StarTimes, the Chinese company set for a take-over of the struggling On Digital Media's (ODM) satellite pay-TV service TopTV in South Africa is experiencing a "funding crisis" in Africa - something would could, or is possibly already, impacting its operational take-over of TopTV and what it plans to do in South Africa where it will now get a foothold in the lucrative pay-TV sector.
StarTimes operates in more than 10 African countries ranging from Nigeria, Burundi, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and now also South Africa where the StarTimes logo appeared for the first time on South African TV screens last week when StarTimes and TopTV launched several StarTimes test TV channels as it eradicates the "Top" branded channels on ODM's satellite pay-TV platform.
StarTimes president Pang Xinxing however told China Daily and Chinese Entrepreneur that StarTimes is experiencing a "paucity of funds" which is the reason for the company not yet being operational in some other countries, and for not having started to build TV platforms although it has been granted licenses to start services.
Pang Xinxing said the "funding gap is still too large" despite StarTimes making use of loans and direct investments. He said this poses a threat to StarTimes' dream of providing coverage for 70% of Africa's population over the next three years.
Last month StarTimes took over the satellite operator SES' 20% shareholding in TopTV, and also signed a 10-year contract for using the SES-5 satellite to expand its footprint and to offer direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast services across the African continent.
With this new contract StarTimes will use four transponders from this month and a fifth transponder from February 2014, with the Chinese operator which will continue to run the TopTV service on SES-5 by using three of the newly contracted SES transponders that were previously leased by On Digital Media.
"The recent success of StarTimes's strategic investment in ODM willallow us to reach new audiences in South Africa," says Pang Xinxing, promising "excellent service and picture quality for our viewers".
