StarTimes


StarTimes is a Chinese electronics and media company with strong presence in Africa.
StarTimes offers digital terrestrial television and satellite television services to consumers, provides technologies to countries and broadcasters that are switching from analog to digital television. As of July 2020, StarTimes operates in 30 countries and serves 13 million DVB subscribers and 20 million OTT users.

History

StarTimes Group was founded in 1988 by Chinese engineer Pang Xinxing. He is the current chairman of StarTimes. In 2002, StarTimes began to expand its business to Africa. In 2007, it became the first digital television operator licensed by Rwanda. Since then, StarTimes has established subsidiaries in 30 African countries
In 2009, StarTimes and the Tanzania Public Service Broadcaster formed a joint venture to roll out digital migration. In February 2016, StarTimes was awarded a DTH license in Ivory Coast. Operations began in October 2016.
On November 23, 2016, StarTimes was one of the three companies selected by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to establish and operate DTH distribution services in Pakistan for 15 years. On September 2, 2017, the Government of Chad and StarTimes signed an agreement on digital migration. After a lengthy process, StarTimes was chosen to build a Digital Terrestrial Television network that will include digitization of national infrastructures, television broadcast and reception. In 2018, StarTimes began to implement "Access to satellite TV for 10,000 African villages", a China-Africa cooperation project aimed at giving rural areas of Africa access to digital media. In June 2018, StarTimes launched ON, a video streaming service giving access to dozens of channels in Africa.
In 2020, StarTimes e-shopping platform, StarTimes GO was launched. This interactive online shopping platform is supported by TV, Online and Phone call services and available across Africa.

Seminar

In 2011, StarTimes hosted the first African Digital TV Development Seminar, which has been held for seven consecutive years; it is a talking shop for African countries to discuss digital migration in Africa. The 8th edition of the Seminar held in Beijing in June 2018 had over 400 delegates, dignitaries, heads of broadcasting corporations and guests from 48 African and Asian countries.

Sports broadcasting

In 2015, StarTimes signed an exclusive broadcasting contract with the Bundesliga for five years in all sub-Saharan countries, becoming Bundesliga's partner in Africa. This resulted in StarTimes and DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga organizing the StarTimes-Bundesliga Legends Tour where Bundesliga players like Lothar Matthäus, Jay-Jay Okocha and Sunday Oliseh visit African countries every year. In December 2015, Jay-Jay Okocha and Sunday Oliseh visited Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.
In 2015, StarTimes obtained the rights to televise French Ligue 1 and Italian Serie A in Sub-Saharan countries. In July 2015, it signed a five-year broadcasting contract for the International Champions Cup. In June 2016, StarTimes also signed a three-year exclusive broadcasting contract with the Chinese Super League for Sub-Saharan Africa.
In November 2016, StarTimes Group signed a media agreement with Ghana Football Association to promote the Ghana Premier League in Sub-Saharan Africa and the infrastructural development of the game in the West African country during the coming decade. In January 2020, one month after losing the franchise, StarTimes won the bid and was named as Television Rights Holder of the Ghana Premier League and the FA Cup.
In April 2017, StarTimes secured media rights for 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and the other 2017-2018 FIFA events in all 42 territories of Sub-Saharan Africa. StarTimes also signed a partnership with Ivoirian football club ASEC Mimosas. On July 19, 2017, StarTimes acquired exclusive media rights in Sub-Saharan Africa for FIBA's national team competitions during the period 2017-2021, including the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.
On August 9, 2018 StarTimes and Federation of Uganda Football Associations announced that StarTimes acquired both the naming and broadcast rights of the Uganda Premier League and FUFA Big League for a 10 years period. In September 2018, StarTimes launched a live telecast of UEFA Europa League. StarTimes will broadcast UEFA Europa League in all Sub-Saharan Africa except South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. It has been awarded exclusive rights for English, Portuguese and local languages in English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking areas until 2021. In November 2018, StarTimes acquired exclusive media rights to Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana in Sub-Saharan Africa, ending in the 2020/2021 season.
In August 2019, StarTimes announces it acquired UEFA National Team Football broadcasting rights between 2019 and 2022, including UEFA EURO 2020 as well as Qualifiers to EURO 2020, UEFA Nations League 2020/21 and European Qualifiers to FIFA World Cup 2022. All national friendlies are also part of the contract.

Philanthropy

Ebola epidemic

During the Ebola epidemic in 2014, StarTimes launched several operations in Guinea and Nigeria to raise awareness among local population. In Guinea, StarTimes made a video about Ebola virus and precautionary measures, and distributed sanitation materials to the local communities. In Nigeria, StarTimes produced educational materials, distributed gloves and masks, and put Ebola prevention info on its website and Facebook account.

StarTimes-UNAIDS cooperation

On May 12, 2017, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and StarTimes signed a memorandum of cooperation that made official a cooperation that started a year before “to reduce the impact of HIV across Africa by disseminating messages to the general public to increase awareness of HIV and UNAIDS’ work and reduce stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV and populations affected by HIV”. The first act of this cooperation was on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2016, when StarTimes broadcast UNAIDS' HIV prevention videos on its African networks in English and French until the end of the month.

Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages

In 2017, StarTimes Group was tasked to carry out Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages, a project of the Government of China and various African governments. This project was announced by China's paramount leader Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation; it is a China-Africa Cooperation project that will give access to satellite television to 10,112 villages in 25 African countries.

SOS Children's Villages International

On May 14, 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya, StarTimes and SOS Children's Villages International signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see the organizations partner towards supporting vulnerable families and children, with an emphasis on empowering youth in light of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

WildAid

NGO WildAid and StarTimes announced on 11 June 2019 that they will work together to raise awareness on wildlife conservation across StarTimes’ broadcast network in Africa and on StarTimes ON streaming platform.

Products

Solar Home System

StarTimes Solar Home System includes a suit of solar panel and battery, 4 LED lights, a digital TV set, a suit of satellite TV access equipment, and two years of pay-tv subscription.

Digital televisions

In 2016, StarTimes launched a digital television that supports signal inputs of both terrestrial digital television and satellite television without a decoder. Africa is going through digital television migration.

Decoders

StarTimes developed 2-in-1 combo decoders or Dual Mode Decoders that can support both DTT and DTH services which were not common in some decoders.

Projector TV

StarTimes Projector TV can project a greater-than- picture onto a wall using DLP technology and LED light source. External devices like DVD players, decoders, and computers can be connected.

Channels

Startimes' platform proposes over 480 channels and broadcasts in languages including Swahili, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, English and French. StarTimes also owns and operates 42 channels

Facilities

StarTimes established its translation and dubbing center, which has 10,000 hours’ output capacity, dubs in eight languages—Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba and Luganda— in 2011. In 2016, StarTimes held a Swahili dubbing competition in Tanzania. Winners were offered jobs in StarTimes' Beijing dubbing center. Later, StarTimes held similar contests in Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Criticism and controversy

On October 8, 2018, British newspaper Financial Times reported increase in Zambia's monthly television levy that funds the country's state broadcaster Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, allegedly a result of a joint venture between StarTimes and ZNBC, which established a joint venture named TopStar, oif which StarTimes owns 60%, to operate multi-channel television services in the country, and was backed by Export–Import Bank of China. ZNBC borrowed from Exim Bank, but it is rumored it could not repay the debt and it was alleged that the broadcaster increased the monthly levy to clear its debt. The Financial Times has also reported about other practices related to China's debt-trap diplomacy and the Chinese Embassy in the UK have since issued counterclaims.
Claims of China debt-trap diplomacy have since been dispelled by experts in various reports.