Naspers eyes China for DStv-type offering
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Consumer Industries Editor
CAPE TOWN Media and electronic broadcasting giant Naspers is laying the groundwork for a satellite television broadcast licence in China so that it is able to provide a product similar to its African DStv offerings.
Group nonexecutive chairman Ton Vosloo told the Cape Town Press Club yesterday that he could not say more at this stage, as the group was hopeful it was making headway. With China hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, it was likely to open up various markets .
Asked whether Naspers would be interested in buying Nigerian-owned daily newspaper ThisDay if it were for sale, Vosloo said, `I don`t think so`.
ThisDay was struggling, selling 13000-18000 copies a day and costing `an arm and a leg`, he said. Naspers`s own Daily Sun, which it started two years ago, now has daily sales of about 300 000 because it is addressing the market of the future. ThisDay targeted a shrinking white community and is pitched too high for the total market, he said.
Vosloo was asked whether the group`s weekly Afrikaans tabloid shocker, Son , was the face of journalism today. He said Naspers launched it with the intention of introducing people who were not accustomed to reading newspapers to a product that was written simply and lucidly, with short paragraphs and sentences. Readers were expected to graduate eventually from Son to more upmarket newspapers such as Die Burger .
Vosloo said SA`s English-speaking press was now largely black-owned, which meant it would not be as subservient to the British, which was always the bane of the English press. The Irishowned Independent Newspapers group was milking the former Argus Group for dividends and had been coy about investing in equipment and resources, making it difficult to depend on newspapers that once delivered hard news.
Vosloo said Afrikaans papers were leading the country. Naspers had the most modern equipment, best working conditions and, most important, salaries and benefits for journalists, Vosloo said. The Afrikaans press had used the changeover in power to establish itself as an independent source of news, serving the buying public, and circulation figures showed this positioning was correct.
Vosloo was not so hopeful about the hearts and minds of SA`s newspapers. Some were doing a good job in seeking out corruption, but others showed a tooready acceptance of government`s agenda, he said. President Thabo Mbeki`s cabinet was largely doing a good job with exceptions but the temptation of too much power could be seductive.
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