Gateway looks to Africa

By Christelle du Toit for Gateway Communications
Johannesburg, 17 Apr 2008

Gateway Communications has rolled out pay-TV in 15 African countries in the last nine months, but says SA is not on its radar screen for the immediate future.

As the interest in pay-TV in SA seems to be waning, the African bandwidth giant says other countries are simply more attractive at the moment.

"SA is a more mature market and very competitive - MultiChoice is a big player," says Gateway COO Mike van den Bergh. "There are more opportunities for start-ups in less mature markets."

Both eSat and Telkom Media recently moved away from the much-hyped pay-TV arena in SA, with eSat`s etv opting to rather be a content provider for MultiChoice, and Telkom disinvesting significantly from its Telkom Media offering.

Van den Bergh says, while he does not have direct insight into the reason for these moves, Gateway sees more opportunities for growth in Africa.

"From virtually nothing, the take-up in Africa has been very good."

While different strategies have been pursued in different countries, the driver for Gateway`s pay-TV content has been football, with the broadcaster securing rights to the English Premier League matches.

Van den Bergh says new channels that are in the offing will have a family entertainment focus, as well as aim to expand the available languages.

According to Van den Bergh, the regulatory environments in many African countries are more supportive to investment than SA`s.

"We work on an average of three months to get a licence in an African country," he explains. He says while some countries take longer than this, some licences come though much quicker, even in a matter of weeks.

Van den Bergh did not want to reveal how much the company is spending on its African expansion, but did indicate the benefit of satellite - which is Gateway`s predominant mode of communication - is that it covers the entire continent by default, minimising infrastructure spend as the company expands.

"We could switch our service on in SA tomorrow," he notes, but adds that this is not an option for the company right now.