Safaricom yesterday at the Michael Joseph Centre in Nairobi unveiled BAZE, a mobile-first, video-on-demand service that offers a wide selection of local and regional short form videos in comedy, drama, lifestyle, music, among others. The service which will be accessible via *544*55# or www.baze.co.ke, will give customers the convenience of accessing a vast collection of video content, including first-run exclusives, on their smartphones.
Speaking during the launch event, Chief Customer Officer Ms Sylvia Mulinge said the company’s goal is to delight customers by availing a carefully curated collection of video content across their favourite genres.
“BAZE will place the entertainment Kenyans want at their fingertips, giving users freedom, choice, and control over the content they consume,” said Sylvia Mulinge, Chief Customer Officer at Safaricom.
The service will offer customers an affordable subscription plan giving them the freedom to choose from the two; an all-day pass at KES 10/- and an all-day pass with 200MB data at KES 20/-. BAZE will also provide content creators an additional platform to share their stories with Kenyans while increasing their earnings by monetizing their content.
“As we launch BAZE, we are also pleased to announce that the platform will host new content not seen anywhere including a brand-new Kenyan action drama, Mission to Rescue which will be available exclusively on BAZE for 3 months before being unveiled anywhere else”, added Ms. Mulinge.
The launch of BAZE emphasizes Safaricom’s commitment to growing Kenya’s creative industry. Last year, the telco giant marked 20 years of transforming lives in the creative industry through the Safari Ya Wasanii series, which showcased its role in growing music and other forms of art in the country.
Many companies around the world have launched streaming services over the past few years to try and capitalize on the digital media shift. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the subscription services saw massive growth in the year 2020 and continue to become more and more popular. Recently, the Swedish audio streaming service Spotify launched in Kenya and four other African countries giving citizens an opportunity to actively stream popular music and podcasts.
Read Also: If you are a Safaricom subscriber, dial *544# then choose option 1 for Free Data
