LUSAKA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- TopStar, a Zambian-Chinese joint venture on pay-TV services, on Saturday announced the expansion of its signal coverage for local TV stations.
The firm, a joint venture created by the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and Chinese StarTimes Group, is the official pubic signal distributor.
"We have the widest terrestrial signal coverage that carry over 20 indigenous Zambian TV stations over a network of 64 transmitters across all 10 provinces," Cliff Sichone, the firm's vice-president, said in a release to announce the inclusion of three more local television stations to its satellite dish service.
TopStar has contributed greatly to the revolutionization of the television industry in Zambia, said Sichone.
He said all the local television stations have also been included on the StarTimes ON App which provides video on demand and live streaming.
Currently, the StarTimes ON APP, previously branded as the StarTimes APP, has been downloaded 360,000 times in Zambia, he added.
He further said the introduction of Zambian Channels to the StarTimes ON APP is a sign that the Zambian television industry is not being left behind in the digital business market.
"TopStar is not only the public distributor, but also runs a subscriber management business that requires constant innovation and customer retention," he said.
According to him, the StarTimes ON APP is taking advantage of the growing business opportunities that internet based services provide.
StarTimes, a leading digital TV operator in Africa, launched StarTimes ON in 2018 as part of its Over The Top (OTT) business, officially declaring that online video streaming service of the media giant is "ON" in the market.
StarTimes provides Terrestrial TV (DTT) and Satellite TV (DTH) services to millions of customers in the African market spanning 30 countries.
