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Newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of StarTimes Nigaria, David Zhang has sought the support of all segments of the Nigerian media for improved services in the country.
Zhang, who spoke at his maiden media briefing in Lagos, affirmed that the company, which started as a pay-TV firm, was established in 2009 as a joint venture between the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) to form NTA-StarTV Network Limited, popularly known as StarTimes.
“We offer DTT service that allows Nigerians to watch digital satellite TV from different parts of the country using an antenna and decoder. Our customers on DTT now enjoy more than 100 channels in sports, entertainment, news, kid’s programmes, religion and much more.
“After sometime, we introduced DTH, which is the dish. With this service, we broadcast programmes to all our customers across Africa and reaching more than 30 African countries presently.
“Our most recent offering is our OTT business called StarTimes ON, which is our online video streaming service. It is the next generation of StarTimes streaming service. It introduces new features such as video on demand (VOD) live TV and lots of movies, sports and entertainment on mobile app and free of charge.”
Zhang explained that the company is a major investor in Nigeria with investments worth over $220 million just as it provides direct and indirect employment to over 1,000 Nigerians in the 36 states of the federation and another 3, 000 staff through dealership.
“Because of our influence in Africa, the Chinese government selected us to implement access to satellite TV for 10,000 African villages, with Nigeria getting 1,000 of those villages. This project is almost completed and we are proud to be the contractors in Africa.
“Since we launched in Nigeria in 2010, our mission has remained the same-to provide affordable quality entertainment to every African home, and we do this through innovation, integrity, diligence and devotion. This has helped us to get closer to our vision to become one of the most influential media groups in the world,” he added.
Responding to journalists’ questions on his projections for the company, he maintained that StarTimes would create robust and affordable global content for all Nigerians, adding that the firm would launch two additional local channels and produce 10 new films and movies.
