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STAR
Interview |
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Joseph Hundah was recently
appointed the managing director of MultiChoice
Nigeria, a leading Pay-TV operator in Nigeria
after stints at SuperSport as Chief Financial
Officer, then at M-Net in the same capacity
before becoming Operations Director, Sub-Saharan
Africa, a position he held until his recent
appointment. Hundah has been in Nigeria
in the last 20 months positioning the M-Net
brand in the country. He has a solid understanding
of Africa and the challenges faced by the
media on the continent. He is reputed to
have a deep knowledge of the Nigerian media
landscape, culture and economy.
In this Star Interview with ROMMY IMAH and
FRANCA ENEGBETA, Hundah takes an expert
view on sundry issues affecting broadcasting
in Nigeria. Welcome…
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Congratulations
first on your recent appointment as managing director
of MultiChoice Nigeria. What issues will form your
priority as you assume office in this capacity?
My priority is first getting a good understanding
of the business; what is going on and what we need
to work on. But I think I have a fairly good understanding
of the immediate issues that we are likely to work
with; they might be immediate but they have a long
term implications. We will also be looking at ways
of extending our reach across Nigeria, looking at
homes to increase customer service, how to change
the corporate image of MultiChoice both from customer
perception point of view as well as from corporate
responsibility point of view.
Before now, Nigerians
saw MultiChoice as a monopoly, how has this impression
impacted on your service delivery?
The first misconception was that we are a monopoly
which is incorrect because there is quite a difference
between a monopoly and a dominant player. A monopoly
will imply that no one else has the license; that
we are the only people that were operating from a
pay-TV platform, which is not true because in the
past, we had lots of other pay-TV stations that were
operating here in Nigeria.
But being that as it may, I think we have been quite
dominant based on our subscribers' number. When competitions
came in, we became sharper in terms of thinking, and
synergy in growing the market, increasing customers
service. And those things have impacted positively
because we have seen significant growth in subscriber's
rate since competition came in and with that we have
been able to increase customer's service which is
normally difficult.
We have really expanded, we have employed more people.
So operationally, I think we have been doing quite
well in terms of our business, subscriber's growth,
marketing, and customer's services which are all elements
for operation. I will say in a nutshell that competition
has been positive for us.
Would you say that competition
has been positive when you have lost most of your
subscribers to a major rival because of its exclusive
rights to relay the English Premiership?
I can only imagine that consumers realize that MultiChoice
or DSTV is not just about premier league as an offering.
We have lots of channels to offer that cover everybody's
taste whether news, cooking, entertainment, sports,
educational, gospel, religion; we have it all in multitudes,
giving you different channels to choose from and this
has helped us a lot.
We have also added new channels into the bouquet;
there has been increase in marketing, customer service,
the way we communicate the products that we have and
of course
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introduced
three-tier bouquet which happened even before the
competitions. We have family bouquet, premium bouquet
and compact bouquet all at a very affordable rates.
We have to beat our prices down to give our subscribers
value for money compared to other pay-TV businesses.
In the same way, I don't think the competition is
taking away subscribers from us or else we wouldn't
have grown. And if they have, we will certainly
replace them with others but I think competition
is good for everybody.
We try to compensate by introducing new contents,
introducing new channels and introducing other soccer
leagues. With that, we have been able to curb any
possible damage to the business. |
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What
do you think is your current subscribers' base?
We have about 280,000 subscribers in Nigeria across
the whole spectrum of bouquet, so I think it is
a significant number of subscribers.
You
just said that competition has brought an increase
in your market, but where were you before the emergence
of HITV and others?
We have been growing in hundreds of thousands since
HITV came in and I think we have almost doubled
our subscribers' base since then. We have done well
and I think this is due to the fact that there is
a combination of getting value for money.
And we have done a better job at marketing our products
in terms of telling people what we sell and also,
having a good reach across the country is also helping
us.
People still consider MultiChoice as a service for
the rich and the elite class with the price of decoder,
dish, and the initial cost of installation on the
high side. |
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They
say it is not a mass market firm; how do you react to
this?
I don't think it is true because even our family bouquet
at N2, 500 is cheaper than what our closest rival is
offering. Again, I wouldn't agree that the initial installation
price is high but we are doing our best to make it more
accessible to consumers and we are looking into that.
But on the other hand, we make our decoders in a certain
place and at an agreed price. And it is very difficult
for us to just go to new manufacturers because there
are lots of technologies in our decoders. They offer
lots of things and functions that other pay-TVs cannot
offer. We are trying to beat our price down in terms
of helping people get access to the system in a much
cheaper way. And we will hopefully come out with a right
solution in the near future.
Don't you think that if
you bring down installation cost and make it a mass
market thing that you will even double what you have
currently as your subscribers base?
There is a big cost attached to it so you can't just
give out decoders; the cost of getting this decoder
is huge. So if you must manage your business well, you
have to do it very carefully in such a way that it will
be profitable. It also costs money to have the inscription
on the placard to avoid piracy. And these are what we
consider in not given the decoders out for free; it
is a pure business decision.
If one needs to weigh all the options and say you remove
the cost of the decoders, how many people will you get
unto your bouquet? The truth is, if we have our way,
we will give it out, we will love to do that but there
are very big cost implications.
But we have heard this
issue of looking into it times without number yet these
things keep going up, why?
No, it has come down a lot because if you compare the
price of the decoder four to five years ago to the price
it is now, it has come down considerably. And that is
due to the actions taken by constantly reviewing these
things and talking to our suppler to cut the price.
We have also been involved in doing lots of promos in
which we bring down prices to very minimum rate, one
of which will be on very soon. Ideally, we have the
mind to bring the price of these things down but there
are costs constraints.
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What
are your plans of keeping your customers and avoiding churn?
We constantly try to air good channels; we also try to localize
the bouquet by producing programmes with local appeal for instance,
the local soccer league. But as you know, producing local contents
is quite costly.
Now we are talking to our sister companies like Mnet and Super
Sports to help do more productions locally to help keep the
Nigerians who are interested in seeing their own faces on air.
We also believe that customer service will also help us in communicating
all information pertaining to |
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the costs of bouquet.
These attributes I think will help us to keep customers.
People tend to see Mnet as synonymous
with entertainment; as a former staff of Mnet, what are your entertainment
offerings for Nigerians?
Mnet just recently launched a new soap called Tinsel. We have also
together produced local contents in the past like Idol. Mnet has done
a lot for local contents and will continue to produce programes locally
which will appeal to the tastes of the Nigerian audience.
But I think we have the best entertainment platform of any pay-TV
business in the country. You have choice of Mnet, Movie magic, Africa
Magic, and Africa Magic Plus among others, which are all entertainment
channels. Entertainment wise, I think we have enough to keep you in
your house.
How do you see the proposed merger of
the NBC and the NCC?
I think it is important that in merging too important entities like
these, it should be done on equal footing with equal status and constraints
for both of them because if you have one entity dominating the other,
you might have problems such that the issues that are affecting the
one entity in the area of responsibility, could get it indicted.
So I think there is no problem with merging as long as there is a
clear mandate on what the merged entity is going to be responsible
for and a clear mandate in terms of what its main objectives are going
to be in assisting both telecoms and broadcasting to make sure they
both grow. So if it happens, we will give our support to the merged
entity and to the minister in his endeavour to merge the two organisations.
This has been in operation in South
Africa through ICASA; can you let us into how it is done there? |
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In South
Africa, the two do exist together and like any other organization,
it always works out perfectly. But there are disadvantages and
advantages in every merged entity.
ICASA does a good job in all intents and purposes and I have
no doubt that the merged entity of NBC and NCC will also do
a good job in as far as the mandate is clear and they understand
what their responsibilities are.
Even within the merged entity, there should be a separation
between the guy at the helm of broadcasting and the guy at the
helm of telecommunications.
Of course you might find some areas where there is synergy in
the convergence of telecom and |
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broadcasting; that
is where advantage comes in, having an organization where people at
the top have a good understanding of both industries.
And if convergence should take place between the technologies, they
need to understand the issues that are affecting the one side and
the other side. These are the advantages of every merged entity.
Though you just assumed duties as the managing director of MultiChoice
Nigeria, can you assess the NBC as a regulator? Are there things you
think they can improve on?
I think it is too early to assess them in terms of operations. But
I think they have done well in terms of enhancing the industry by
addressing issues like piracy and licensing. I think it is a very
efficient organisation. There is no too much of bureaucracy involved.
They are also a listening body and when you have an organisation that
listens to the people in the industry; it is really quite progressive
because it helps to understand both sides of the spectrum. |
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But I think
they need to be more involved in the fight against piracy together
with the Copyright Commission. It is however, an industry problem
and I think everybody should be involved in it. I think also
that it is quite difficult to say it is peculiar to Nigeria
because it is so vast. There are plans now to merge all |
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the broadcasters, to
assist each other in fighting the menace, and I think it is in the
right direction.
How does piracy affect MultiChoice?
To a great extent the availability of DVD in the market immediately
after or when the movie is in the theatre is a problem because international
broadcasting clearly sets out different parameters for movies. Movies
are supposed to go to the theatre, from there to DVD, from there to
online on demand, then to pay-TV and all that. Bringing those movies
closer to the theatre stage means that when pay-TV buys that content,
people have already watched it because they had them available at
cheap prices in the street, which is a problem for our market from
the content point of view.
But more unfortunately for us at MultiChoice is people stealing the
signals for instance, connecting the systems in your house and then
other houses in the same street gets the same signals, that is a problem.
Another one is public view facilities that are not licensed.
If I have a decoder in my house, I put up a couple of chairs and invite
people to watch for instance a premier league match; they don't need
to get the products on their own. Also in the north, we discover that
they pick up Showtime which is not even licensed in Nigeria and other
broadcasts from other networks. They put up big dishes and pick up
signals and this affects our business. |
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How
are you tackling this issue?
Once we identify and have evidence of people
pirating our signals, we approach them amicably and offer them
the opportunity to openly subscribe to our signals. And if they
don't listen to us and keep on doing it then, |
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we arraign them. We
don't offer subscribers preferential offer or treatment, we offer
executive treatment. We make them realize that they have to comply
with the law.
Can you assess broadcasting generally
in Nigeria?
I think it is a growing industry and there are lots of opportunities
in terms of contents creation and creating businesses that speak to
Nigerians. But there are a couple of issues that need to be tackled
like piracy and understanding what pay-TV is all about and the rights
to acquire them.
This is because there are misconceptions in the market that rights
are not available because MultiChoice and HITV have hoarded them,
which is not true. The rights are available and it's a question of
people having a good business plan and ways of approaching those suppliers
to get the channels. |
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You
just mentioned that when merged, NBC and NCC should have different
heads for each of the parties; don't you think there could be
a clash of interest?
No, if there is a clearly demarcated responsibility within the
merged entity, everything will go well.
But what needs to happen is that from the start, there needs
to be that equal footing. So it should be made clear in the
merger if not so, issues affecting the industry could be severely
affected.
If it is fully considered, it will work but it has to be fully
and clearly stated from the onset of the process. |
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What
is your organisation doing to make sure that your programmes
help in promoting the cultural heritage of your audience?
We introduced Africa Magic
which is almost a Nigerian channel however, local content is
expensive to make as compared to buying contents overseas.
MultiChoice needs people to come out with channels that offer
well enough quality to stand against any international channels
and speaks to the Nigerian people.
And there are many people out there making these kinds of channels. |
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We
package our contents in such a way that consumers don't say we are
repeating too much.
We are constantly engaging Mnet to make sure that they try and increase
local content quota in Nigeria.
Do your programmes go through censorship before they are aired?
Yes, they do; we are constantly in league with the NBC on these issues.
Part of the concerns they raise is the issue of preserving culture
and airing programmes with value; and we do try to do that. We don't
centre contents to a point where the story stops making sense. We
try as much as possible to keep the story lines intact but if the
contents become so much that you loose the extent of the story then
we schedule it for late night in accordance with the broadcasting
code. |
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