CENTRESTAGE: Streaming into the new age-PHOTOS

Let’s take a journey back in time.

A time when watching something like a movie used to be an event. You planned for it for days before going to a neighbour or a movie store to get a film that was probably months old.

It was bulky, expensive and just a bother. You never wanted to miss a scene because rewinding was a near nightmare. Then going home and realising that your player was “dirty” and needed a head cleaner which cost more.

Technology then advanced and in came the digital video disc (DVD) and it was the best thing ever. It was much lighter and could hold more than one movie. Remember the five-in-one DVDs that used to and amazingly, still are hawked around?

DVDs changed the game, the DVD player was not as expensive or costly to maintain. With a laptop, you could be entertained for days.

“Burning” no longer meant being on fire, it meant copying videos into a blank DVD. But as much as many are still enjoying DVDs, in came the USB Flash drive and again, it made it easier to carry around movies, music and images.

If you visit a friend and they have awesome movies or TV shows, you just hand over your flash drive and depending on the storage capacity, you get whatever you want and head on home.

This is much cheaper but it also means having many drives for all your entertainment through the year.

Enter the new age; streaming. As internet connectivity gets better and more reliable thanks to providers like Zuku, Safaricom, Liquid Telecom and Faiba, people are ditching the flash drive and no longer having to worry about where to store their music, movies, TV shows and other entertainment mediums.

While many depend on someone downloading a file, be it a movie or a song and then putting it on a DVD and selling it for Sh50 or on a flash drive for Sh30, streaming is as easy as visiting a site and clicking send. You just need stable internet connection.

This may still be available to a few but the numbers are growing and the Video-on-demand suppliers are taking note.

Just last month, iflix, a subscription video-on-demand service focused on emerging markets, launched in Kenya. The services offers unlimited access to a number of the world’s best movies, TV shows and more, by simply signing up for a free trial on their website and can be accessed even on mobile. The monthly retail subscription goes for only Sh260.

With over 170 studio and distributor partnerships, iflix had a total of 5 million subscribers as of May this year. It’s also available in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brunei, the Maldives, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Cambodia, and Nigeria.

Iflix marketing manager, Bernice Kibuthia, attributed the increase in streaming sites in Kenya to increased demand for content, accessibility to the internet, as well as increased internet speeds.

“Easier accessibility to internet-enabled devices has given people an easy platform to a stream content. Improved internet speeds and connectivity has also enabled many Kenyans to stream content painlessly,” said Ms Kibuthia.

She added that “An increased demand for premium content and the need by consumers to control their entertainment is also a contributing factor.”

 Iflix is just one of the many such suppliers. Showmax, another internet-based subscription video on demand service supplying an extensive catalogue of TV shows and movies, was launched in Kenya in October last year, as well as across 39 other African countries. Showmax also broadcasts local TV shows such as Auntie Boss and Churchill Live. Its services are accessible across a wide range of devices from smart TVs and computers to smart phones and tablets.

All these pale in comparison when standing next to the world’s most popular streaming site Netflix, which has revolutionised streaming.

In March this year, Netflix added 5 million members globally, bringing its total subscriber base to just shy of 99 million users, according to CNN. At the same time, the company planned a significant marketing push so as to keep growing and said it would spend more than $1 billion this year to acquire more members.

Some of the world’s biggest streaming sites include Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, Sling, Crackle, Vevo and Twitch. Illegal streaming are also popping up by the day and are very popular.

Streaming is even bigger when it comes to music and leading the pack is Spotify, a digital music service that gives consumers access to millions of songs. Launched in 2008, the service runs on all gadgets; tablets, smartphones and even the television.

According to Time, Spotify is now available in 58 countries. It now boasts of 60 million active users, 20 per cent of whom pay for its services.

Apple Music is also a popular music and video streaming service by tech giant Apple Inc.

By June this year, Apple Music, which had been two years in existence, had about 27 million subscribers, according to Business Insider. The services are however, only available in the United States, Europe, Asia and in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

With the rising numbers of global streaming services with the continued digitisation of the world, we are yet to see what is in store.

Not to be left behind is Safaricom who launched their home internet service, Safaricom Fiber.

According to Sylvia Mulinge, the director in charge of consumer business, more than 83,000 homes in select places in Kenya have been connected.

She says demand is high and the company is working hard to roll out to more homes across the country.

“Our customers can access content from partners including ShowMax. Customers also have the option of other third party providers whose content can be accessed through the service.”