One way to ensure local filmmakers get a market for their films is by having players such as StarTimes do a lot of Original StarTimes Series and movies; series and movies done by local producers. This is not exactly what StarTimes is going for, but they just announced the second best approach – acquisition of local content that will be enjoyed exclusively by StarTimes Subscribers.
Actually StarTimes has a local channel dedicated to local content – the Rembo TV that was officially launched in August this year. At launch, the StarTimes Chief Executive Officer Andy Wang said that Rembo TV was already working with 30 content developers in the country with a key focus on reality television shows targeting the women audience and with a language policy comprising of 60% Kiswahili, 30% English and 10% vernacular.
Rembo TV has increased the tempo of local content acquisition where three fresh local shows namely Next Superstar, Nira and Paper boat will be available for StarTimes Subscribers to enjoy during this festive season.
While making the announcement, StarTimes Regional Director of Marketing Mr. Aldrine Nsubuga noted that in addition to the fresh local content, for every monthly subscription made on the Nyota bouquet, subscribers will access Basic bouquet for the initial two weeks, subscribers enrolling to Basic will also qualify for the automatic upgrade to Classic for the first two weeks at no extra cost.
“We acknowledge the need to progressively grow value for our subscribers which has advised our new campaign to offer them access to more premium channels at the cost of lower bouquets while still increasing our investment in local productions key in not only being competitive on price but also with the premium local content that will be available on our platform moving forward,” noted Mr. Nsubuga.
StarTimes Subscribers on Nova bouquet via the satellite television platform will also access the upgrade service where they will be upgraded to Smart bouquet for the first two weeks while Smart bouquet subscribers will be upgraded to Super bouquet as Super subscriber’s access ten extra days for every monthly subscription made.
StarTimes has also extended a 25% price drop for the company’s terrestrial and satellite set top boxes. The company’s terrestrial pay television set top boxes will now retail at Ksh 1,499 down from Ksh 1,999 inclusive of one month classic bouquet subscription while satellite Combo full kit comprising of a decoder, dish and accessories will now retail at just Ksh 2,999 down from 3,999 inclusive one month super and classic bouquet subscription.
StarTimes digital television sets will also see their retail price drop by between 10 to 15%, with the 24 inch set with CUM slot now retailing at 11,999; 24 inch set with CUM card, smartcard + Super bouquet will now retail at Ksh. 13,499. 32 inch digital TV with CUM slot will now retail at Ksh. 14,999 while the 32 inch TV with CUM card, smartcard and two months Super bouquet will retail at Ksh. 16,499.
The 43 inch digital television sets with CUM slot will now retail at Ksh. 27,999; the 43 inch TV with CUM card, smartcard and two months Super bouquet will retails at Ksh. 29,499 while the 55 inch Smart digital TV will retail at Ksh. 69,999.
“The product discounts will run from November to 15th January 2020 while the subscription upgrades will run till 31st January 2020 during which period we believe we will experience increased subscription renewals while attracting more subscribers on our platform as Kenyans take advantage of the product discounts,” concluded Mr. Nsubuga.
See also: Kenya Film Commission inks partnership with StarTimes for the sake of Kalasha Awards