GoTV, owned by Multichoice, is the market leader in the sale of set top boxes, commonly known as decoders, in Kenya a new Ipsos-Synovate study shows.
The study carried out in the first part of February 2015 reveals that the GoTV leads the market at 37% presence among TV viewers followed by StarTimes at 23%. DStv is at 20% while Zuku is at 16%. Independent set top box vendors have 5% market share. So far only 35% of Kenyans have migrated to digital television, according to the research.
The research comes at a time when there is a standoff between the government and four local TV stations over the award of digital signal distribution to two players, PANG and Signet.
Since GoTV, Zuku and DStv entered the market long before the digital migration started, the survey shows StarTimes, which came in just recently, has clearly grabbed the biggest market share in the digital broadcast environment.
Advertisers now know where to pump their money and Safaricom, the largest advertiser on TV, is taking a wait-and-see attitude. Safaricom’s Legal and Corporate Affairs director Nzioka Waita was quoted by NairobiTech saying: “We will need certified numbers of eyeballs distribution before we start marketing on the digital platforms.”
