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...

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…