StarTimes users to pay more for upgrade

Customers will part with Sh2,000 to get into a new model of StarTimes digital set-top boxes. Photo/FILE 

By CHARLES WOKABI 

 

Subscribers of Chinese pay TV provider StarTimes will pay an extra Sh2,000 to upgrade to a new model of digital set-top boxes that will give them access to free-to-air channels without paying subscription fees.

The firm, which set base in the country last year, on Tuesday launched its free-to-air decoder to meet a new requirement from the Communications Commission of Kenya that all pay TV providers give unlimited access to at least five free-to-air channels to their viewers.

Current subscribers will be required to take their decoders to StarTimes business centres for a modification and pay Sh2,000, the price difference between a pay TV decoder and the free-to-air decoder which will retail at Sh4,999.

“We will give our current subscribers an opportunity to upgrade but they will have to pay a small fee to meet the cost. The free-to air-set top box will enable consumers access digital television service without attracting additional monthly subscription fees,” said StarTimes Media chief executive Leo Lee at the launch.

However, even subscribers on the new decoder will not enjoy three major Kenyan stations – Citizen TV, NTV and KTN – which pulled out of the company’s bouquets claiming the Chinese company was charging for viewership of free-to-air channels.

The upgrade may affect the 170,000 customers the firm has attracted in the 10 months it has been operating in the country.

Since its entry into Kenya, StarTimes has faced many challenges breaking into a market with inadequate information about digital television and the tight control of the pay TV sector by South African giant DStv.

Its affiliation to the Pan African Network Group, a Chinese company and one of the two licensed digital signal distributor in the country has also elicited controversy in the local broadcasting industry.