Startimes Excites Subscribers With Anniversary Promo

As part of preparations to mark its one year of revolutionising pay television in Nigerian, the management of NTA-STAR TV Network, owners of Startimes, has announced a promo to reward its over 400,000 subscribers.

The Chief Executive Officer of Startimes, Sophia Zhang, made the announcement at the weekend during an interactive session with journalists at the company’s headquarters in Matori, Lagos.

Explaining how the promo works, Sophia Zhang said: “As part of our appreciation of Nigerians’ patronage in the last 365 days, we are carrying out an anniversary promo titled: ‘Activate and win’, in five cities where we currently operate, Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Kano and Port-Harcourt. The promo will commence on 22 July and end on 31 August 2011.

“Startimes is giving out a grand prize of N1million to one winner. The regional prizes are N100,000 for five people, 26′ LCD television sets for 50 people, 21’ CRT television sets for 50 people and other consolation prizes.

“The winner of the regional prize will be selected on a weekly basis from a raffle draw. Their information will be gathered from our system with the support of the ‘Stariboss Software’. Winners will be contacted through their telephone numbers provided in Stariboss. They will also be requested to produce their smartcard and a valid identification.”

On eligibility for the promo, Zhang said: “The promo is for new and existing subscribers. For the new subscribers, they are expected to purchase and activate a new startimes decoder, CRT or LCD television with the in-built decoder from any of our business halls or authorised dealers in our operational cities. This automatically qualifies the new subscriber for the raffle draw.

“For our existing subscribers, they are to recharge or pay a three months subscription fee within the promo period to qualify for the raffle draw. The subscription fee payment can also be made through the ATM or quick teller site.”

Enumerating the one year success story of Startimes, Zhang said “The advent of DTT being pioneered by Startimes in Africa has altered the existing equations in the pay television segment of the broadcasting industry regarding technology, pricing, customer service relations etc. In the past 365 days, Startimes has succeeded in breaking the information barrier that hitherto separated the majority of African population from the rest of the world and in the process expanded the frontier of social enhancement.

“Our mission in Africa is to ensure that every household has access to information, education and entertainment. In essence, we want to ensure that every African family can afford and enjoy quality entertaining digital television. This has obviously impacted positively on the political, social and economic development of Nigerian as more people who never dreamt of being able to afford, own and enjoy pay television, are now proud members of the digital world. This is simply because the apparatus for accessing information has been made available at rock bottom price with deep consideration of the economic realities and conditions of the majority of Africans”.

Speaking on its efforts to improving services, Zhang stated that Startimes has begun the installation of new transmitters in some areas in Lagos where signal strength has been low.

“As we look forward to a grand celebration of our one year anniversary come 29 July, 2011, we assure Nigerians of a much better 365 days ahead. We assure Nigerians that in the next 365 days, we will spread our network to more cities and guarantee better signal coverage. We also intend to provide adequate technical support to create an avenue for more local channels and content to be linked to the satellite and reach out to more people, thereby promoting local content, culture and heritage”.

She said plans are underway to improve the content of the pay TV by including more indigenous programmes, live sport events, news and entertainment programs.

On the company’s expansion plan, Zhang said that in a bid to complement the country’s transition from analog to digital broadcasting by 2012, Startimes will cover 15 states at the end of this year.

She said: “Service will be available in Kaduna and Onitsha in July and August respectively in furtherance of its readiness to complete the digitalisation process in record time to enable Nigerians keep pace with the rest of the world.”