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Ethiopia: G-TV Set to Enter Every Household
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The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
15 December 2007
Posted to the web 17 December 2007
Yelibenwork Ayele
In USA pay TVs share about 97 percent of the market, in Europe 47 percent whereas in Africa below one percent. G-TV was established to fill the gap in the African market, according to Dinir Abdulahi, marketing director of Metro Plc, the representative of G-TV in Ethiopia.
"What makes G-TV different from other pay TVs is that it not only transmits different western channels to the African countries it serves, but it also receives from them and transmits by satellite to the whole world."
It has sponsored the national league of Uganda with five million dollars so that its games get live transmission and has done the same thing for Tanzania as past of its endeavor to contribute to the growth of East African soccer.
CECAFA, which was sponsored for three years by Sheik Mohammed al-Amoudi, as the al-Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup, is now sponsored at a cost of six million dollars by G-TV which has acquired the right to transmit it live from Tanzania. Ethiopian viewers formerly could see East and Central African football games only when they were played in Ethiopia. But now, through G-TV, it is possible for Ethiopian viewers to see football matches live from any African country, said Dinir.
The marketing director said that the coming games in Tanzania would be released to every Ethiopian household in cooperation with Ethiopian Television (ETV).
There is a G-Movie Africa channel which airs African films. G-TV is consulting with Ethiopian film directors to facilitate the showing of Ethiopian movies on this channel. And documentaries on Ethiopian cultural, historical and natural heritages will have wide coverage on G-TV and will be shown in Africa and worldwide. "Our films, cultures, and sports will reach the international audience. And we shall no longer be just recipients of western culture and influence. This is of great benefit to our country."
Metro Plc has worked for a long time with Gateway Communications, which selected it from among many companies that work with it, to represent G-TV, and that without an auction contrary to recent reports on some Ethiopian media.
As the DSTV stopped transmitting to Ethiopia there was almost a starvation for premiere league, a gap which some businessmen tried to fill by bringing in Show Time cards from the Middle East and G-TV cards from neighboring African countries illegally.
G-TV had been sold in Ethiopia illegally with the cards smuggled in from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and other countries.
Show Time and G-TV have acquired the license to transmit English football. Show Time's jurisdiction rests with North African countries and the Middle East while G-TV's embraces thirty-seven countries below the Sahara. Due to its geographical proximity to the Middle East, Ethiopia can receive TV signals from Show Time satellite which is tuned in to that region. However the signals are poor and can be affected by changes in the weather.
G-TV has set up a system called origin switch, by which it will take the data of the smart cards from the countries that sold them to Ethiopia and shift their address to Ethiopia. Then clients can continue to deal with the agent in Ethiopia.
The Metro marketing director believes that Show Time and other pay TV's are not threats to G-TV and they will not offer stiff competition. For one thing, a Show Time company can not be opened in Ethiopia and for other, G-TV charges far less than most other pay TVs. It charges the same amount in all the 37 countries in Africa. And the charge is lower than G-TV's charge outside Africa. "So G-TV is affordable for low income families while offering the best channels of all genres with perfect signal quality. So, the market will simply spew the others out."
G-TV transmits 80 percent of the best Premier League games while DSTV transmits the remaining 20 percent of the games. However, restaurant owners have not yet abandoned DSTV as it offers Champions League which G-TV does not. G-TV transmits the Italian Serie A and the German Bundes Leaga.
So there is DSTV for those who want to see Premiera Liga and Champions League. G-Sports, BBC, God, MTV and Aljazera are some of the 15 channels G-TV currently offers.
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G-TV is Gateway Communication's subsidiary company. Gateway Communication is a British company providing telecommunication services to a great number of African countries. Its annual turnover is over 8 billion dollars.
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