High expectations as TStv dangles cable network option at Nigerians
A recently launched indigenous cable pay TV has come to break a monopoly. But will Nigerians get more for less pay as promised?
We have gone through a number of challenges, but let me inform Nigerians that we now here to stay.” Those were the words of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Telcom Satellite Limited, owners of the newly launched TStv Africa, Dr Echefu Bright Ikechukwu, when the cable TV was launched in Abuja on October 1, 2017.
Has the monopoly of other providers shattered? Many Nigerians believe so. They said the launch could not have come at a better time.
They also commended the idea of October 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day, to roll out the services noting that the development signified freedom from existing pay TV providers.
A banker, Mr Emma Odion, said he was very happy when he heard that an indigenous pay TV had made its entry into the digital satellite market. “I think this will bring relief to a lot of Nigerians. This is what we have been asking for,” he said.
A civil servant, Abdullah Isa, said; “How can I be paying for a service not rendered? You will be away from home for days or weeks and then lose all your subscription. I understand TStv is not like that.”
Also speaking, Esther Adetona, a teacher, said if the owners of the new firm could live by their words, Tstv would give other pay TVs the run for their money.
“Competition is good. So for those who have been treating us how they like for years, their time is up because millions will port to TStv within one month,” she said.
At the launch of TStv at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, Dr Echefu said they would introduce the Pay-as-You-Consume model, an option other providers had insisted was not possible, arguing that they bought the contents they Competition is good. So for those who have been treating us how they like for years, their time is up because millions will port to TStv within one month relay as a whole and not in bits.
He also said pay TV offers 200 rich blend of local and international channels and packages for entertainment, including news, sports, kids and health among others.
Besides, he said, TStv will also show live sports like the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Europa League and much more. Some sport channels on TStv Africa are Sport 1-10, Fox Sport HD and Ts Sports.
He said those in the rural areas could also subscribe with as low as N500 or even N100.
Dr Echefu also said their services would offer viewers the experience of HD and SD video, internet services, broadband, TV and radio, at a very affordable rate.
According to him: “What makes the project unique is that it would start with 100 channels of local, regional and international programmes in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Ghanaian, Sierra Leonean and Liberian languages among others.”
TStv Africa aims to cover the 36 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but will be launch first in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Kano.
Also speaking, Madu Ugo, Head of Corporate Communications, welcomed Nigerians to “a new world” and assured that TStv will “ensure that their yearnings about pay TV are met.”
But just few days after the service was launched, a controversy over piracy rocked the firm as two companies accused it of using its content.
Turner Broadcasting System Europe, in a letter to TStv entitled “Re: Formal notice to imperatively desist distributing Turner’s channels,” dated September 27, 2017, said “it has come to our attention that TSTV intends to launch on October 1, 2017 a package of channels that would include CNN. In this respect, the distribution and broadcast of the above-mentioned channel in Africa, including in Nigeria, has to be authorised by us in advance. The distribution and broadcast of this channel without authorization will infringe our intellectual property rights and constitute acts of piracy.” The letter, according to a national newspaper, was signed by a director at Turner, Eleanor Browne.
The letter added an advice that: “In this context, we invite you to undertake in writing not to distribute CNN, and not to use or reproduce the channel’s trademarks on any advertising or promotional material.”
The letter was stamped “received” at TSTV by one Umana Kufre, dated September 29, 2017, and copied National Broadcasting Commission, where it was also stamped “received” on September 29, 2017. Turner also copied the Nigerian Copyright Commission.
In the same vein, another content provider, beIN, wrote a similar letter to TSTV entitled “Illegal Pirating of BEIN Content: Cease & Desist.” The letter was dated September 28, 2017, and copied to the Nigerian Copyright Commission and received on September 29. The same official at TSTV, Umana Kufre, “received” the letter on September 29.
beIN in its letter noted that it is “the exclusive licensee of the broadcast rights to many of the world’s major international sporting leagues and other entertainment content in our various territories,” adding that “other parties are not permitted to copy and re-broadcast beIN content without express authorization.”
The beIN letter, signed by its Director of MENA Legal Affairs, Dr Mohammad ElSaid requested TSTV within seven days to “cease and desist from selling, copying, making available, communicating, distributing, or otherwise infringing the copyright in any beIN content, within Zimbabwe, or anywhere else in the world; cease and desist from using beIN trademarks.”
TSTV was also required to provide written confirmation that it not only received the letter from beIN, but that it has ceased and desisted from infringing the activity.
However, the new TV provider denied the letters and described them as frivolous. TSTV in tweets on its twitter handle, @ tstvafrica, urged Nigerians to disregard the letters as they were fake and an attempt to bias Nigerians even before it begins sales.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at the formal launch of the satellite firm in Abuja that the Federal Government has granted a 3-year tax relief to TStv Africa as well as tax free dividends to all investors in the company. He said the tax reliefs were in line with the Pioneer Status recently granted to the Creative Industry.
The minister commended the courage of the investor for coming from the Diaspora to invest in the country and for believing in the government’s seriousness about diversifying the economy.