The Chinese pay-TV operator in Africa, StarTimes, has launched the 4th 2017 Beijing TV dramas and movies broadcasting season in Africa, with a launch event that took place in Lusaka, Zambia.
Through StarTimes - that operates in 35 African nations including under the brand StarSat in South Africa - the Chinese government says it wants to bring a lot more Chinese TV dramas and Chinese films to viewers in Zambia and across the African continent.
StarTimes that says it has almost 10 million pay-TV subscribers across Africa, says that it's the fastest-growing digital TV operator in Africa since its launch in 2002.
That makes StarTimes the biggest competitor to pay-TV operator MultiChoice and its DStv and GOtv brands, with StarTimes that is signing deals with various African governments backed by support and money funneled from the Chinese government, as well as driving subscriber growth with hand outs of free StarTimes decoder deals.
As part of the 2017 Beijing TV drama festival, StarTimes that has partnered with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Radio, Film and Television, will be showing 8 Chinese TV series and films in Zambia.
StarTimes will also continue to show African StarTimes subscribers 400 Chinese drama episodes and 17 Chinese films over the course of a year, dubbed into 7 languages - English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba and Luganda.
Guo Ziqi, StarTimes vice-president, said the broadcasting of Chinese content in Africa will continue to support the "strengthened friendship" between China and Zambia.
Wang Yefei, the deputy director-general of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said China sees the cultural exchanges between China and Africa as very important and that the Chinese TV series and films will help African viewers "to get a panorama of China".
