It was with pump and pageantry many welcomed TSTV and we did wish them well when they started despite the obvious doubts about the service which we itemized. See the comments section in my previous article and judge for yourself.
At first I re-iterated the fact that TSTV was a TV box replica of the off market box sold on Amazon which was designed to be a cheaper alternative, hence the need for Internet data and the free internet they promised their customers to run the system.
Another very embarrassing part of all this saga was how the Information minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was hoodwinked into this scam (in some climes he would lose his job), going as far as announcing tax breaks which made me wonder under what law that was. What authorised a minister to give tax breaks without even investigating properly the business he was giving it to?
Beyond the minister’s goof is the fact that the owners of TSTV also did not prepare for the market they claimed to be revolutionising which is why some people cannot fathom how TSTV was DOA. The gamut of showing premiership games was very insincere and phony. DSTV currently own the rights to show the premiership in Nigeria and that’s their cash cow and these rights are very highly priced because they are exclusive. If you recall in 2007 when HItv, an indigenous satellite company got the rights for the premiership for about 40 million dollars, DSTV bit the bullet and there was no song and dance about their loss, in fact Hitv soared that year and DSTV counted their losses before they got back the license a year later for about 100 million dollars; a right they still hold on very tightly to today.
SuperSports has paid £296 million for the 2016-19 Barclays Premier League broadcast rights in sub-Saharan Africa – the Mail Online.
This broadcast right would have cost MultiChoice around R6 billion in August 2015 when the deal was signed. So for TSTV to show the premiership through Bein sport, a middle east based channel on a Sub-Saharan African license feels like a porcupine hugging a cactus.
Prior to this time, Bein has sent strong warnings against TSTV and this was further heightened when their error message popped up on TSTV screens which the operators have called a sabotage. Another competitor who has quietly come into the market, even with an arsenal of funds, Strive Masiyiwa’s Kwese TV is not showing the premiership and he is gradually building.
In all of these, TSTV maintain that they are “coming back” but more painful is our continuous celebration of mediocrity at the expense of integrity. We are all in support of competitors in the market but when we keep having subservient competition, it strengthens monopoly and we as Nigerians need to ask questions and remember we deserve better.