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MULTICHOICE NEEDS COMPETITION IN NIGERIA – THISDAYLIVE

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 Dr. Cosmas Odoemena’s letter (THISDAY, 7 April 2025) betrayed unfamiliarity with the pay television sector in the country and elsewhere. It was a rehash of social media narratives, a mish-mash of lies, half-truths and wrong assumptions.

 It is incorrect to say that MultiChoice, of which I stopped being a subscriber after losing my job in 2023, has no competition. It is undoubtedly the dominant Pay TV operator perhaps because it was the first and certainly because of quality content plus innovation. But it has and has always had competition. There is StarTimes, a JV between the company and the Nigerian Television Authority.

A few years ago, StarTimes wrested the broadcast rights to the games of the Italian football league, better known as Serie A, after outbidding MultiChoice. It is currently the rights owner of the Bundesliga, the German top division, for which it outbid MultiChoice, the reason the rights owners must have sold to it.

Before StarTimes, there was HiTv, which outbid MultiChoice for the rights to matches of the English Premier League from 2007-2010 when, according to the founder, Toyin Subair, it “collapsed essentially because of a clause in our original Shareholders Agreement, which allowed a group of founding shareholders to block the company raising money or selling off a subsidiary”. Industry insiders, however, said the company collapsed because of mismanagement. Kwese TV came after HiTv and operated for about three years during which it was unable to gain subscribers and, of course, cash flow, resulting in inability to pay its broadcast partners. Before these were Communications Trends Limited, whose founder, Uzoma Udemba, was prosecuted for signal piracy by the Uyo office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2021 when I worked in Uyo.

There were also Daarsat, founded by the late Dr. Raymond Dokpesi; and FStv founded by Chief Reuben Famuyibo. Odoemena needs to ask why mortality rate in the sector is high.

Romanus Mmeribeh, Lagos



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