has improved. In the last year since this competition started, our business has doubled in terms of the number of subscribers. It means that we have to focus on other things we can do to make our outfit as you said a dominant player. Competition is a positive thing for the industry, for the consumers, for Nigeria in general. What we are trying to show Nigerians is that we are more than just the Premier League; there is the belief that if you lose the Premier League you are going to collapse but I think consumers are more intelligent than that and I think that they appreciate more content than just the Premier League. I think the Premier League was a big loss for us, something that we are not happy with in terms of losing it. But in terms of it being a fair process – that is perfectly fine. Before we lost the Premier League, there was so much talk about how Multichoice was monopolizing the Premier League, how we had control over it. That was the case and we lost it. Channels are available, you can go and bid for them if you want them and if you get it right, you can get those channels on your bouquet. Our job is to make sure that we have a good relationship with company suppliers; we communicate and market our products properly and tell the people that there are other things that we offer as well. There are news channels; there are educational channels, there are kids channels, there are entertainment channels in terms of movies, comedies, music – I think that is what ultimately makes Multichoice a very strong brand. We cover everything and we cater to various people’s content appreciation. Of course, we will try to win back the Champions league; we will try to win back everything that we have lost. We will put in our best bid and hope that that bid is what is going to get us all those rights back again. Let us see how it goes when the time comes.

Entry Barrier and Cost of Installation

We are thinking about that too. We are thinking about different ways of making it easier for consumers to get the product, first and once they have it, what they can afford. Over the past couple of years, we have introduced new bouquets. Before, we used to have one standard bouquet for N9, 000; now we have others of N4, 300; N2, 500. So, this tells you that we are constantly thinking about that. We have not determined what to do about the starter price but it is top on my mind. I have identified what I need to look into but we are a bit careful about how to go about it; we want to be sure we are going to do something that we can stick to forever. We do not make decisions that we are going to adhere to for just one month and change. It has to be permanent. We are looking into that but I cannot go committing anything beyond that. Like I said, reducing the entry barrier for people to be connected to DSTV is on top of my mind and we are trying to do something about it. We are working on the subscription price. Another project we are carrying out is to extend our reach to different parts of the country. There are some places where we do not have branches, where we do not have a connection with the local possible subscribers and those who are current subscribers. We are planning to extend our reach as far as Maiduguri, Sokoto and those places up-North and getting entrenched in those areas because we are not really entrenched in that part of the country. So, those are the things we are looking at – we are looking at reviewing prices; we are looking at our reach, making sure that our product is acceptable. Now the next step is to look at the starter price – how do we get the starter price down? We have not yet arrived at what we think is the right model to that effect.

Local Content in Programming

Through Mnet, we have done a very good job of trying to increase local content. It is very sensitive; it is about quality, whereby Africans will appreciate it across Africa. We are always working hard to see that people get what they want. Look at what we are doing in terms of the local football league; we have set aside a lot of money for that in terms of coverage and that is what we are looking at in terms of localizing on sports and programmes generally. We are setting up programmes on Mnet, which are built around the ideal of localizing content. We have had shows like Big Brother Nigeria, we have had Idols West Africa, we have had Edge of Paradise; these are programmes that have been made for Mnet, locally. We have now realized that local content is how we are going to appeal to most Nigerians. That is one of our major strengths, and we have a strategy to create more local content both on sports and on general entertainment.

Satellite and Fiber Optics in Service Delivery

Why not! I mean, Multichoice has always been at the forefront of technology. If you look at the kinds of decoders we have introduced into the market – there is the PVR, the Dual View decoder. We are driven by technology and that will never stop. We believe in constantly reinventing ourselves; making ourselves readily available to any new technology that comes along. When fiber optics comes along in Nigeria, the network is properly mapped out, and it reaches every part of the country, we might look into it as a possible medium for delivering our products, whichever form it comes in. It depends on the workability and cost effectiveness of the platform – I mean there is nothing bad about employing the fiber optic option as a way of moving forward.

3G Enabled DSTV Mobile and Other Operators

There is a misconception that it is Multichoice that is partnering with MTN. Let me correct this impression, first, it is a company called Details Nigeria Limited, which is a sister company of Multichoice, that is in partnership with MTN. What Multichoice does here is to help them in terms of platform; help them in terms of sourcing the content that goes on that platform. I know that they are looking into partnering with other service providers. However, I do not have the right information on how far the negotiations have gone, whom they are expecting too and how it is going to work. We have heard that they are holding discussions with service providers but I am not sure exactly who, otherwise, I would have given you that information.

Major Challenges in the Environment

I think the challenges we have are those that every other company has – the issue of power is a big issue. Some of our subscribers ask why they should subscribe when they do not know when they are going to have electric power. Some would like to pay for 6 months in advance but do not know what the power situation is going to be and considering the cost of things today, they cannot have their power generator on all the time. Another is our reach across Nigeria. The country is very vast and the challenge we have is in trying to make sure that we have enough reach across the country and that is something we have been working on. I think these are the biggest challenges we have that are not directly within our own control. Personally, I would like to think that Nigerians like the product; I think they appreciate it; they have supported us over the years and we are very appreciative of that. Also, Nigerians are very good at following technological trends. You know, when you introduce something new, they accept it, absorb it and make use of it; which I think is a very positive thing.

Nigerian Subscribers and Payment Circle

I think the South African situation is very different. First, the South African credit banking system is very good. You find out that majority of subscribers in South Africa pay by debit order, they do not even come to the Multichoice office. All they do is leave instructions for their bankers and payment is made. That is not something that has been fully adopted in Nigeria. But I think times are changing, Nigeria is changing; Nigerians are becoming more aware of the gains of electronic payment. When they fully adopt this mode of payment, you will see it will be much easier for consumers to pay before disconnection. However, as we are trying to expand our reach, we are trying to increase the number of places where consumers can pay so that people would not be put through the inconveniences of going to Multichoice office. Now, we have a situation where you can work into any bank in Nigeria and pay your subscription fees. We are leveraging on various technological advancements to make payment easier for subscribers. We try to tell consumers not to wait until their subscription expires to pay up. We send SMS to subscribers few days before their subscriptions expire. We send messages to their decoders to that effect. But some people still ignore those messages and eventually get disconnected which is rather sad.