Comments
clrmoney
4/19/2017 10:49:05 AM
User Rank Platinum
African Pay TV Service Econet
This is great for them and I wish them all the best. They say they have pay tv-sevice callled Econet with 20 million subscribers so they are a diverse country that has a lot to offer.
elizabethv
4/19/2017 12:47:55 PM
User Rank Platinum
Language?
I actually am a little shocked that language isn't a bigger factor in creating a successful media TV service in Africa. According to the article age is a big factor, but Africa is a continent filled with a lot of different cultures and countries. They speak different languages. I would see language as being less a factor in Europe than in Africa, and yet it actually is a factor in Europe, at least to some extent. As far as the limited penetration that certainly speaks to the economic situation found in Africa, who has a lot more to overcome than just who has access to television. Though I think if they worked on bringing in jobs for people who might work in various telco industries, that would go a long way in solving the economic situation which would create a larger market for television services.
Adi
4/20/2017 6:10:24 AM
User Rank Author
Re: Language?
elizabethtv - I think this might be a function of two things: the addressable market and the history of Africa. For people to subscribe to a pay-TV service, they have to have a certain level of discretionary income. So you are talking about people that are above a certain income threshold. Secondly, French and English are widely spoken in Africa, so services targetting those two languages can probably cover a sizable proportion of the addressable audience.
elizabethv
4/27/2017 10:12:47 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Language?
@Adi, that's a fair argument. I suppose I wasn't initially considering income being as big a factor, but I suppose that makes sense. A friend of mine grew up in Africa (missionary family) and they learned French in school. But it was an embassy school, so I'm not sure how many native Africans have access to being able to learn French - or English, for that matter.
srufolo1
4/21/2017 8:49:26 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Language?
@elizabethv It is surprising that language nor gender "don't really make a difference." As a linguist, I find that kind of naive. Language is one of the most important factors to consider. Also surprising is that gender does not matter as much either.
afwriter
4/22/2017 5:58:09 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Language?
What Adi is saying makes sense, but I have to say that I agree that it is surprising that language isn't a bigger barrier. Even if a majority of users speak French or English you still have two competing languages.
JohnBarnes
4/20/2017 10:23:44 PM
User Rank Platinum
Once again, starting late means starting high on the ladder
As with so many other technologies, as Alvin Toffler liked to point out, when an area starts to develop, it starts at the highest level it can from the surrounding world. In this case, it seems likely that non-mobile TV will sputter along in Africa and then fade out, and the whole TV-ization of the continent is likely to be overwhelmingly via mobile -- just as some countries now have largely skipped broadcast and gone straight to cable.
JohnBarnes
4/20/2017 10:27:52 PM
User Rank Platinum
Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
On the one hand, sports has driven so much television development all over the world. On the other, in the most developed countries, the youngest generation appears to be losing interest in sports. So is trying to get young people hooked on sports is a shrewd move onto a known development path, or a less-shrewd following of an obsolete model?
dcawrey
4/21/2017 4:30:14 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
In places like Africa, TV is going to leapfrog right over the traditional way we watch in places like the US. It's going to be mobile. It's going to be digital. It's going to be watch whereever and whenever.
srufolo1
4/21/2017 6:42:46 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@dcawrey As the CEO pointed out, age is a big factor there. It appears the younger generation in Africa leapfrogged directly into digital and mobile. And, just as in the U.S., the older generation is content with what they have and reluctant to change, unless they have a little technology knowledge.
DHagar
4/21/2017 5:03:37 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@JohnBarnes, great question! Plus, if they don't have teams they identify with, I think the attraction would be less. We watch in the US and enjoy watching our favorite teams - from schools we attended and cities we have lived in.
I think the interests would be what's happening in other parts of the world, education, and of course the big draw - entertainment.
JohnBarnes
4/21/2017 7:05:37 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
DHagar,
That's my take as well. I think the younger generation will leapfrog in both the tech they prefer to use AND in what they want to watch with it (how they want to watch, as well). And you're right that people who grew up following a sport because of the experience of watching Dad's (or Grandma's) favorite team, to which they had some personal tie, is where many young sports fans come from. Manchester United and the Cinncinnatti Reds are both coming up on being 150 years old; there are numerous baseball, American football, and ice hockey rivalries going back before 1900. There's nothing like the recruitment channel for new teams and leagues now, and as we've discussed before, almost no one under 30 seems to be interested in watching a whole game anymore.
DHagar
4/24/2017 6:12:59 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@JohnBarnes, great insights!
Maybe our generation was too busy watching the sports to build the connecting identity with the younger generations with their teams!
Also, the entire physical fitness priority - led by President Kennedy, made physical exercise more important. Finally, maybe the younger generation has too much competition for their time with entertain options, and maybe we identified more with sports as it was one of few channels to provide active participation for individuals?
Anyway, times are truly different and we will make a big mistake if we don't understand that.
JohnBarnes
4/24/2017 7:38:22 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
DHagar,
I think the explanation of why the generation-to-generation sports link broke might be even simpler: the gradual spread of the "everyone has their own screen" model of entertainment. When there was one TV in the house, and everyone watched one thing together, young kids were more or less forced to watch the game, and because of the way young minds work, they couldn't help learning (and asking questions about) how the game worked. It's the same way people used to learn to watch the news, I suspect.
DHagar
4/26/2017 6:32:35 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@JohnBarnes, well that does make sense! So they never learned all the intricacies of the game and have not become "hooked" game watchers! That can also explain why as long as they know the score, they are satisfied.
JohnBarnes
4/26/2017 9:52:38 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
DHagar,
One other thing that probably amplified the effect was that back when everyone watched what was on a home's one screen, sportscasters had to be knowledgeable enough not to overly irritate the more devoted (and knowledgeable) sports fans (themselves heavily educated by much more information-dense newspapers -- and alone in newspapers, sports pages assume the reader already knows a great deal and understands complex points). If a sportscaster said something dumb, Dad or Uncle Jack would blow up, maybe even call the station, definitely shred the sportscaster's authority in front of the family -- and there were thousands of Dads and Uncle Jacks in every city.
Nowadays, any "five hundred dollar haircut on top of a dollar-ninety-eight brain" can say almost any inane thing; millions of viewers won't know the difference and aren't in the company of anyone to educate them. So not surprisingly, sports get reduced to visual highlights; instead of a viewer learning to watch how teams defending against Steph Curry's three pointers are forced to spread their defense far too thin, they're encouraged to just be amazed at how far out he can it a three from. Instead of watching how the infield adjusts to each successive batter (something TV often doesn't even show), the viewer is encouraged to wait till there's a crack of the bat and a short explosion of motion.
So it not only isolates the viewer from sources that might teach them about the sport, it actively encourages watching in a dumb sort of way.
DHagar
4/27/2017 7:11:18 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@JohnBarnes, very true! The value, and finer points of the game, are lost in the era of "reality TV", which doesn't take any knolwedge or skills.
One wonders if the future will continue to hold a place for the knowledgeable sports announcers?
Note: Steph Curry is an excellent NBA player - good choice!
JohnBarnes
4/26/2017 9:56:42 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
Second thought, come to think of it: watch any historical event newscast (lots of them available on YouTube nowadays) from before about 1965, and compare with one post 1990. We tend to think of it as "dumbing down" but maybe it's actually television's response to decreasing viewing skill; people know less about how to get information out of the screen, so necessarily there's less information per minute.Maybe this issue is more important than sports ...
DHagar
4/27/2017 7:13:12 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@JohnBarnes, good examples. Indeed this is following a new trend. It actually parallels the declining knowledge in the news as well, and the decline in the public's subscriptions to newspapers and knowledgeable reporting.
JohnBarnes
4/24/2017 7:40:07 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
>>>times are truly different and we will make a big mistake if we don't understand that.
I nominate that as "Hagar's Law", the defining condition of life now and in the foreseeable future.
Perfectly seriously, by the way. Alvin Toffler said, and got paid (many times) to say, that the world became modern when most of the experience of still-living old people was irrelevant to the current situation; but I think your phrasing is both broader and more succinct than any of the various ways he said it.
DHagar
4/26/2017 6:34:05 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@JohnBarnes, thank you - I like that - Hagar's Law! I am also honored to be in the company of what is one of my favorite authors - Alvin Toffler!
elizabethv
4/27/2017 10:20:05 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@JohnBarnes - I am actually a huge Yankees fan. Though I guess it's a bit of a blow to my ego to admit to not being under 30. (But I'm only a few years older) Lol. Anyway, I'm a Yankees fan because my grandpa is a Yankees Fan and I grew up watching Yankees games with him. And, as is required of Yankees fan, I hate the Red Sox, with a passion. (You can't be one without the other.) I'll also watch a whole game, but only if the Yankees are playing. I was able to get free tickets to a few Nuggets games this last season, and my husband and I mostly just like going for the food. :-/
JohnBarnes
4/27/2017 10:58:07 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
ElizabethV,
Given what the Nuggets have been like of late, going for the food is an excellent approach.
srufolo1
4/21/2017 7:19:55 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@DHagar This is so true about sports fans. Even when the Super Bowl is on, people will watch even if they don't have a team they are truly rooting for, but they won't have the enthusiasm if say, in New York, there is no New York team playing. Sometimes you have to pick another team you will root for, but the interest is just not there.
DHagar
4/24/2017 6:15:46 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Any guesses about whether the orientation to sports is a smart or a risky move?
@srufolo1, very true! And maybe it also points out the disconnects of a more mobile society today? It is the same thing as neighbors and neighborhoods - many people are not connected in with their local communities!
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