GOtv TO OFFER ALL USERS FREE WEEKEND OF ITS TOP BOUQUET

All GOTV users including those who have been disconnected will this weekend receive the full GOTV plus bouquet as the Multichoice brand seeks to ramp up subscribers to its top offering.

Underlining the intensity of the competition for the fluid Kenyan market, GOTV will beam its premium content to all owners of its set top box from Friday 22 May to Monday 25 May.

After that, it will offer users the chance to stay on the premium bouquet permanently based on the difference they will have noted between the two offerings.

"For one weekend only, GOtv is sharing the love by enabling all television viewers with a valid GOtv decoder (even if your subscription isn’t active) an opportunity to experience the best variety entertainment programming available on GOtv Plus at no extra cost," the company said.

The company will open up channels like Telemundo, SuperSport Select 2, M-Net Movies Zone, Disney Junior, BET2, E! Entertainment and so on,

Multichoice has opened up a multi-front battle with rivals to protect its market leadership with a recent announced slash in its DStv HD decoder prices by half.

Between DStv and GOTV, the company has over 60 per cent of the local TV viewership market with Startimes, Zuku and others sharing out the remainder.

ZUKU ASSAULT: SAFARICOM'S BIGBOX DECODER TO COST SH9,999 OFFER 6GB DATA

Safaricom will tomorrow launch its BigBox decoder at a one-off cost of Sh9,999 or Sh4,999 followed by 6-monthly payments of Sh999. Bundles will be reloaded using a *422 Hash short code.

After releasing its results today which show it still lags far behind Zuku in fixed data numbers, Safaricom is laying its biggest assault yet on its rival with this decoder that will come with a 3G/4G SIM card and a cheaper data plan for buying bundles, internal documents show.

The launch will take place at the Safaricom Shop at Sarit Centre.

Riding on Android software, the BigBox will be a wi-fi hotspot that supports up to 10 users according to the company.

It will offer three free months of youtube streaming via the youtube URL www.youtube.com. However, the company is not immediately able to offer On Demand streaming.

The box comes with a USB & SD card media playback for videos, a TV recording feature and a free HDMI cable.

It will have 35 Free to Air TV and Radio channels.

These channels offered most likely through Bamba TV will be:

NTV	KTN	CITIZEN
KISS	QTV	K24
KASS	3STONES	GOR
FOUNTAIN	EXPRESS	YOUTH
EATV	VISION	BUNGE
EDUCATION	MOTHER AND CHILD	AVIATION
GBS	REVIVAL	SAYARE
FAMILY	JOY	KINGDOM
AATV	ADVENTIST	LAKE VICTORIA
PROPERTY	HOPE	HERITAGE
UNJIRU	TCBN	ELIMU
GETV	HORIZON

Sh999 will buy you 6GB of data valid for 30 days.
Sh1500 = 10GB
Sh2000 = 20GB
Sh4000 = 50GB

The boxes will only be sold in Safaricom shops.

It certainly looks to give Zuku a run for its money especially if the internet is reliable and fast.

One Zuku user said he would definitely buy it saying Zuku had given him poor data service.

"If they bring it I will buy it. I'm tired of Zuku. The other time I went six days without internet and when you call them, they say We cannot detect the problem on our side if we do we will let you know," he fumed.

"Then when your subscription lapses, they are very fast to alert you, Dear Customer, please update blah blah," the disgruntled user continued.

Safaricom's box seems certainly a play for home internet particularly given the rollout of its 4G/LTE Service.

While the head to head competition with Zuku seems clear, the play for market leader GOtv's turf seems less clear.

The content is less appealing and the monthly bundle recharge at Sh999 entry price is higher than GOtv's monthly subscription price of Sh849.

Startime which has been accused of having less appealing content is said to be working on revamping its content offering.

Safaricom reports Sh46billion in pre-tax profits

Safaricom reports Sh46billion pre-tax profits...Listed-telco Safaricom reported to investors the financial results of the 12 months ended March 31, 2015. It's core business remains the use of mobile networks to connect people via voice, text, internet and mobile financial services. Investors will be interested in the statement of income, which is a statement that expresses the operations of the company in financial terms during the period under discussion and reports if those operations were profitable or not. Sh164billion (US$1.72bn) was generated from all operations. Its revenue streams contributed as follows: Voice brought Sh87bn, SMS - Sh15.6b, Bundles - Sh15b, MPESA - Sh32b, Fixed line - Sh3b and other services Sh2.6b.The cost of generating those sales, including marketing and salaries came to Sh92billion. Factoring another Sh26bn for interest paid on loans it has taken, depreciation of its equipment and so on, the company made a Profit Before Tax of Sh46bn. It gave Sh14bn to the Exchequer as tax and reported to its shareholders a Net Profit (PAT) of Sh31.87bn. Its Board of Directors recommended that Sh25bn of this be returned to shareholders as dividends. Shareholders will each receive 64 cents per share. Going forward the company will focus more on its fastest growing services - Bundles and MPesa. It will push the Lipa na MPesa to more businesses, and will deploy its 4G network to push its TV decoder to get more people to spend money on mobile data. Investors will note that Free Cash Flow stood at Sh27bn. Going forward the company expects that the cash available to it will be reduced by Sh5.6bn for the construction of the National Police Network. The Statement of Financial Position shows Safaricom has assets of Sh104bn making it about 1/5th the size of KCB (Sh510bn assets) in real terms. Bob Collymore remains CEO for another two years until 2017 by resolution of the Board.