Internet Access and Africa

Business Plan

What follows in this document is a lean business plan that will describe and detail a streaming business solution and plan for EbonyLifeTV and the market it will reside within, that being several countries in the continent of Africa. The primary items that will be covered include the overall strategy, the tactics that will be used to execute the strategy, the concrete specifics that will be used along the way and the "essential numbers" that are forecasted and planned for including sales, spending and cash flows. While the streaming market is starting to become thick with competition, now is the time to deploy what is, at the end of the day, a rather low-cost yet high-volume business opportunity.

Analysis

Strategy

• Secure licenses and access to material that would be attractive to viewers of EbonyLifeTV.

• Content streamed from a bastion of web servers to any paying customer with internet access

• Target market will be internet consumers in Nigeria, the rest of Africa and beyond, depending on the stage of deployment

• Like Netflix, will be charged as a flat fee per month and content can then be consumed at whatever level is desired. Charge remains the same regardless.

• Payment can be rendered via gift cards, online payment sites (e.g. PayPal, etc.) or via traditional credit cards

• Streaming has grown at stratospheric rates since it became really popular in the last five to ten years and that growth will continue to mushroom so long as more and more people get online and speeds get faster and faster

• Content could and should be streamed to audio/video electronics, tablets and smartphones in the countries that are being serviced. The idea is to maximize the amount of people who partake, whether it be on the comfort of one's one home or while one is mobile such as traveling on the road, waiting for one's next meeting or class, and so forth.

Tactics to Execute Strategy

• Mild discounts can be given to people who are willing to commit for more than a month at a time (three months, six months, annually, etc.)

• Allow integration and linkage with social media sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter and others, depending on the market

• Allow access via an application that can be loaded on consumer televisions (e.g. Smart TV's, RokuTV, etc.), streaming boxes (e.g. Amazon FireTV, AppleTV, Roku, etc.) and Blu-Ray or DVD players from all of the common brands (e.g. LG, Sony, etc.) and DVR's (Tivo, cable company offerings, etc.). The point is to allow for access on a wide array of devices so as to gain customers without constraining people to certain brands or audio/video considerations.

• Revenue for the firm will be supplemented through unobtrusive but omnipresent ads for other paid products, products to be marketed for similar products (consumer electronics, etc.) and so forth

• All content on the website and application will be SEO optimized so as to allow for searches to revenue-creating and -sustaining

• Installation guides will be offered on the website and through other marketing avenues to make integration of the consumer electronics and the app as seamless as possible. On-screen guides within the app itself will be kept as simple yet still secure at the same time. This is vital to gain and keep customer trust.

• Complete and seamless integration with all relevant coding/source code examples out there, up to and including the internet, iOS (Apple) and Android/Google.

• It will be a focus to keep the source code and data as localized to EbonyLife TV and their intellectual property as possible. However, building things from the ground up is not the easiest thing to do. As such, there will be the use of "turnkey" solutions that can be supported and controlled internally by EbonyLife TV but while also using proven solutions that have paid dividends with other streaming services. One turnkey solution that will surely be used is Stream Hash. It is affordable, incorporates the iOS/Android coding schemes mentioned above and it is something that EbonyLife TV can implement without having to realize a ton (if at all) on an exterior service group if there any problems that arise. However, Hash is available to offer support if it is needed and the cost to license and use the coding and methods they have is very reasonable in relation to the revenue that can be realized from the investment offered.

• All media will be encoded, formatted and made available to an array of servers and data farms that is known as a content delivery network, or CDN.

• A staff of information technology specialists will be hired to build, maintain and service the CDN as well as the other computer systems and programs such as the client relationships management (CRM) software, email, instant messaging and so forth.

• A customer service staff will be hired to service clients online as well as on the phone. Online options will include email, instant chat and so forth. Service level agreements (SLA's) will be quoted to customers and they will be enforced. For example, if the typical turnaround time for an email request is 24 hours, that is what will be met.

• IT will also ensure that as much as is possible is self-service including enrolling in the service, using parental/age controls on content for families with children and so forth. However, customers will be encouraged and helped quickly if they need a live person if the situation requires it or the customer demands it.

• Need to leverage marketing staff to advertise the new platform option online as well as within the app and existing channel themselves. Online ads would include on the company website as well as paid slots on sites or services like Google and so forth. Proper SEO optimization and search engine mapping will be full leveraged so as to direct as many people as possible to the service and what it has to offer, now and going forward into the future.

• The GUI (graphical user interface) will be fairly standard but users will be allowed to customize their interface so that the buttons, options and themes that are present align with their preferences and that keep the most used options and features at the ready. This is a boon for many consumers as opposed to using a static interface that everyone is required to stick with even if they are not a fan of the configuration.

Concrete Specifics

• EbonyLife TV is Africa's first globa and black entertainment/lifestyle network.

• The EbonyLife TV platform was initially launched on June 30th, 2013

• The platform began broadcasting on July 1st, 2013 to the Pan-African audience in Nigeria and other countries

• It is present and manifests in a license agreement with MultiChoice (DStv) Africa. This is the largest Pay-TV platform in the African continent

• The channel is distributed to a total of nearly fifty countries across Africa and this includes South Africa

• EbonyLife TV is one of several channels on the broader DStv platform.

• Despite being one of many options, it is already one of the more popular channels that people can watch

• At present, EbonyLife TV produces over 1000 hours of premium an original homegrown content.

• The genres that are encompassed and included with the above include talk, entertainment, reality, comedy, drama, lifestyle, factual and so forth.

• 80% of the content involved is exclusive to EbonyLife TV and is not broadcast or served up by any other channel or streaming outlet. This makes EbonyLife TV the largest self-served and self-sustained library on the planet

• There is a progression here from having a fixed schedule of broadcasting and programming to allowing people to watch content as and when they want to.

• This would allow people to "binge" on a show to "catch up" with a show that is in progress but the viewer wants to start from the beginning rather than having to wait for reruns or catch the show mid-stream

• The dual-prong strategy allows EbonyLife TV to take advantage of the people that are resisting cord-cutting as well as the people that prefer or need content on demand.

• There might come a time where a traditional channel with a fixed schedule will be obsolete. However, that day is not here yet and using the dual approach in the right proportions and amounts will allow for a smooth transition rather than requiring a sudden changes if the bottom falls out on traditional broadcast/syndicated television channels, online or not.

• Pilot of EbonyLife TV streaming service will begin on July 1st, 2017. This will allow for a small group of users to "beta test" the service so as to report on feelings about uptime, aesthetics, navigations quality, desired features and so forth

• Options and features that should be included include recommendation of similar products to those being viewed (and this would be based on the patterns of others as well as genre in general), voice search, the ability to search by genre, actor, release date, alerts for new episodes (as they become available or with a few days notice) and so forth, etc.

• Programs that are in the middle of being viewed will be saved in a bookmark fashion is playback is stopped for any reason, and this would include the user pausing it, power being lost by the consumer, coverage being lost by the consumer or anything else like that. This allows the user to keep their place without having to personally keep track of where they were at a given time.

• Marketing will be done heavily over email but users will be given full power over how often they get emails, what those emails pertain to and so forth. If users just want account alerts, etc., they can do that. They can also customize what offerings they get details about.

• Upgrades to content and such will be done entirely from the home hub of data and applications servers. Absolutely no need to buy new equipment beyond what is already done every few years or so already (TV's wearing, new technology, etc.). Only real limitation is bandwidth. The requirement bandwidth for the service will be kept to a minimum and will be widely advertised. Anyone with a connection of 5-10 mbps or faster should not have a problem viewing the channel. Many people have internet connection that are somewhat or much faster than this

• Offline downloading and viewing on a rental/expiration basis can be done for those that will not have internet access but want to view shows and/or internet quality is intermittent. Netflix is already planning to do this and this should be an option that EbonyLife TV uses so long as the proper DRM and other protections are in place. At the same time, the DRM and other protections should not be maddening or restrictive because users will revolt and complain if it is

• Price point for the service will be comparable with Netflix. This would be about $10-15 a month USD. An integration with other benefits and perks on par with what Amazon does with their Prime offering is something that could and should be explored at some future point. However, the scope of the project in play here should not become too wide at this point so that the eye does not leave the proverbial ball, to so speak.

• Up-time and availability should be no less than 99%. Barring the occasional blip here and there, the service should be up 24/7/365 . . . without fail

• Extra resources should be deployed during peak times such as nights, weekends and holidays

• Any pattern of outages or usability problems should be explored, identified and fixed immediately

• IT will be charged with doing maintenance in a way that allows for up-time to continue while a portion of the system is upgraded. This pattern should continue as setup regresses and continues.

• Target demographics for the EbonyLife TV will very much match those of the existing channel on DStv. Indeed, it would include all adults through all tiers of age but the focus and prime market would be the 18-34 and 35-55 markets, with the former being the most significant due to younger people being online and consuming content more than the older generations. Families with children would also be a primary demographic to look at and otherwise make content to relate to.

Essential Numbers

• The goal is to gain $50 million of revenue per year within the first 24 months. It should happen within 12-18 and sales will be aggressive. However, it would be wise to temper expectations and have a "cushion" just in case there are speed bumps during installation.

• The overall budget will be about $20 million at the onset. This should be more than enough to get everything up and running. This would include all of the data services, equipment, internet bandwidth, IT and other operations staff and so forth. Staff levels can be raised or lowered based on demand, the issues that arise and so forth. There should always be a "cushion" in terms of data storage, bandwidth and staffing levels. While being excessive is wasteful and should be avoided, being caught short-handed with anything is a non-starter and should be avoided.

• Investment capital apart from existing budgets and expenditures, totaling $50 million, will be set aside to help weather any losses or unexpected expenses while the service moves towards break-even status. More capital can be infused if necessary but the EbonyLife TV platform as it already exists is already quite profitable and it is just a matter of getting the streaming service online and working out any service or quality-related kinks that arise. The "beta testing" is being done as a means to iron out most of the problems before people are able to buy the product with no limits.