Mobile Phone Television: MTN Partners DSTV For TV On The Go

5th May 2008

Telecommunications company, MTN and Multichoice Nigeria recently took telecommunications partnerships to new heights with the launch of Mobile Television on the MTN network. With the launch, MTN becomes the first cellular network to offer its subscribers an opportunity to watch television, while on the move, from their mobile devices. According to Mr. Bola Akingbade, MTN's Chief Marketing Officer, who stood in for the company's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ahmad Farroukh, "MTN is again taking the driver's seat in making mobile television available to our customers as a practical demonstration of its consistent commitment to enabling customers optimize value on the MTN network." Now, he said, MTN customers will no longer be limited by time and place in order to access quality entertainment on television. "Mobile Television from MTN is yet another manifestation of our commitment to delivering added value to customers everywhere they go". MTN customers, he said, can enjoy the most widespread coverage in the country, the best tariffs and in addition, leading edge services.

Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Collins Khumalo, Managing Director of Multichoice Nigeria expressed delight at the opportunity to partner with Nigeria's leading telecommunications company. A bouquet of 10 channels spanning movies including the immensely popular Africa Magic channel, news, sports and children's programs (cartoons) will be available on the mobile phones of customers who choose to subscribe to the new Mobile TV service on the MTN network, tagged DSTV from MTN. The new Mobile TV service which is a first in Nigeria is currently available in Lagos and Abuja, but will add other Nigeria locations subsequently.  MTN, said Akingbade, has been able to launch Mobile Television on account of the increasingly sophisticated technology which it is deploying. Last year, the company paid $150m for a third generation mobile licence (also known as 3G licence) and by December the company clearly demonstrated the possibilities of this technology to key segments of the public including the media. Broadcast content on DSTV from MTN will however be delivered via Digital Video Broadcast Handheld, DVBH, technology.

Pundits have analysed this development as portending immense good, not only for Nigeria's burgeoning movie industry, Nollywood, but for an entire industry that is traditionally associated with television including content provision, advertising, interactive games and other services. It is expected that a key spin-off of this development will reflect in increasing sophistication and cost-lowering of mobile devices as manufacturers scramble to meet the needs of mass participation in this interesting new phase of mobile evolution which is fast-growing across the world and which MTN is pioneering in Nigeria. The new development, said Akingbade, can also be interpreted to mean a big challenge to the creativity for which Nigerians are renowned. "The evolution to mobile TV challenges content developers and television stations to be ever more creative and innovative in developing engaging content for television. This way, more and more people will be increasingly disposed to latching on to their television sets whether they are at home or on the move, with attendant economic spin-offs for the creators and developers of such exciting television content, including the television stations". It's a win-win situation for everyone, he said.

MTN, said Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, the company's corporate services executive, "consistently leads the industry with innovative, value- laden products and services". Elaborating, she stated that in 2006, the company launched a new tariff structure, the Xtraordinary bundles that have since seen its customers enjoy the lowest intra-network tariffs in Nigeria. Last June, it fully democratized the ownership and use of BlackBerry smartphones in Nigeria with its launch of BlackBerry from MTN on the pre-paid and post-paid platforms respectively. Till date, though BlackBerry phones are available on three major telephone networks in Nigeria, only on the MTN network is BlackBerry available to pre-paid customers. In Nigeria as in elsewhere in Africa, the vast majority of telecom subscribers are pre-paid subscribers.

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