26 Facts About StarTimes

StarTimes is a Chinese electronics and media company with strong presence in Sub-Saharan Africa.

StarTimes offers digital terrestrial television and satellite television services to consumers, and provides technologies to countries and broadcasters that are switching from analog to digital television.

StarTimes Group was founded in 1988 by Chinese engineer Pang Xinxing, who is the company's current chairman.

Since then, StarTimes has established subsidiaries in 30 African countries.

On 23 November 2016, StarTimes was one of the three companies selected by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to establish and operate DTH distribution services in Pakistan for 15 years.

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In 2018, StarTimes began to implement "Access to satellite TV for 10,000 African villages", a China-Africa cooperation project aimed at giving rural areas of Africa access to digital media.

Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and StarTimes launched in Zambia in 2017 TopStar Communication Company Limited, a public signal distributor and Zambia's official digital migration agent, as a joint-venture.

In June 2018, StarTimes launched ON, a video streaming service giving access to dozens of channels in Africa.

In 2011, StarTimes hosted the first African Digital TV Development Seminar, which has been held for seven consecutive years; it is a talking shop for African countries to discuss digital migration in Africa.

In 2015, StarTimes signed an exclusive broadcasting contract with the Bundesliga for five years in all sub-Saharan countries, on its StarTimes Sports channels, becoming Bundesliga's partner in Africa.

In 2015, StarTimes obtained the rights to televise French Ligue 1 and Italian Serie A in Sub-Saharan countries.

In June 2016, StarTimes signed a three-year exclusive broadcasting contract with the Chinese Super League for Sub-Saharan Africa.

In November 2016, StarTimes Group signed a media agreement with Ghana Football Association to promote the Ghana Premier League in Sub-Saharan Africa and the infrastructural development of the game in the West African country during the coming decade.

In January 2020, one month after losing the franchise, StarTimes won the bid and was named as Television Rights Holder of the Ghana Premier League and the FA Cup.

StarTimes signed a partnership with Ivoirian football club ASEC Mimosas.

On 19 July 2017, StarTimes acquired exclusive media rights in Sub-Saharan Africa for FIBA's national team competitions from 2017 to 2021, including the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.

Early August 2020, StarTimes acquired Spanish top league LaLiga Santander broadcasting rights until 2024 across sub-Saharan Africa.

In January 2021, The Confederation Africaine de Football officialized the signing of an agreement by which StarTimes obtains the broadcasting rights for the Total African Nations Championship, Cameroon 2020.

In Guinea, StarTimes made a video about Ebola virus and precautionary measures, and distributed sanitation materials to the local communities.

In Nigeria, StarTimes produced educational materials, distributed gloves and masks, and put Ebola prevention info on its website and Facebook account.

In 2017, StarTimes Group was tasked to carry out Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages, a project of the Government of China and various African governments.

In 2016, StarTimes launched a digital television that supports signal inputs of both terrestrial digital television and satellite television without a decoder.

StarTimes developed 2-in-1 combo decoders or Dual Mode Decoders that can support both DTT and DTH services which were not common in some decoders.

StarTimes established its translation and dubbing center, which has 10,000 hours' output capacity, dubs in eight languages—Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba and Luganda— in 2011.

Later, StarTimes held similar contests in Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, and Cote d'Ivoire.

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Multiple outlets have claimed that StarTimes is promoting news content that favours the Chinese government by placing China Global Television Network channels on the platform's most cheapest package, while other international news channels, such as BBC World News, cost even more.