Radio Africa Group on Monday launched a Free to Air Set Top Box in Nairobi, Kenya. This comes in just under ten days before the set date for digital migration for Nairobi which is on the 31st of December. Bamba TV is a conditional access set-top box that will air both exclusive Bamba tv content and other free to air channels.
At launch Bamba TV which has been in test for over a year airs 50 channels, 24 of which are specific to Bamba TV and are exclusive to the set top box, and others include the general channels available on other free to air channels. Bamba TV has negotiated partnerships with paid content providers to avail it for free within their product.
There are 7 movie channels, 3 of which are African channels and other international ones, there are three cartoon channels, 4 lifestyle channels including fashion TV and cars TV. There is also a 24 hour Telenovela Channel.
Bamba TV is ready for Nairobi and it’s environs Thika and Kiambu with a target for covering Mombasa and Kisumu by end of December and the rest of the country by the end of March. This is a Kshs 500 million investment over the last one year in content production and negotiations with a plan to double that over the next one year.
Bamba TV set-top box which is a terrestrial box is a plug and play which retails for Kshs 3200 and with no subscription fee. According to Carol Mutoko, Radio Africa Group Chief Marketing Officer, the differentiation from anything in the market is so evident. “Our product is incomparable to anything in the competition and we want to be the solution for those who cannot afford to pay a subscription fee for PayTV in the wake of digital migration,” Carol said adding that the people in the flats and other mid to low cost estates will find it steep to start paying for TV.
We are talking to a majority of Kenyans who cannot to pay a monthly subscription – Danny Muchira
“We are talking to a majority of Kenyans who cannot to pay a monthly subscription,” said Danny Muchira, the Bamba TV General Manager. “Kenyans should be ready for digital migration and we are on the table to offer the best product there is in the market. We are offering distribution and signal advantage on top of content differentiation and this makes it necessary for us to sell the box and it’s own transmission system to be able to position their product separate from the competition.”
Bamba TV which is Radio Africa’s newest baby competes directly with GoTV and Startimes on the Set top box offering while on the signal tranmission front with SIGNET and PANG. Bamba TV has the whole hog of infrastructure, channels and content plan. In the market there is other free to air set top boxes, with 61 vendors licensed to sell in Kenya. There is over 1.3 million set-top boxes already sold in Kenya and Bamba TV targets those who would not purchase them because they were not open to start paying for TV, while at the same time offering more than the usual free to air channels on the product.
Lets hope this is not another over hyped product that will not last 1 Year. Remember classic TV and the numerous times Kiss TV has rebranded?
Great observation, however I do give them credit for their resilience. A business is as good as the number of times it does not stay down and wakes up to try something new.
Good intevention good timing.I hope its as good as it sounds.Am giving it 6 months ,if it servives the competition its good to go!
Dymanics that would affect success here are
1. How many get on board in first 6 months (marketing and distribution). Remember their model here is advertising on the box.
2. Programming, is it able to show better value than all FTAs.
3. For the paytv offers, would they offer interesting offers that would make people consider to pay instead of use FTAs.
I would like to buy a digital set top box (preferably FTA). Which would be ideal in Kenya currently based on your opinion? – Ken.njenga@live.com
I am particularly delighted to know that Bamba TV includes EWTN. I have personally made several pleas to my current service providers (GOTV and Startimes) to include this great channel to no avail. Thy just could not see the market potential in it. It is the only reason I am switching over TODAY. Keep it up. MKM, Nairobi.
I don’t want to throw sand into anybodys hustle but the channels being provided by bamba TV are the same channels you’ll get if you have a digital TV. So why go through the hustle why dont you just buy a proper set top box that gives you access to Maisha Magic, MTV, E! et al?
Thanks for your comment @injeyabox:disqus, to answer your question, as much as one would prefer to get the digital tv since it reduces the need for a second device, the cost for a non-digital tv plus FTA set top box is way lower than that. Also, choices!
Then your assumption is that many people already have digital TVs, majority don’t.
Please give me mbamba tv contacts pliz, i am in need.
If they wanted to give people free content, why not just make it available to all FTA set top boxes and digital TVs? Why do we need their box in particular to view their free content? How many gadgets will people have to buy if everyone keeps coming up with exclusive “free” channels? It’s ridiculous!
You will come to learn that every business in this case is thinking about them and theirs’ not really about you. And they want to ensure they own the subscription.
Understandable because things change and you find yourself quite limited while using other people’s platforms.
Meaning there is a high chance that they will introduce pay TV in future after having captured the masses, huh!?
I like their idea and unlike Gotv, their decoder has HDMI which means better picture quality (hopefully)
That’s also a possibility, and then they will have an audience to their name. Remember StarTimes and DStv released new products when they realized there was some market they could target.
Three days ago I congratulated you for the launch of BabaTV and immediately bought a set box. It was a big mistake. Although it was tested it at the shop (city centre) and received a number of channels (as confirmed by the person I had sent) I have never been able to receive any of the channels at home (Juja). I was lucky enough to talk to customer care (after 2 days of trying) and confirmed I have a strong signal but there was no explanation for failure to access any of the the channels. Even the channels that were given to me by name and number (to test) did not agree with what was on the screen. I was promised action would been taken but nothing has been done so far. Worse still, I cannot now get someone to pick my calls. I am very very disappointed. MKM – 0724 309 006.
Oh! MKM
Kindly note that we are a news site, not the owners of Bamba TV, should you need to reach them for customer service you might want to consider social media, either Twitter @bambatvkenya or Facebook, or contact them on their site.