Visitors to the Mozambique town of Marracuene in southeastern Africa will notice two logos on the satellite dishes attached to local buildings: the first reads ‘StarTimes’, the second ‘China Aid’. A mural is normally visible showing the flags of China and Mozambique too.

Similar murals next to the same satellite systems can these days be seen across Africa, all set up for free to provide affordable TV services to local communities. The company at the heart of this digitization drive — StarTimes — is little known back home in China, yet it has become one of the most prominent television companies on the African continent. 

This week, The Wire looks at StarTimes’ role in promoting China’s image in Africa, the support it receives from the Chinese state, and just how deep it has delved into some of the world’s least developed countries.

PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Pang Xinxing, a former engineer with a background in the propaganda department of a state-owned geological engineering firm, established StarTimes in 1988. Pang, who turns 65 this year, later responded to former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin’s call for more outbound investment by taking StarTimes to Africa, starting from 2002. In 2007, StarTimes established a subsidiary in Rwanda and received the country’s first digital TV operator license.

The company says it now has subsidiaries in 37 African countries, with active digital TV operations in more than 20, and has amassed 13 million digital TV subscribers and 20 million mobile subscribers. If free-to-air channels are included, the number of TV subscribers is as high as 25 million. According to StarTimes, 95 percent of the staff in the countries where it operates are locals, although the most senior staff member in many remains Chinese. Pang is still the controlling shareholder with a 82.5 percent stake, according to WireScreen.

StarTimes is ostensibly a private company, but has enjoyed easy access to credit through China’s Export-Import Bank to facilitate its growth in Africa.

“From day one, the mission was: can people enjoy television, and enjoy it affordably, because that’s always been the biggest barrier to entry in this market,” says Myke Mwai, StarTimes’ spokesman in Kenya. StarTimes has hired 700 people in Kenya alone, according to Mwai, with only 10 of those coming from China.

“Is StarTimes a mouthpiece of government? I don’t necessarily think so. I think we’re a mouthpiece of diversity,” Mwai adds. “The current population of China is…1.4 billion people. It would be unfair to ignore what they bring to the table from the arts.”

Is StarTimes a mouthpiece of government? I don’t necessarily think so. I think we’re a mouthpiece of diversity.

Myke Mwai, StarTimes’ spokesman in Kenya

StarTimes cemented its partnership with the Chinese state in December 2015 when Xi Jinping announced a plan to provide satellite TV connectivity to 10,000 African villages at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Beijing selected StarTimes as the project’s contractor.

Chinese diplomats in African countries frequently champion the benefits of this project at events to celebrate installations. By December 2022, the project had covered 9,512 villages in 21 countries, giving coverage to almost 10 million people, according to Mwai.

However, some villages only seem to experience a benefit for a short time.

“The project was sold in the media as this massive life changer…it hasn’t changed the lives of most people,” says Dani Madrid-Morales, lecturer in journalism and global communication at the University of Sheffield. On a recent visit to Kenya, Madrid-Morales went to 13 villages across a variety of provinces, covering up to five households in each village.

“When technology fails in those places, there’s not going to be any company that has the capacity to revisit those places and fix the technology.” Madrid-Morales says.

Mwai, the StarTimes spokesman in Kenya, says the company has a network of more than 30,000 contractors in the country, most of whom are responsible for technology maintenance on a 24/7 basis.

“Even cars break down when you buy them, so the same thing is expected of decoders,” Mwai says, referring to the devices that enable satellite broadcasting. “We do have a very strong dealer network that is consistently out there…sorting out technical issues whenever they arise.”

Other observers point out that the 10,000 Villages Project has done more to expand access to information than other international aid projects.

“Even if they [villagers] can’t afford it at home, the access is still in local clinics, and in schools, [and in] local community centers,” says Angela Lewis, lecturer at the Department of Media and Communications at Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University, who has written a book on the growth of StarTimes. “There’s nothing that StarTimes can do about people’s low income levels. All they can do is try to make a dent in a long-term problem.”

DIGITIZING DIPLOMACY

The transition from analogue to digital broadcasting during the 2010s allowed StarTimes to integrate itself into the media ecosystems across Africa. Before long, some of China’s most recognized state media brands became available to viewers.

“Because StarTimes was involved in many of those transitions, providing the technology, the infrastructure and so on, it opened up a space for StarTimes to include CGTN as one of the channels that was made available to people,” says Madrid-Morales.

CGTN is the international broadcasting arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, and produces content in five foreign languages including English and French. “In some countries, when you watch TV for free without paying anything, CGTN is there,” Madrid-Morales adds.

OWN GOAL DIPLOMACY

Even so, StarTimes’ most popular programming is not its imported Chinese news or drama shows. 

“The number one attraction that StarTimes has for its customers is [European] football,” says Madrid-Morales, who asked locals about their viewing preferences during his 2021 visit to Kenya. “There’s StarTimes-branded cartoons, kung fu and martial arts, and Chinese drama channels. Very few people would say by default that those are the channels that they would watch.”

StarTimes takes opportunities to broadcast China-friendly content alongside its more popular offerings. In March 2020, as COVID-19 spread globally, StarTimes launched a news program dedicated to covering the spread of the disease, which included interviews with Africans in China praising the country’s pandemic controls.

Whether you’re talking to people who are in villages, or you’re talking to people in cities, they all know that, at the heart of it, it is a China image-building, China influence-building company.

Angela Lewis, lecturer at the Department of Media and Communications at Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University

“That show was definitely toeing the line of Beijing and it was on in multiple languages,” says Madrid-Morales. “And it was inserted onto every single channel, so if you were watching sports at some time in the day, while you were watching a football game, it would stop and you would get 10 minutes of this TV show.”

Below are some examples demonstrating StarTimes’ influence over the broadcasting industries in several African countries:

“A lot of the private, established African broadcasters feel that StarTimes has been getting preferential treatment,” says Lewis. “In the minds of Africans, whether they are for or against StarTimes, there is no confusion. Whether you’re talking to people who are in villages, or you’re talking to people in cities, they all know that, at the heart of it, it is a China image-building, China influence-building company.”

StarTimes’ Mwai in Kenya says the company does have strategic content partnerships where it received Chinese government funding, but said that the resulting programming identified new local acting talent.

“I think working with government is something that anyone in the broadcasting industry should see as a great avenue to expose content to the general public,” Mwai says. “I think that’s the role that government plays; enabling exposure.”