China's StarTimes pay-TV service in Africa launches quarterly online film competition, the Pan Africa Online Film Festival (PAOFF), for its StarTimes ON streaming service.

The Chinese pay-TV service in Africa, StarTimes, has launched its Pan Africa Online Film Festival (PAOFF) in Nigeria that is done by its StarTimes ON streaming service.

The StarTimes ON Pan Africa Online Film Festival (PAOFF) is aimed at encouraging local African online film creation.

"It is an online age and local online video contents will be an important pillar of StarTimes ON's content strategy and that is why we organised the awards," says Ariel Wang, StarTimes ON operation director in a statement.

"We sincerely hope the awards competition will encourage the development of local online video creation and see the rise of African online video industry."

PAOFF will be a quarterly online film competition, with Best Film Award, Best Short Film Award and Best MV Award that will go to various submitted videos.

Andy Wang appointed as new StarTimes Kenya CEO and Aldrine Nsubuga as regional marketing director in East Africa as StarTimes again tries to secure broadcasting rights to Kenya's soccer.

Andy Wang is taking over as new StarTimes Kenya CEO with Aldrine Nsubuga who has been appointed as the StarTimes regional marketing director for East Africa, both based in Nairobi, as StarTimes is again trying to secure broadcasting rights to Kenya's soccer.

Together with the executive appointments StarTimes has reopened negotiations with Kenya's football organisations, looking to acquire the broadcasting rights for the both the Kenyan Premier League and Kenya's National Super League (NSL), and StarTimes is in talks with the Football Kenya Federation and Kenyan Premier League officials to try and get the broadcasting rights for the first and second tier football leagues in the East African country.

The Kenyan Premier League has been without a pay-TV partner since MultiChoice and SuperSport abruptly cancelled a 5-year sponsorship contract worth millions in 2017. StarTimes tried to make a deal but failed after months of negotiations.

As part of StarTimes' management changes in East Africa, Andy Wang now replaces David Zhang who moved over to become the new StarTimes Nigeria CEO in February 2019. And Wang was previously the StarTimes CEO in Uganda and held other starTimes management positions in Malawi.

Besides StarTimes Kenya CEO, Andy Wang will also be StarTimes regional director for  East Africa and oversee the Chinese pay-TV operator's activities in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zambia and Malawi besides Kenya.

StarTimes says Andy Wang's position as both CEO and regional director is an opportunity as part of a new management structure "to create synergy across StarTimes' operations in the region".

StarTimes appointed Aldrine Nsubuga as the StarTimes regional marketing director for East Africa who will oversee the marketing activities across the 8 countries.

Aldrine Nsubuga says he is "delighted with the new role, this being a new management structure for the brand presents unlimited possibilities and I am confident the StarTimes brand will progressively harness its operations, understand our subscribers better while presenting an increasingly enticing television viewing experience for the whole family".

On Wednesday evening StarTimes splurged on a gala dinner to dine and wine journalists at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, where Andy Wang touted StarTimes' focus on "innovation".

"It is a great pleasure to oversee the Kenyan operations and especially at this time when we are keen to strengthen our terrestrial and satellite television service while growing the over-the-top (OTT) business, our online video streaming service known as StarTimes ON," said Andy Wang.

China's StarTimes is aggressively competing for pay-TV subscribers across Sub-Saharan Africa with The MultiChoice Group's DStv and GOtv pay-TV services, and trying to acquire more local sports content in Kenya and across the African continent where it competes with brands like SuperSport.

"We know Kenyans are passionate and love their football so we are working with the people concerned to bring relevant content for our subscribers," says Aldrine Nsubuga.

"In Kenya, things are a bit complicated and the process can be lengthy but we are ready to go the full length. We have been in this before, encountered challenges but we are back again and we have the experience to go through this now."

Meanwhile China's Xinhua news agency that in very clear bias only reports about StarTimes as a pay-TV operator when it comes to Africa, and always positively, on Thursday reported that StarTimes Kenya, told journalists that it will "soon operationalise its regional production hub in Nairobi's suburb of Karen, in order to produce content that will appeal to local viewers".

"Our new focus is to broadcast entertaining and educational TV shows that spotlight the rich African cultural heritage so as enhance our viewership among Kenyans".

StarTimes Kenya also wants to launch a "local TV channel" to "enhance the experience of its customers".

"In this endeavor, we shall partner with local producers so that we create content that directly appeals to our subscribers," said StarTimes Kenya.

Other plans for StarTimes include producing Sino-Africa dramas that highlights the daily lives of the African community in China.

Africa's Chinese pay-TV operator StarTimes adds on-demand Fox+ Series to its StarTimes ON app in Africa and South Africa; StarSat and Fox Africa silent about the video-on-demand extension.

Africa's Chinese pay-TV operator StarTimes has added video-on-demand Fox+ Series content from the Fox Networks Group (FNG) to its StarTimes ON app in Africa and in South Africa, with StarSat and Fox Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa) that have remained silent about the VOD content deal and extension.

Since Friday 22 March, FOX+ is available as a separate section on StarTimes' StarTimes ON app in sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa with a range of drama and comedy series from FOX that are available to stream through the StarTimes ON app.

FOX+ is already available on the Cell C black subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in South Africa, but not on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.

For more than a week before the inclusion of FOX+ on the StarTimes ON app, TVwithThinus asked On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes South Africa's StarSat for information and comment multiple times, but StarSat's publicist Luyanda Cele didn't respond with anything.

TVwithThinus also asked Fox Networks Group Africa for comment but FNG Africa didn't respond with anything.

Now StarTimes has added FOX+ since yesterday, where users can stream some current and library TV series ranging from The Walking Dead and Empire to 24, The X-Files, Outcast, Bones, American Dad, Modern Family, Ghosted, Chance, Star and Family Guy.

StarTimes will add more series ranging from Legion, Prison Break, Homeland, Atlanta, American Horror Story, Wayward Pines, Da Vinci's Demons, Futurama, The Americans, Sleepy Hollow, Bob's Burger, Scream Queens, Rosewood, Baskets, 24 Legacy, Son of Zorn and The Gifted to StarTimes ON in April, May and June.

"We are very happy to bring Fox+ Series to our users and I'm sure that fans of American television series will fully enjoy themselves with StarTimes ON," says Ariel Wang, StarTimes ON operation director, in a one-sentence quote in a statement issued in some other African countries.

Africa's StarTimes pay-TV operator rebrands its streaming app as StarTimes ON, provides multiple pay-TV channels for free on streaming, including in South Africa.

The Chinese pay-TV operator StarTimes in Africa has rebranded its streaming app as StarTimes ON that is available in several sub-Saharan countries, including South Africa.

The original StarTimes app, now StarTimes ON, provides live streaming of some of the TV channels available on StarTimes and StarSat's channel line-up, some video-on-demand programming, as well as short videos covering news, sports, movies, series, music, entertainment, documentaries, as well as kids and religion programming.

StarTimes ON currently gives access to various degrees to 150 TV channels in 10 languages, with over 140 TV channels that stream through the app for free, although every region, including South Africa, has a different selection.

This includes channels like BBC World News, France24, FOX News, Bloomberg, AMC Movies, FOX Life, Passions TV, Baby TV and National Geographic.

Localised TV channels in various African countries like NTA, ZNBC, TVM, TBC, KTN, RTI and RTs, are available on StarTimes ON in their respective countries.

StarTimes also makes available its 40 self-packaged and branded Star or ST channels, including ST Novela Plus, ST Nollywood Plus, ST Dadin Kowa, ST World Football, ST Sport Premium on StarTimes ON.

StarTimes ON also has multiple sports matches, including World Cup, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, UEFA Europa as well as other boxing, rugby, basketball, cricket matches. Viewers can watch live Bundesliga and Ligue 1 football matches, as well as replays and highlights.

"More excellent international and local channels will be put online, and diverse and rich contents will always be the core of StarTimes ON service," says Ariel Lin, StarTimes ON operational director.