Broadcast Media Africa (BMA), together with industry representatives such as the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA), and the Independent Producers’ Organisation (South Africa), recently convened an important online industry forum from Wednesday, 20 October to Thursday 21 October 2021.
The initiative was an opportunity by the industry role players to bring together practitioners to discuss and share ideas on content delivery networks, identify plans and strategies, and enable the maximisation of “Content Distribution Platforms And OTT Streaming Services” in Africa.
During the discussion, Broadcast Media Africa asked Farhad Omar, the Chief Executive Officer of Think Big Network, to expand on “the importance of telcos in driving content consumption and how it relates to distribution patterns”. In addressing the question, Omar highlighted the most prominent challenge affecting consumption and distribution in Africa as high bandwidth costs.
According to Omar, telcos control the cost of access for the end-user. However, they have made these costs more reasonable in recent times by dropping them drastically over the past couple of years. Furthermore, because Africa is characterised by a lack of advanced banking for processing payments, telcos have provided an alternative through their payment models, which act as an alternative to credit card payments.
Farhad made reference to global streaming platforms such as Netflix and how their mobile-only distribution model has been vital in maintaining the consumption of OTT services across the African continent.