Cell C plans to launch its own video-on-demand (VOD) platform, using its new online reality show, #BreakTheNet (#BTN), as a test case.
Cell C executive head of marketing Doug Mattheus told ITWeb about the telco's plans to become a content player in an interview after the #BTN launch in Johannesburg yesterday.
"At this stage, the first bit for Cell C reality is #BreakTheNet, and we have a couple of other ideas coming up, but if it's successful then it can potentially be added to a future platform," he says.
Cell C yesterday unveiled a partnership with Bl!nk Pictures to find the next online sensation though the #BreakTheNet talent search show. Contestants enter via the Cell C Reality App and 30 finalists will then submit videos and be selected to continue week by week based on the number of views they receive for each video.
"We live in the world of the selfie and the Kardashians and people just want to be famous, so we thought why don't we give them that opportunity at a very low cost point to get in?" Mattheus explains.
He could not give specifics on when the bigger Netflix-style VOD platform is likely to be launched but says Cell C is already working on it and "if we launch anything it will be in Q1 of next year".
"We have already engaged with a number of content aggregators internationally and we are probably going to appoint one of them to use what they have got ? and they have a full bouquet of stuff."
He says if #BTN is well received by the South African public, then Cell C is planning to make more moves down the VOD path.
"We have already commissioned a second show for the first quarter of next year and we are looking at other stuff as well. I was in the US three weeks ago and met with some of the studios there to look at what content we can buy or produce."
Testing, testing
Cell C is not too concerned about monetising #BTN but rather plans to use it as a test case for a bigger future play into the content market. Mattheus hopes that in the process, the show will be "hell-of-a entertaining for the public at large" but the telco also plans to use data collected from the show to gain real insight into what people want "and from there on out it can mould and shape our strategic thinking".
"I don't want to bombard people with questions and market research within the Cell C Reality App, but I do want to find out from people what turns them on and what they want.
"Because we live in a very heterogeneous society with different people, who is the typical South African? It's a question of understanding the market and really giving people what they desire. The nice thing about #BTN being user-generated is the public make their own videos and we will be able to see the genres or themes that come through," he says.
"Local content is key, but to get the right local content is the most important. From our point of view, we want to do what is right for our audience and not be prescriptive. We don't want to go up against a linear channel TV ? but people are changing and if I look at some of the TV viewership numbers, they are coming off because people want to consume stuff differently now," he adds.
Sports spin-off
He says the company plans for the platform's bouquet to include a range of top blockbuster movies, series and sports content.
"DSTV are just superb at live sport and from our point of view, the other side of sport is lifestyle sport - in other words what happened after the game. So we may want to look at that type of sport content because we are a sports-mad country."
He says if Cell C can't get the rights to live sport, it won't really phase the operator because he sees the possibility of different avenues to follow in the sports genre. One of the possibilities is a collaboration with rugby team the Cell C Sharks, which the telco already sponsors.
"We have already engaged with them because they shoot a programme called SharkBite, but it gets flighted at odd times and on odd channels so we have said why don't they just give it to us and we can put it on our platform and make it available to millions of subscribers. So that is an example of a possibility going forward," he explains.
New entertainment stream
Mattheus believes smartphones are a new channel for entertainment and "it would be irresponsible for us not to explore sticking something on that is relevant for people to watch on their phones as they travel around".
"We are going to use #BTN as a test case and if it works, then why wouldn't we want to go down that route as long as it's a win-win? If we get more customers, people stick with us for longer and customers get great content ? as long as the price is right."
He also says the Cell C network is ready for the potential increase in user data traffic from the show.
"We have sat down with our engineers on this particular case and run a few scenarios and they are comfortable at this stage."
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