African telcos promised “assured TV profitability” with SaaS
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john Moulding
| 06 October 2023
3 African telcos promised assure d TV profitability with SaaS

African telcos and mobile network owners are being offered a software-as-a-service television platform capability that provides 100 channels of
content and takes care of delivery, apps, UX and billing. The cost to operators is $3 - $4 per subscriber per month.

MwareTV, the company behind the cloud-based, multi-tenant platform, says this wholesale cost assures profitability. “We really understand the pressures on telcos, MNOs and other bodies who recognise that a good television service is a tremendous driver in retaining subscribers, but who are overwhelmed by the technical, operational and legal challenges in launching such an offering,” says Sander Kerstens, CEO at MwareTV.

His company is exhibiting at Mobile World Congress Africa 2023 (Kigali Convention Centre, October 17–19) and will be pointing out that cloud hosting for the TV platform means no capital investment is required by telcos. MwareTV says a TV service can be deployed within as little as eight weeks.

The core MwareTV platform incorporates everything that is required to manage, schedule and deliver an OTT television offering. This includes the content – removing the need for one-to-one negotiations with studios and content syndication businesses.

The SaaS includes brandable white label web clients and apps for all the common platforms (including iOS, Android and Android TV, TVOS, FireTV, KaiOS, Roku, WebOS, Tizen, WebTV and Lightning Framework). There is a billing module in the TVMS (television management system), which is part of the core software.

MwareTV says consumer sign up is easy for the user, and largely automated for the operator. The SaaS ensures renewals are rolled over, for example, and it supports all the common channel business models like FAST, SVOD, pay-per-view and tiered subscriptions.