African pay TV provider Kwesé TV is to abandon satellite-delivered pay TV and concentrate on its streaming activities.
Kwesé said that it had seen a “noticeable shift” in consumer viewing habits driven by mobile video consumption and that it would focus on premium streaming offerings Kwesé Iflix and Kwesé Play and a stripped down free-to-view satellite offering based on its Kwesé Free Sports service.
The pay TV outfit, which operates in a number of countries outside South Africa, where it is headquartered but does not operate, said that the new satellite bouquet would carry selected sports and general entertainment programming for a minimum fee.
The operator said it would reduce the number of third-party channels on the service, and remove its branded sports services excluding Kwesé Free Sports. The service will include free-to-air, religious and news channels.
Customers that have paid their subscriptions for November will receive a refund, it said.
The move to abandon satellite pay TV comes after a period in which Kwesé’s owned by Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless, launched pay TV services in 11 countries, with a free-to-air offering in a number of other territories. The pay TV unit acquired rights to a number of premium sports offerings including the World Cup and the forthcoming Euro 2020 competition.
ICYMI: @FacebookWatch on @Vewd devices digitaltveurope.com/2021/04/16/fac… https://t.co/HW0EFfUwpq
18 April 2021 @ 18:00:00 UTC
Join us next week for "Outsource, automate, optimise: how to meet the video delivery challenge in a hyper-competiti… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
18 April 2021 @ 14:00:00 UTC
ICYMI: @discoveryplus strikes Amazon Prime Video channels deal in US
digitaltveurope.com/2021/04/16/dis… https://t.co/9oOogzQnBu
17 April 2021 @ 18:04:00 UTC
Into the Cloud: Migration Strategies, Challenges and Opportunities for Media Companies digitaltveurope.com/intelligence/w…
17 April 2021 @ 15:00:01 UTC
DTVE: the week in view – Amazon’s understated video dominance should not go unnoticed digitaltveurope.com/comment/amazon… https://t.co/riM6AslWFd
17 April 2021 @ 12:30:00 UTC