Another wave of trouble may be in the offing for troubled cable television firm, Telcomm Satellite TV (TStv), which recently raised alarm that its rollout is facing severe battle from other operators in the industry for the past 10 months.
The Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, TStv Africa, Bright Echefu, said in a statement that since it announced the commencement of its operations on November 1, 2017, the company had been fighting off enemies pitched against it.
However, feelers from the Ministry of Finance on Thursday indicated that government may be forced to cancel the prevailing three-year tax moratorium granted the company during the launch in Abuja in October last year.
Sources say the key consideration by the government in thinking stepping down the tax holiday may not be unconnected with the observed back and forth movement of the company in delivering its services in the last 10 months.
Business Hilights recalls that the Federal Government had granted a 3-year tax relief to TStv Africa, as well as tax free dividends to all investors in the company.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the announcement on Sunday night (October 1st, 2017) in Abuja at a dinner to mark the official unveiling of the new company.
TStv Africa is a wholly owned Nigerian Pay TV operator with refined offerings of novel Unclassified Pay Per View subscription and complimentary internet services. Mohammed, who performed the official unveiling of the new company and its products, said the tax reliefs were in line with the Pioneer Status recently granted to the Creative Industry by the federal government. The minister congratulated the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Dr Bright Echefu, and his team for liberalising and breaking the monopoly of Pay TV in the country.
According to the minister, “The important thing about what Echefu has done today is that he has redefined the pay per view television industry and from today that industry will never remain the same again.
“What he has done is to democratise the media and entertainment industry and make it possible for even a peasant farmer to have access to the best entertainment and news in the world.
“It is a great opportunity for me to be the one to unveil TStv because just like a Nigerian made history by crashing the cost of telephony in Nigeria, I am glad that another Nigerian is now coming forward to crash the cost of Pay TV,” he said.
The minister commended the courage of the investor for coming from the Diaspora to invest in his country and for believing in the government’s seriousness about diversifying the economy. He said the company had also demonstrated that government alone could not do all things but needed the participation and synergy of the private sector.
Before now, TStv has made several rollout attempts without the desired success. Explaining why it has been hard to effectively rollout services, Dr Echefu observed that the fight for survival had affected the company financially and its relationship with subscribers, satellite providers and dealers, adding, “It has not been easy one bit. We were wrestled even down to our satellite providers but our God is ever faithful.”
“I sincerely appreciate all your concerns and prayers for our darling TStv. From the date we announced TStv, it has been fight all the way. I doubt if a week passed without us quenching one fire or the other. We didn’t anticipate that there would be war. We were also not trained to fight in the arena we were pushed into,” he said.
Echefu added, “The kind of weapons our enemies would later contend us with showed they had stocked their armoury waiting for a time like now. We may not have their kind of money, neither their kinds of weapons, ‘connections’ and network but one thing I sure know we had more than them was a determined spirit and a steadfast God.”
He said the company was able to acquire five units of 35.5MHz transponders on Nigcomsat in partnership with Intertel and the Federal Ministry of Communications.
He said the TStv was ready to offer Nigerians real entertainment with 45 channels in full HD, which would be available for free for one month.
According to him, “TStv management in appreciation to everyone has decided that 45 TStv premium HD channels will be available for free for another one month as we don’t intend to encrypt the channels now. You can use any dish at all, including the ones you are using for other operators to track NigComSat today and let us enjoy premium entertainment together,” he added.
