John Ugbe, managing director and chief executive of Nigeria’s leading payTV provider, MultiChoice believes the country has the market to take in as many providers as possible. Having served previously as MD of MWEB (subsidiary of MultiChoice), Ugbe in this encounter with Nigeria CommunicationsWeek’s Miebi Senge, says MultiChoice is even prepared to invests more in the country to remain dominant. Excepts:

Transformation Agenda for MultiChoice
I came in at a point when the company is transforming and is moving forward. The company has a lot of human capital here in Nigeria and right now we are harnessing all our human and capital resources to move the company forward with a lot of local input. Good enough we have developed contents (locally) and will continue to develop local contents to drive our growth vision. Our vision is to surround our customers with entertainment and that is exactly what we are going to do; to entertain our subscribers even more.

Challenges
Every business in operation (not just in Nigeria) in what ever country encounters challenges uniquely related to that environment. MultiChoice has its businesses spread around quite a few countries across the continent and we can really say there are challenges in every business environment. Of course, there are definitely challenges in Nigeria but like every business our objective is to surmount these challenges and forge ahead. As a matter of fact, we work very closely with our regulator (Nigerian Broadcast Commission, NBC), our publics/stakeholders; and by building those relationships we can surmount any obstacles.
The infrastructure in Nigeria is still evolving and as they develop we also have to build our business taking into consideration those challenges that exist. It is very important that we offer world class service to our highly valued customers even if our operational environment isn’t as it ought to be.
The issue of public power supply comes up very often in our discussions, but such challenges are not just peculiar to us, every other enterprise are also faced with it, and so MultiChoice would take it as one of those challenges that we have to surmount in other to thrive in our operational environment. We do not consider power challenge as insurmountable and it is not by any means peculiar to our business. Other infrastructural challenges are also what every business in the country face.

Local content
We are very proud with the Nigerian Premier League on our SuperSport bouquet. We hope to build and grow on that. We have got a good relationship with other sports in the country as well. Right now, we have a deal with the basketball federation and have actually put the DStv Basketball League on the SuperSport channel. Not only do we sponsor by putting money into the league, we also put the matches on TV and this is a big push for the local basketball league. It has never happened before but it is being watched everywhere now across the continent.
Yes, we have also made quite some investments in this country as our way of providing quality service to our customers. Recently, we added another High Definition (HD) Outside Broadcasting (OB) van. We have built two HD studios to support the local league so you will see more matches live. More simultaneous telecast of matches – we can take matches from even more venues.
On the (local) movie and the sitcoms, we are expanding that and you will see a lot coming from there. Africa Magic channels will grow, so you will see a lot of growth in contents. We have been a partner with the Nollywood industry right from inception.

Local Sponsorship
We would see more from the broadcast perspective and I think one of our sister companies is active in that area so we would see certain sponsorship from local organizations on our platform and we have been able to expose those plans to an international audience. Definitely you will see improvement in that.

Programmes
We will continue to search for best contents out there and we will make sure the contents are available on our platform. We have got America’s Got Talents, Fear Factor and a lot of programmes that are being watched internationally to ensure that our audience does not lag behind.

Value Proposition
We have actually never been a monopoly in this business. What makes us unique is our way of doing business, a very long term business proposition. We are not here for the short haul so we are not a company that is trying to invest today and reap tomorrow. Like the local league we are putting up, we have spent a lot of money to put that content on air. We have been patient, we will continue to find out what our customers want and what we try to do is to provide what our subscribers want and give to them. We’ll continue to make value added investments in this market and perhaps, that is the secret of our continual growth and dominance.

Killing Competition
Our business model is not to kill off competition. In fact, competition is good for the industry. However, in every sphere of human endeavour only the fittest survives. As the media can attest to, there are several payTV operators in the country, but your growth and survival also depends on what you are offering your consumers. This is a payTV so it also means business in the real sense. If you must measure up to international standards, then you have to measure your business with international best practices. The world has contrasted into one global-village, so what takes place say in Europe doesn’t have to take ages (as in the past) to get to Africa. Events are seen real time across the globe as they happen, so if what you’re offering does not measure up to the taste bud of the customers, they would simply switch-off and tune to someone else who is more serious in the business.
Yes, we want to see others grow, but it is up to them to grow their business according to their module. We are working to constantly to keep pace with global standards, because that is what our customers want. The Nigerian customer is highly informed and would not take less value for higher cost.

High cost of MultiChoice
Our costing is relative. Lately, we have developed high-value segmented bouquets to meet family budgets. If you cannot afford the premium bouquet, there is a special one that meets your budget and it comes with same MultiChoice high quality treatment. We are constantly working to meet our customers’ requests to serve them better.

Would Multichoice be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange?
We work with regulators and stakeholders all the time to see how feasible this is and we work with even the capital market. We must also not forget that even before this discussion our sister company, Mnet was once listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. There are lots of things to think about when it comes to listing on the stock exchange. Obviously companies would always work with regulators to see what strategy fits that business at that time because it is not every company in the country that will be listed on the stock exchange.

On Corporate Social Investment (CSI)
The plank of our major CSI project is built around education and so we have undertaken to establish MultiChoice Resource Centres, (MRC) and we have rolled out in 201 schools in 21 States across the country.
We have also trained quite a few teachers and I think it is a project that we have been able to see results from and we have also taken a decision to see results from and we have also taken a decision on our own to increase roll out of these resource centres so we can feel more of their impact in the society.
In terms of education, we also try to see how much value we could add in terms of content development. Content is really important, especially concerning what kids are learning? When you teach a kid lets say about tsunami, what does it mean to him? It is not something you go out on the street and see so we have managed and designed a programme working with the ministry of education to build MultiChoice Resource Centres in schools across the country. That gives an opportunity for these kids to see what they are learning and to learn with some of our channels like Discovery which has a lot of contents that actually gives the kids a better experience.

Tackling Unemployment Challenges
First we employ quite a few people directly by ourselves and we also have our supply chains. Our Super Dealer is a strong chain which is a structure we have set up to encourage entrepreneurship. We have people that have built businesses that are supported by our business. We work with them and very closely with banks for funding and these businesses however hire over 2,000 Nigerians to work on business that are driven by our products and services. These are wholly owned Nigerian businesses which we have helped to start up.

Impact of MultiChoice on Local Movie Industry
We have supported Nollywood through training over the years. We have another training scheduled for the first quarter of 2012 where we are going to take people through script writing and production training. This is not something we are just starting; it is something we have always done. We have always had that partnership with the movie industry here. We are also partnering with the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) to create awareness on intellectual property rights because we must be careful. I think the biggest challenge the entire entertainment industry is facing is piracy and that is what is stopping the growth of even our movie industry. So we hold workshops in trying to educate people that intellectual property needs to be respected because that is how the new Nigeria music industry and the movie would be sustained. If piracy is not controlled, that industry would collapse and that industry has quite a lot of people but we have not probably gotten a good feel of the impact and it is a growth industry. It is big everywhere in the world and I think we have the capacity for it to be very big here. For it to succeed here, intellectual property right has to be respected.

Customer Service
We have a well staffed call centre here with very high traffic level that is measured against that of other countries. We consistently come out public. However, customer service is what we continually improve on. We have a lot more dealer designation nationwide so we have taken the service closer to subscribers.