StarTimes' message to Africa's pay-TV operators: 'In 5 years we will be the digital TV operator with the most pay-TV subscribers in Africa'.

China's StarTimes has a blunt message for MultiChoice, Wananchi, Canal Plus and the African continent's other pay-TV operators: It says in 5 years it will be the biggest digital pay-TV operator in Africa.

Pang Xinxing, the head of StarTimes, the Beijing based pay-TV conglomerate that's been making huge inroads in Africa's fast-growing pay-TV market, has been visiting South Africa this week for the first China-Africa Media Leadership Summit held in Cape Town co-organised by Naspers and StarTimes, as well as for the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Johannesburg.

Besides the StarTimes brand in the rest of Africa, StarTimes, through StarTimes Media South Africa, now runs the rebranded StarSat pay-TV service in South Africa.

Pang Xinxing is clear: "In five years, we will be the digital TV operator with the most subscribers in Africa," he says.

"We will also strengthen content production by translating and dubbing more Chinese programmes and opening channels exclusively for Chinese programmes in multiple local languages".

Pang Xinxing says StarTimes - that currently has over 4 000 employees - 3 000 of whom are based in Africa - is now considering buying Chinese Football Association League games and introducing African soccer players to Chinese soccer clubs.

StarTimes will gradually start to introduce much more Chinese sports ranging from swimming and diving to gymnastics, table tennis and much more on its African sports channels.

StarTimes new 26 000 m² African headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya will become operational in 2017.

StarTimes says it now has "over 440 authorised channels" on its pay-TV services, featuring news, movies, series, sports, entertainment, children's programmess, fashion, religion, music and lifestyle channels and content.

The channel's on StarTimes' platforms are broadcast in 10 different languages like English, French, Portuguese, Africa indigenous languages and Chinese and StarTimes says that "African channels take up the majority of all the 440 channels".

StarTimes in Africa now has 5 digital TV centres, 11 earth satellite uplink stations and 160 high-powered digital terrestrial television transmitters.

"StarTimes has managed to meet over 700 million African individuals, and is considered to be the fastest-growing and most influential digital terrestrial television (DTT) operator," says Pang Xinxing.

"We have one key goal, which is to enable every African household to have access to, afford and enjoy the beauty of Digital TV".

Pang Xinxing says StarTimes sees itself as assisting China to "create strong and mutually beneficial relationships in China".

Naspers chairperson Koos Bekker at the China-Africa Media Leadership Summit said MultiChoice is also embracing Chinese TV content on its DStv satellite pay-TV service.

"Three years ago we launched the Great Wall of Africa. This is a package of 11 top Chinese language TV channels broadcast all over Sub-Saharan Africa. It serves our Chinese DStv customers, as well as Africans who would like to learn more about this great nation".

According to the latest report of Digital Television Forecast in Sub-Sahara Africa released by Digital Television Study in the United Kingdom, digital television household penetration in Sub-Sahara Africa will soon exceed 50%.

It is estimated that digital migration to DTT will reach almost every African TV household by 2020.

It means that 20 million African TV households will appear in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.

Pay-TV revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa is $3.17 billion - estimated to grow by a massive 69% to $5.35 billion by 2020.

Wananchi Group gearing up to expand its East African pay-TV service, Zuku TV, into Malawi, Rwanda and Ethiopia by the end of 2014.

The Wananchi Group, the East African satellite pay-TV operator plans to expand and will launch Zuku TV in Malawi and wants to launch Zuku TV in Ethiopia and Rwanda as well by the end of this year.

The Wananchi Group will invest $10 million to launch Zuku TV in Malawi. The pay-TV operator is already available in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and growing steadily.

Following its launch in Malawi the operator will be available in 16 million TV households in East Africa.

"We believe through our compelling offering – a wide selection of entertainment channels covering news, sports, movies, documentaries and music – we are inevitably contributing to the country's digital knowledge and economy infrastructure," says Richard Alden, the Wananchi Group CEO.

"Our goal is to ensure the majority, if not all, households in the country have access to our world class digital television content at very affordable subscription charges".

"We believe that there is a rapidly growing market segment that is eager to be part of a digital multichannel television world for the range and choice that it offers to the whole family".

"Our offering has been structured to meet that need – and we see a truly exciting opportunity in this. As an East African company we are committed to maintaining a close focus on this market, and are delighted to be a part of its growth," says Richard Alden.

Richard Alden the new group CEO of Wananchi, and Zuku's self-compiled TV channels become available outside of East Africa for the first time.

Richard Alden has been appointed as the new group CEO of Wananchi, the operator of the ZUKU pay-TV platform in East Africa.

Zuku's TV channels are now also available outside of East Africa for the first time in a deal with the Seychelles-based pay-TV operator Intelvision.

Zuku's Zuku Life, all four Zuku Movies channels and Zuku Swahili Movies are now available outside of East Africa for the first time since the beginning of November.

"We're very pleased that out channels will be travelling outside of the borders of East Africa for the first time and we hope that viewers in the Seychelles will be entertained by the programming we are offering," says Hannelie Bekker, the managing director of Wananchi programming.

Meanwhile Richard Alden has moved up to group CEO position; he has been the group's chief operating officer (COO) and has taken over from Richard Bell.

Zuku adds a self-compiled sports TV channel in HD as part of 11 new TV channels on its East African pay-TV service.

The successful East African satellite pay-TV operator Wananchi is adding 11 new TV channels and doing what South Africa's beleaguered TopTV operator couldn't: successfully adding TV channels and growing its bouquet and even creating a sports channel - and in high definition (HD) - which TopTV failed to accomplish.

Wananchi which operates the Zuku pay-TV platform operating in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and made a failed bid for TopTV in South Africa, has added 11 new TV channels to its bouquet, under which Zuku Sports HD, its own branded sports channel comprised of content from the official English Premier League clubs Arsenal and Manchester United.

Zuku also added the music network 1music which is available on Sky in the United Kingdom and Dish in the United States. The other sports channel Zuku now has available for subscribers is Setanta Action.

Zuku also added channels from the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV: the English 24-hour news channel CCTV News, the new CCTV9 Documentary channel and the CCTV4 channel which is broadcast in Mandarin. The Germany news channel DW News and India's first 24-hour food channel Zee Khana Kazana has also been added.

There's also four new movie channels: Shorts TV, focusing on emerging film talent, UTV Movies which is a Hindi film channel from India, Zuku Swahili Movies, and Zuku Movies Max HD.