StarTimes to boost capacity of 1,300 personnel nationwide

ITRealms:

The management of NTA – STAR TV Network Limited, the operators of StarTimes Nigeria, has concluded plans to boost the capacity of over 1,300 employees nationwide, reports ITRealms.

This the company told ITRealms I in its bid to foster professionalism and position its people to better compete with their counterparts globally, and pay TV industry in , Nigeria.

The latest policy,  ITRealms gathered covers 75 per cent of the cost of the proposed training in order to encourage all staff seek professional development locally or internationally.

Disclosing this to ITRealms, the Chief Operating Officer of the company, Mr Tunde Aina, in a press statement said, “Capacity building for staff must be top priority for any responsible organisation. We pride ourselves as one, with the interest of our entire workforce at heart hence the need to continually roll out friendly policies that seek to develop our people."

Startimes, he said is currently live in a fast paced world and to ensure that personnels are up to date with international developments and practices, a constant training and re-training is necessary. 

"This new policy will ensure that any staff who wishes to study for personal or professional development gets to do so without hindrance by the expenses" he assured.

StarTimes, he said, will bear upto 75 per cent of the total cost of such training, leaving just 25 per cent to be covered by the staff. 

"This policy is open to all staff, irrespective of grade, level or contract type and was the first policy introduced when the new CEO, Justin Zhang, a visionary leader who believes in the people took office earlier this year” he said.

StarTimes presently provides direct employment to over 1,300 staff and indirect jobs to over 3,000 Nigerians through dealer partners across 34 states in the country, making the company a major employer of labour in Nigeria in its over 7 years of operations.

Chucks Egbune/GEE
ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

StarTimes, Conax partnership introduces multi-room, multi-screen

ITRealms

The Group Chairman and President, StarTimes, Mr.Pang Xinxing, has said that the company’s partnership with Conax will provide opportunity for StarTimes Africa operators to introduce multi-room and multiscreen, ITRealms reports.

Xinxing , in a press release made available to ITRealms, said, “StarTimes is the fastest-growing digital TV operator in Africa with an ambition to ensure our brands are perceived as highly reliable operators offering a colorful bouquet of services and the highest quality customer service, at competitive rates. As we plan our advanced platform, the new solution with Conax provides an extremely attractive service offering as well as the opportunity for StarTimes Africa operators to introduce multi-room and multiscreen features without adding additional hardware.”

Conax, part of the Kudelski Group and a leader in total service protection for digital TV and entertainment services via broadcast, broadband and connected devices, announced Monday that it has entered a contract with StarTimes to co-develop a media gateway solution for its Africa operations. With over five million DTH and DTT subscribers and operations across 16 countries, the operator is one of the largest players in the region.

 In their expanded cooperation, ITRealms gathered, Conax will provide StarTimes with security client Conax Trusted Link™, security expertise and the technical blueprint for designing and deploying a complete, secure multi-room service. The unique new “Whole Home” solution will provide an advanced service for Africa households making it much easier to share Live TV and PVR within the home, without needing an Internet connection.

The media gateway solution will be based on a highly advanced master PVR developed by StarTimes, and supplemented by tablets, smart phones and a secondary simple low-cost Android set-top-box. The new service will enable all live content from the master PVR, plus PVR recordings, streamed to supplementary in-home devices. Consumers can also program and steer the PVR from the in-home devices.

Conax will deliver Conax Trusted Link, a new purpose-built security client for in-home distribution of content from a media gateway to a selection of STBs, tablets and smartphones. The distribution of both live TV content and PVR content within the home is fully controlled through Conax Contego, ITRealms reports.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally! 
Pix: Mr.Pang Xinxing,

5 StarTimes subscribers to watch life German Bundesliga

@ITRealms:

Digital Television (TV) service provider, StarTimes, has announced names of the first five winners of an all-expense paid trip to Germany to watch and enjoy the thrills and sporting actions of the German Bundesliga football, and meet the super stars.

The company, at the first draw held in Abuja, at the weekend, picked the first five winners out of the 10 slots up for grabs in its ongoing 'Win A Trip to Germany' promo while the remaining five winners will emerge at the end of the promo in September. 

The company also held draws which produced 175 other winners of various household items, including 25 units of 40 inches LED television sets, 50 units of 2.5 KVA generating sets as well as 100 Solar 5 smart phones respectively. On the whole, 77,559 subscribers qualified for the first draws.

The event was witnessed by the media and regulatory bodies, including deputy director of regulatory and monitoring, national lottery board commission, Mr. Sabo Haruna, representatives of advertising practitioners council of Nigeria, APCON as well as consumer protection council, CPC in Abuja.

In his remarks, Mr. Sabo Haruna said “the lottery board was present at the event to ensure that everything goes as advertised. Everything a company promises customers must be fulfilled as announced. We are quite satisfied with the StarTimes promo draw witnessed today as it was very transparent and properly done.” 

According to StarTimes’ Public Relations Manager, Mr Israel Bolaji, the promo, which commenced last month, is part of the grand plan to mark the company’s fifth year anniversary and excite its entertainment loving subscribers.

Mr Bolaji said StarTimes signed a five-year deal to exclusively broadcast all the Bundesliga league football matches and three years exclusive deal to broadcast the Serie A football live, both in Nigeria and across Africa on its sport channels – Star World Football, Star Sport Premium, Star Sports 2 and Star Sports Focus – as part of its renewed bid to boost sports offerings.

“To qualify, a StarTimes subscriber should recharge for two months and get a guaranteed 50 per cent discount on the second month while new customers within the period can also do the same,” he noted.

Bolaji remarked that as a mark of honour for customers, the pay TV firm decided to organize landmark engagements and contents to further excite customers in recognition of their support for the brand in the last five years in Nigeria. Customers can participate both on our digital terrestrial and satellite platforms (StarTimes and Star Dish TV).

As a family brand, StarTimes is interested in providing as much entertainment and engagement for subscribers and as it continues with the promo in the spirit of its 5th year anniversary, both new and old customer can be a lucky winner.

@ITRealms

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Startimes unveils Nova Bouquet

ITRealms:

StarTimes, has unveiled Nova bouquet as part of strategy to help Nigerians migrate to digital television before the middle of 2015 when the government intends to draw the curtain, ITRealms reports.

The Nova bouquet, ITRealms also reports, has gone live nationwide and is the fourth bouquet available on StarTimes, specially designed for the entry level customers.

Sources at StarTimes confirmed to ITRealms that its introduction was aimed at further facilitating a smooth and convenient transition from analogue to digital broadcasting by creating the most affordable bouquet that anyone can afford.

“This is really to make it easier and comfortable for more Nigerians to get access and enjoy digital television without stress or missing their favorite television programs when the analogue TV gets switched off later in 2015,” said Israel Bolaji, the public relations manager confirmed to ITRealms.

The Nova bouquet, he said, will be retailing at just N500 per month giving more new subscribers access to a digital television experience with over 15 channels; 8 international channels, including Star Kungfu, Star Music, Star Dadin Kowa (Hausa channel), E-Stars (Nollywood), Child Smile, CCTV-News, TBN, IQRAA and about 7 local channels, including NTA news 24, NTA sports, AIT, Channels TV, Silverbird, NTA Local, other state TV stations and other analogue TV stations like TVC, MiTV, Super Screen and Galaxy.

He also said NTA Star-TV Network, the new digital TV bouquet was designed to offer new subscribers an affordable bundle that makes switching over to digital TV more convenient, promote refreshing television experience and create values that will further deepen digital television penetration in Nigeria. 

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)

ITREALMS ... delivering news for ICT4D

StarTimes unveils 9 new channels, declares open week

ITRealms:

Acclaimed foremost digital pay-TV provider in Nigeria, StarTimes, has unveiled nine new television channels across its StarTimes and StarSat platforms, ITRealms reports.

The new 9 channels, ITRealms learnt would also be enjoyed for free for seven days by customers across all subscription bouquets on StarTimes in an Open Week programme beginning November 10 through November 16, 2014.  

Speaking at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, the Public Relations Manager, NTA-Star TV Network, Israel Bolaji told ITRealms in a press statement that the nine new channels have been carefully selected to enhance digital television experience for customers, including the brand new Wazobia TV and Cool TV, Da Vinci Learning, PoP TV, Trace Sport Stars, StarTimes Sport 2, Dadin Kowa, Tiwa Ntiwa and QYOU. 

“The launch of new channels is a bold step towards boosting overall digital television experience for over two million StarTimes subscribers and another clear demonstration of StarTimes preparedness to support and guide Nigerians from analogue into full digital television experience. We will consistently scale up efforts to ensure that our customers get quality content as Nigeria transit into full digital television,” he said. 

Also speaking, Ayokunle Idowu, Content Marketing Manager NTA-Star TV Network disclosed that, StarTimes Sport 2 channel has a rich, diverse and global outlook aimed at satisfying the yearnings of current and prospective customers, who are constantly searching for rich sports content. 

“It is the only channel with exclusive rights to show the 2014/2015 European qualifying matches live. The channel will also offer sports inclined customers a diverse range of sports like soccer, tennis, golf, rugby, car-racing, cricket and extreme sports. The content of StarTimes Sport 2 will include live broadcasts and highlights, sport news, sports programs" Idowu said.

+Remmy Nweke +Isreal Bolaji +StarTimes Nigeria  @dlordisrael 
ITREALMS ... delivering news for ICT4D
Pix: Mr. Israel Bolaji, NTA StarTimes Public Relations Manager, Mr. Steve Onu a.k.a YAW, popular actor and radio show host, Mr. Joshua Wang, StarTimes Nigeria CEO,  and Dr Ebere Nzewuji, StarTimes Director of Advertising during a press conference  on StarTimes launch of 9 new channels in Abuja on Wednesday