This week there is good news for Zuku but very bad news for Multichoice Dstv.. Zuku announced that they have hit 35,000 subscribers since they launched 5 months ago.That is great compared to Multichoice which has been around for 15 years and has only 100,000 subscribers .. Yes 15 years, in around the block and with only 100k subscribers… I think it is just a matter of time before Dstv are knocked off from their comfort zone by not only Zuku but even with the other new entrants like SmartTV and Pay TV. The main reason is Dstv is damn expensive and basically for the elites.. Even the so called elites sometime meet in the bars to watch football matches and other sport channels.
It is not that simple but the fact remains, getting Dstv equipment like decoder is far above the reach for many. Zuku in the other hand has better pricing arrangement which allow many to acquire decoders and the prices for the packages are affordable. When comes to decoders Dstv talk of high taxes, MultiChoice Kenya general manager Stephen Isaboke:
Import taxes on decoders are a major discouraging element in the uptake of pay television services in the country,
That might be so, but the prices for their packages were criminally high until recently when they were forced by increased competition to reduce their prices. Even now the most watched sport channel SuperSport 3 is wrapped under expensive package going for around KES. 7,500 per month
So what next for Zuku vs Dstv?
Dstv has the advantage of being politically correct when comes to showing what Kenyans especially men like..Football, both the English Premier League and Kenya Premier League. Although as we have seen this has not taken them far in terms of subscribers, but for a long time they have been over charging their few customers to cover for the low numbers.Kenyans still love football and will continue watching the beautiful game and due to that Multichoice still hold significant advantage over Zuku. At the same time it should be noted that although Dstv only have 100k subscribers, over a million Kenyans watch football on Dstv every weekend in bars and restaurants. So we could have a situation where people watch the matches in pubs while have Zuku tvs in their houses for other form of entertainment.
Wananchi, which offers Zuku TV, on the other hand has friendly pricing which i believe will encourage many people to own the Zuku tv. , the prices for their products are pegged between KES.999 and KES.2,999.
[pullquote]There are currently three commercial products under Zuku namely, Zuku TV (DTH satellite TV covering 12 countries), Zuku Triple Play (a bundled cable offering of TV, high speed broadband & VoIP) and Zuku Biz (cable SME offering). [/pullquote]
As long as DSTV has the monopoly on English Premiership League rights, they will not be shaken
Majority of the people who watch Premier League do it in the bars and restaurants, while women dominate the tv audience in homesteads. Purely on the entertainment aspect, Zuku has a big chance to move ahead of Dstv
Kachwanya the whiff is that there are possibility of Zuku acquiring the rights to broadcast of the EPL am sure that would be the greatest downfall of the over priced DSTV which by the way charges packages pegged on the dollar now you can imagine when the dollar was all high about 112/- unlike Zuku which is at local rates and pegged on the shilling.
Pegging the charges on dollar is outright exploitation. They have been a monopoly basically, but that should end …need for real competition
Dstv is not just football. History, Discovery, BBC K, BBC E, Comedy Central
I bought Zuku 2months ago and it’s doing quite well for me in terms of entertainment!!!
Big Ups Zuku
I agree but i don’t think Dstv has exclusive rights for the programs you have listed..Zuku tv can get them too, as opposed to Football EPL
Many people are saying the same thing…
Then why don’t they get them? Until they do Zuku is a non starter for me
I agree that zuku is improving and i like most of their programmes but they should improve in the kids programmes the cartoons need alot of make over
dstv has all the rights and zuku only offers FREE TO AIR CHANNELS ALL OF THEM…
multichoice company is extremely expensive, of late they introduced GOTV which we pay 850 monthly but we dn’t enjoy coz it shows signal error and missing channels all through.
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I agree with yoy; DSTV is far too expensive for the kawaida mwananchi. I have gotv and I like it just fine. I wonder how it compares to zuku though.
Zuku is doing good and prices are pocket friendly