The professors have confirmed the dates for my talks in College of Health Sciences, University of Abuja and University of Abuja Teaching Hospital. Both are within the University of Abuja system.
College of Health Sciences – Sept 19th
University of Abuja Teaching Hospital – Sept 20th
The exact time will be communicated once the institutions are done with flyers.
Meanwhile, College of Medicine, University of Lagos date will be confirmed this week. It would be 3rd week of September.
These are going to be great talks on some of the most exciting things I have been working with my team on healthcare as it relates with artificial intelligence (AI) connecting our activities in Brussels (Belgium). They are pure academic talks but would be delivered in conservational accessible ways to anyone with secondary school education to appreciate.
I just confirmed an invitation through the French Embassy in Nigeria to speak in an event in Paris. It is to speak in one of the biggest technology-focused events in France. The event holds October 9-10, 2018. I will share more details later.
Besides that, I also want to meet Africans in Paris during the trip. If you have a local community and can organize an event, it would be good we connect and share ideas. We have some good structures and can share one or two things to help people who want to do things back home.
Want to organize the event? Please connect with my community manager via email.
MultiChoice asked for a tougher regulation in South Africa because it was losing some of its best customers to Netflix. It wanted Netflix to be subjected to the same local rules it deals with. Of course, that would not happen since the South African regulator does not have full control of Netflix. It is one of the new challenges local companies would face in the age of internet where the unconstrained and unbounded web distribution structure makes it very challenging for global portals to be regulated in their favors. That was the thesis of my recent article in Harvard Business Review.
The pay-TV operator lost more than 100,000 premium subscribers in the previous financial year. It has lost a further 40,000 subscribers to date.
Whether we like it or not, MultiChoice, the parent of DStv and GOtv, is weeping. It may not be obvious but that does not remove the fact that the company is going through an industry redesign. Its market positioning is being challenged not by local competitors like TStv and KweseTv but by global internet portals like YouTube, Netflix and Facebook. In short, anything that engages people to avoid watching TV is a threat.
It is very intriguing when monopolies weep. It makes nice sound bites except that monetary values are lost, and jobs are always at risks. Many months ago, when TStv launched, with statements boasting of disruptions, I laughed. I called it a Goliath’s challenge, reminding Tekedia readers that TStv has no chance. MutiChoice through clusters of its properties are experts on dealing with distractions like TStv: it has GOtv to take care of TStv and if the Nigerian newbie elevates its game, DStv is there. But there is a competitor from the flank: Netflix.
Nigeria’s Consumer Protection Agency
MultiChoice increased the prices of most of its packages. The consumer protection agency in Nigeria took them to court in Nigeria. MultiChoice has been seen as a monopoly which means it cannot just increase price arbitrarily. The logic makes sense but when you go deeper, you would notice that even MultiChoice will ask for help: can Nigeria’s regulator also stop Netflix from increasing prices for its (Netflix) Nigerian customers?
A Nigerian Court has stopped DStv from increasing its prices in the nation. In July, MultiChoice, the owner of DStv, announced new monthly subscription rates, jacking up the Premium package by 7.5%; the new rates took effect from August 1. The consumers cried foul and sought help from the Consumer Protection Council, a consumer protection advocate funded by government, making a case that MultiChoice was exploiting Nigerian consumers
There is a real argument here when you consider that a local competitor, TStv, has essentially confessed that it was thoroughly beaten by DStv. The implication is that many would think that DStv has a solid positioning that it has to be brought to order.
DStv decoder system
MultiChoice Appeals
MultiChoice Nigeria has appealed the temporary court injunction which froze its price hike. The company does believe that the new prices can stay (being the status quo, in its interpretation). Now, the Consumer Protection Agency (CPC) will have to argue in the Appeal Court. I expect this case to reach the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Multichoice Nigeria, owners of DStv and GOtv, says it has filed an appeal and stay of execution following an interim court order from the Federal High Court directing the company to stop the hike in its subscription rates.
The company, in a statement on Sunday, said the Consumer Protection Council had also been joined in the suit.
The cable company described the order, restraining it from effecting price changes, as a slight on the free market economy.
This is going to become a very important legal battle and will help to shape the understanding of the new global economy in the Nigerian market for some of our regulators. Our regulation is still operating with the industrial age framework.
The Main Issue
If MultiChoice does not increase rates, it has no business in Africa. It is irrelevant if the price in Nigeria is higher than what it prices in Ghana. It has made it clear that running a business in Nigeria is higher because it runs generators and hires private guards unlike in other economies where those are readily provided by governments.
The key reason why MultiChoice is increasing the price is thus: it is losing its best subscribers and to cover and service the loans it took to pay for the TV rights which have made it the best Pay-TV product in Africa, it needs to ask existing customers to pay more, and because TV rights are always going higher it has to budget more for the next cycle of licensing.
The statistic depicts the revenue from the Premier League television broadcasting rights from 1992 to 2019. From 2013 to 2016 the Premier League generated over 3 billion pounds in revenue from its marketing of TV broadcasting rights per year. (source: statista)
In other words, if it loses the most premium customers, it will not have enough money to pay for the TV rights. And if you ask it not to increase the prices on the existing customers, you have technically frozen its business. The product it sells was not created by it: England Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, etc decide their TV rights prices. As these brands continue to increase rights, and MultiChoice continues to see its customer base disintermediated, expecting it to keep prices static is not fair. What the court should have done is to demand that those selling TV rights freeze price increase and those leaving MultiChoice brands stop.
All Together
I expect this case to end in the Supreme Court, and during oral arguments MultiChoice will make its case clearer to the Justices. It needs to explain that its competition is not bounded within the Nigerian geography. And that it has to pay and save money to acquire the TV rights which attract people to it. I do think MultiChoice is working to take this all the way unless Appeal Court gives it a better landing. At the end, the court will side with MultiChoice though they would ask it to reduce the increase a little.
As we enter the ‘ember months (September, October, November and December), I want you to take the next few days, before 1st September arrives, to think ONE THING you need to do, in these four months, to improve your career or your business in 2019.
You might have noticed mine: I will give many talks. Our internal data shows that the more I give talks, the more we expand client base. As always, the best time to audition for a job is when there is no job available. So, I want to give at least 40 talks in the next four months. Some will be open to the public while many would be closed. But they will achieve ONE THING: expand our operations through thought-leadership.
Think your own ONE THING and get it done. Remember, now is the time to plan for 2019 as companies are making budgets. Depending on your sector, if you wait for January to engage some clients, you would be late as most would be concluding annual budgets by December. Only a business toddler waits for January to begin a new year.
If you work for state governments and show up in January, you have missed a year! Most things that would happen in 2019 will be concluded in the next four months in most African economies.
Yes, if you have a BIG IDEA, now is the time to show up and get them in the budgets of your clients [sure, not all institutions run on January-December financial year, but most do]. Get them to make your ideas priority projects by clearly explaining how those ideas will improve their margins and operations.
This ’ember-month period, we are working in leading Nigerian SMEs, startups and big corporations, at different levels of formation and growth, helping them on business roadmaps, strategies and tools for innovation and growth. Our services cut across industrial sectors and functional areas.
We have few slots remaining: email my community manager (on click) to schedule to visit your firm. You would like our perspectives as they are deep. Yes, we do not regurgitate sound bites. We are entrepreneurs first and we will share how we are dealing with issues you are facing.
We execute our missions via three ways:
Development of Business Roadmap & Strategy: A business plan is not enough to anchor business execution. A Roadmap Document is required especially in a sector which is in a state of flux [changing market, changing model, startup, competition, regulation, etc]. To avoid pursuing many windy paths or dead ends, a roadmap helps to encapsulate a profitable path to the vision with pillars and enablers necessary for success.
Discovery Innovation Workshop: To innovate is to set a new basis of competition in an economy, business sector or market. Typically, it results to disruption. This workshop will focus on innovation and growth because growth is the reward of innovation. Otherwise, that innovation is actually an invention. I will be the lead instructor with my supporting crew. The table below provides the workshop structure. We can adapt this workshop to two days.
Discovery Innovation Presentation: This is a four-hour seminar where we will present what is happening in your market, customized for your company, and then offer insights on how you can plot your strategies to win. This goes beyond industry statistics and typical SWOT analysis. We work to help clients see their markets in new ways, providing roadmaps on how they can unlock opportunities. It is an intense talk, combining technology, finance, political economy and strategy. As technology redesigns markets, I break the implications in short, medium and long-terms.
For more on these services and structure, please click here.
Our Community Manager is waiting to schedule a time with you; email tekedia@fasmicro.com
