Kwes\u00e9 Play has launched in South Africa and announced that it is the official partner for Roku and Netflix in Africa.<\/p>\n
The company is run by Econet Media, a subsidiary of the company which owns Liquid Telecom.<\/p>\n
Its partnership with Roku allowed Kwes\u00e9 to develop a custom media box for its service, which\u00a0includes approval from ICASA.<\/p>\n
The Kwes\u00e9 Play media box is available for R1,599 from tech retailers, and\u00a0supports 720p and 1080p HD video streaming through an HDMI port.<\/p>\n
It also has a built-in player that can play media via a USB port.<\/p>\n
Kwes\u00e9\u2019s Roku player also supports Wi-Fi, has an Ethernet port, and a microSD card slot.<\/p>\n
The company said that while the media box is a Roku, not all apps on the Roku platform will be available on Kwes\u00e9 Play at launch.<\/p>\n
Kwes\u00e9 Play CEO Ryan Solovei said this was done for several reasons, including to prevent the installation of apps that enable piracy. This is a big concern for content owners, and something they had to address.<\/p>\n
Kwes\u00e9 also wants to ensure that each channel on its Roku delivers an excellent experience to customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a list of 5,000 channels to choose from, and we narrowed it down to 100\u00a0for now. We will grow the content offering exponentially over time,\u201d said Solovei.<\/p>\n
While many channels were already available through content delivery networks with nodes in South Africa, there are still many more that are not locally mirrored.<\/p>\n
Kwes\u00e9 has worked to bring those channels onto its network, said\u00a0Solovei.<\/p>\n
He explained that they can host content on several nodes on Liquid Telecom\u2019s network across the continent, including its data centres in South Africa \u2013 which it acquired from Neotel.<\/p>\n
They also peer at NAPAfrica in Teraco\u2019s data centres, giving them access to content hosted there.<\/p>\n
As Kwes\u00e9 Play adds more channels to its platform, the aim is to ensure they deliver content from data centres close to subscribers.<\/p>\n
Kwes\u00e9 has also partnered with Netflix for its launch, which it said is a first for Africa.<\/p>\n
Under its agreement, Kwes\u00e9 can bill customers on behalf of Netflix in local currency and will be able to use Netflix\u2019s brand to market Kwes\u00e9 Play.<\/p>\n
Chris Whiteley, the head of business development for EMEA at Netflix, told MyBroadband the partnership will enable new methods of payment to subscribers in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Kwes\u00e9\u2019s billing integration will let clients add their Netflix subscriptions to their bill with their operator, and pay for the service in rand.<\/p>\n
Solovei told MyBroadband that their Netflix prices were set when negotiations with Netflix started at the end of 2015 \u2013 when the rand was weak.<\/p>\n
Kwes\u00e9 is working on reducing its Netflix prices to bring them in line with their US dollar equivalent. The company also plans to\u00a0launch across Africa in the coming months, said Solovei.<\/p>\n
Pricing for Netflix subscriptions purchased through Kwes\u00e9 are summarised in the table below.<\/p>\n