Azam TV was launched today by Tanzanian company Azam. Azam TV is a Satellite TV promising pocket friendly costs for PayTV in Kenya. Currently the company had already rolled out to subscribers, as we speak has signed up 1000 subscribers in Kenya in a silent roll-out before the launch today. This is over the last month.
Azam is a big brand that is part pf the Bakresssa Group with products like flour, confectionery, transport, oil, juices, ice cream, soft drinks and other fast moving goods. Azam is the latest venture which started last year in December in Tanzania and according to Martin Abuya, General Manager Azam TV, is doing very good with over 80,000 subscribers in the one year they have been operational.
Azam TV comes in the market just when Kenya is just days to the deadlines of digital migration with Nairobi’s date set for December 30th. The current players Azam TV competes with are DsTV, GoTV, Startimes and Zuku Tv alongside numerous free to air set top boxes available in Kenya. Azam is already well established in Tanzania where it started before rolling out to Uganda. Kenya is the third country where the Satellite TV is available and they have a plan to roll out further within sub-Saharan countries where their Satellite footprint covers.
Azam TV offers 50 channels in the single bouquet it offers for a price of Kshs 870 a month and the decoder. The decoder for Azam is usually Kshs 9950 but in the Christmas offer the company is selling the full setup to Kshs 6300 which is quite high compared to existing market rates from other providers, but Mr Abuya says the real value is the ongoing product and value for money.
The setup comprises the 90cm dish and the decoder. The program list has 50 channels that have Tanzanian channels, Uganda Channels, Kenya channels and even Arabic and Indian channels alongside international channels like Fox, FX, Nickelodeon, Investigation Discovery and NatGeo Gold among others. Martin says that the free to air channels remain free even if you get disconnected.
Unique proposition for Azam TV is quality of transmission and value for money which is at Kshs 870 monthly, single bouquet for the 50 channels. According to Anthony Itebete, the Finance Manager, Azam has curated the content and even with an Islam background of the owners of the company, they do not have religious content to ensure it is agreeable to all kinds of consumers. This also done ensuring that the content aired is as family friendly as possible, says Anthony.
Azam TV decoder and channels view. Click on any image to preview.
The company already has their team ready including a call center at their Kindaruma road office alongside their other staff. Azam started with three channels last year and has gone on to grow to 50 channels, others coming too. According to Anthony, Azam Media also does content production and has equipment better than what rival paytv providers have in Kenya, capable of shooting and transmitting HD content. That’s what they use to air Tanzanian football matches on Vodafone League One channel which is one of the four sports channels.
