Local content forms the biggest opportunity as the digital migration deadline approaches, according to Wananchi chief executive officer (CEO) Richard Bell, who promised Zuku would focus on the creation of local programming.
Bell said that considering the infrastructure for digital television is expected to be completed in the next three years, Zuku was already in the process of creating channels that will run solely from local programming.
He however says that regulators remain the biggest hindrance to growth of local television content.
Citing deal signed by Zuku commissioning it to create a channel for local football club AFC Leopards, he said interference from the football federation and the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) quashed the deal, as well as meddling by SuperSport.
“Africa is the only continent where one player can buy sports rights and not resell it to the competitors,” Bell said, citing the English Premier League deal with Supersport.
He said the region’s attractiveness to investors would increase with proper laws that encourage competition and ease of doing business, with the market expected to open up to include customers from the larger East African region.
Bell was speaking at the East Africa Com conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
