Whatever they want to do let them do, i am not really a sports person, i am more of a movie person. I sincerely hope Dstv will not increase the price , their bouquet packages because of the EPL right, because that is where i will have a problem with them. Without this Epl see as they became aggressive towards marketing, they remind me by calling, texting and sending a message on my screen to pay my subscription fee. Anyway sha lets wait and see because if u give one company too much power shakara go plenty and na we go suffer am.

I still prefer Dstv to Hitv anytime, anyday sha,

OH dear!

It's a shame that Hitv could not hold on to what they had. Not only was their standard of presentation poor, they went on organizing promos and buying cars when they had bills to pay and needed to upgrade their product quality and content. We all should stop being sentimental. DStv maintained its hold in the nigerian market in spite of losing the broadcast rights. within three years it launched over 30 new channels. It has more nigerian content on its bouquet now (Africa Magic Yoruba, Hausa, Soundcity, Bigbrother Nigeria, Comedy live in Lagos, Tinsel,   the list is endless). On top of that, they kept giving us what we could not give ourselves,  broadcasting Nigerian matches to niNigerianshen Hitv and other local stations were busy showing wedding ceremonies and political meetings, portraying the nigerian image positively to Africa and the world.

If any nigerian company seeks to grow, it should stop thinking of how to portray other competitors as bad but rather how to make its products and services better than others (ask Globacom how it is beginning to move forward with it's MainOne fibre optic cable all the way from Europe while others are struggling with SAT3). They should grow up and learn that Multichoice or any other big cable company in the world are decades in the making. They should start from the basics and grow. Not start a battle they can't finish.

tkb417:

something just came to my mind

if this happened in South Africa or any other country

would they allow a foreign company take the rights from a local company cos they couldn't pay?

wouldn't the Govt of the country help in facilitating the bank guarantee? cos the acquisition of the rights was solely dependent on that document

so wtf is wrong with our peeps/govt?

na wa

apparently some dude and woman in the rebranding camp didn't really look their way because they couldn't spend money on Nigerian League or any other Nigerian sport so breaking the bank for foreign footie is an affront

They already had a bank/investor, perhaps they were getting cold feet after looking at the first year result, you know Nigerian banks want you to start making profit to pay them after just one month!!

@felix4real - u have spoken

It's a shame that Hitv could not hold on to what they had. Not only was their standard of presentation poor, they went on organizing promos and buying cars when they had bills to pay and needed to upgrade their product quality and content. We all should stop being sentimental. DStv maintained its hold in the nigerian market in spite of losing the broadcast rights. within three years it launched over 30 new channels. It has more nigerian content on its bouquet now (Africa Magic Yoruba, Hausa, Soundcity, Bigbrother Nigeria, Comedy live in Lagos, Tinsel, the list is endless). On top of that, they kept giving us what we could not give ourselves, broadcasting Nigerian matches to Nigerians when Hitv and other local stations were busy showing wedding ceremonies and political meetings, portraying the nigerian image positively to Africa and the world.

If any nigerian company seeks to grow, it should stop thinking of how to portray other competitors as bad but rather how to make its products and services better than others (ask Globacom how it is beginning to move forward with it's MainOne fibre optic cable all the way from Europe while others are struggling with SAT3). They should grow up and learn that Multichoice or any other big cable company in the world are decades in the making. They should start from the basics and grow. Not start a battle they can't finish.

DSTV have all we need to enjoy from TV but can we all afford thier rates? i love football but cant afford 9500 per month cos of only soccer. so back to viewing for EPL and stay home to watch UCL on Hitv. i will never pay for DSTV cos they are like MTN who dont have nigerians in mind but to just make profit and send to SA to develop their country.
I feel sorry for HITV, they had the chance to buildup and match DSTV in programme content but they were busy fightin viewing centers over 20k fee. Now its dawned on them. I doubt if they can sustain themselves with UCL alone But i guess the battle for the ownership isnt over yet.

TIME WILL TELL. pele HITV

Dis Guy:

apparently some dude and woman in the rebranding camp didn't really look their way because they couldn't spend money on Nigerian League or any other Nigerian sport so breaking the bank for foreign footie is an affront

They already had a bank/investor, perhaps they were getting cold feet after looking at the first year result, you know Nigerian banks want you to start making profit to pay them after just one month!!

Let HiTV get real and stop promoting foreign football leagues to the detriment of our own. If DSTV takes EPL , so what? let them repackage NPL and get the rights away from DSTV now that there is a new league board and some of the contracts need to be renewed.

folem:

Let HiTV get real and stop promoting foreign football leagues to the detriment of our own. If DSTV takes EPL , so what? let them repackage NPL and get the rights away from DSTV now that there is a new league board and some of the contracts need to be renewed.

so, na dem bring epl come 9ja?

abi 9jas no dey watch foreign football b4 Hitv

@Tammytanny: If you think that 9,500 is expensive for over 80 channels out of which over 10 are Nigerian content while the others bring equal entertainment, then i beg to question your reasoning. all Hitv has ever had to show for its 6,000 subscription was the EPL and UCL which are seasonal entertainment as against Dstv's 24/7/365-6 all round entertainment. look at it in pure objective perspective and ask Hitv how many people paid subscription since May, you'll find out that less than 20% of their subscribers paid because 80% are hooked because of UCL and EPL. In sharp contrast, if you go to any multichoice office and banks, payments were made by the minute because Dstv has not relied on UCL or EPL to grow. In the last 3 years, multichoice has had to increase its subscription without having the EPL or UCL rights. This is not because it was struggling, because its services had grown so much that the subscription bing paid could no longer match services being rendered. on the contrary, Hitv increased its subscription while giving the same content over 3 years.

Reason objectively and you will find out that while it is true that multichoice is a bit exploitative in its approach, it is soothing the effect by rendering equally superb service, one that would keep you glued to your TV set 24/7.

folem, Dstv don't do things in halves, they are smart people, especially when it comes to Nigerians they know how to calm them down, they probably have the rights for naija league for a few years i can bet they hardly make money off the league infact its probably causing them embarrassment, what with the number of cancelled, abandoned games and violence during and after games

Hi-TV should try the NBA then also invest in Naija Basketball hosting some Celebrity basketball with Music,Bring in some American Basketballerz, naija youth like cool things _{whether e make sense or not}!

felix4real:

@Tammytanny: If you think that 9,500 is expensive for over 80 channels out of which over 10 are Nigerian content while the others bring equal entertainment, then i beg to question your reasoning. all Hitv has ever had to show for its 6,000 subscription was the EPL and UCL which are seasonal entertainment as against Dstv's 24/7/365-6 all round entertainment. look at it in pure objective perspective and ask Hitv how many people paid subscription since May, you'll find out that less than 20% of their subscribers paid because 80% are hooked because of UCL and EPL. In sharp contrast, if you go to any multichoice office and banks, payments were made by the minute because Dstv has not relied on UCL or EPL to grow. In the last 3 years, multichoice has had to increase its subscription without having the EPL or UCL rights. This is not because it was struggling, because its services had grown so much that the subscription bing paid could no longer match services being rendered. on the contrary, Hitv increased its subscription while giving the same content over 3 years.

Reason objectively and you will find out that while it is true that multichoice is a bit exploitative in its approach, it is soothing the effect by rendering equally superb service, one that would keep you glued to your TV set 24/7.

You have little english disturbing you. I said i cant afford 9500 for only soccer and not for DSTV. I hadly watch other things except football (EPL and UCL) and i  get that on HITV. Most people love DSTV cos of its contents and i said so in my last post.How many paid workers pay 9500 for DSTV? many you see paying for their subcription do so cos of movies and other things they are interested in and they mostly pay the 4500 and co. Do u expect some one earining 60k to pay 9500 for DSTV?Please i dont want to draw sentiment in to this issue. I wish DSTV the best of luck. As for HITV. they are on their own

Dis Guy:

folem, Dstv don't do things in halves, they are smart people, especially when it comes to Nigerians they know how to calm them down, they probably have the rights for naija league for a few years i can bet they hardly make money off the league infact its probably causing them embarrassment, what with the number of cancelled, abandoned games and violence during and after games

Hi-TV should try the NBA then also invest in Naija Basketball hosting some Celebrity basketball with Music,Bring in some American Basketballerz, naija youth like cool things _{whether e make sense or not}!

You are right my brother. I watch NBA on silverbird almost everynight. HITV wont die if they develop other contents in their bouquet but where is the money now? I feel sorry for them but i cant HELP

thank God. hitv was reaping us badly how can we pay 6k for nothing but epl and cham league. mytv is even better than hitv

felix4real:

If any nigerian company seeks to grow, it should stop thinking of how to portray other competitors as bad but rather how to make its products and services better than others (ask Globacom how it is beginning to move forward with it's MainOne fibre optic cable all the way from Europe while others are struggling with SAT3).

Oh please don't get us started on that one. A lot of hogwash surrounds that particular project. You need to see how Globacom run their business then believe me you will shudder.

Fact is many Nigerian businesses don't know how to stay on top let alone remain profitable.

Newest:

Its a lil painful cause am a Nigerian on these teams :
Cause Its a Nigerian business employing Nigerians and also providing livelihood for few Nigerians

But on the other hand as a customer i was happy  cause they've never done what they should do, all they do is run promos and buy cars

But we also have to look at the govt roll, which they dint play at all

Govt is only interested in that thing called NTA, they just gone into partnership with a Chinese company more competition for HiTV, HiTv should try Togo, Ghana,Benin and other parts of Nigeria

Tennis still dey there
Athletics
Boxing are major sports they can invest in both international and Local, the ycan spearhead the revival of the sport in Nigeria, bring more variety- but naija companies like finished products too much

Even if Globacom's house is not clean, it is however not as disorganized as some other nigerian mega corporations. The fact that i don't know how bad things are in there means that there's something that they are good at doing, keeping their dirty linens from being washed in public. How many nigerian companies can manage that feat?

at least i fit still watch DOVE TV and E!

I don't know why people are blaming the banks. If HiTV's case was sound enough, they'd have gotten the cash.

For all the noise about 'HiTV being a Nigerian company', what has it done for Nigerian football? Despite all the talk of being South African, DSTv does more for Nigerian football than HiTV does - they promote the local league and are supporting lots of Nigerian content on their platform.

I have to say HiTV didn't do well enough from the comments I'm hearing - simply having EPL rights does not mean you have a sound business model.

Let HiTV go into some form of agreement with DSTv to carry their SuperSport channel - that way people with HiTV can still watch the EPL and they won't lose out on all their subscribers.

felix4real:

It's a shame that Hitv could not hold on to what they had. Not only was their standard of presentation poor, they went on organizing promos and buying cars when they had bills to pay and needed to upgrade their product quality and content. We all should stop being sentimental. DStv maintained its hold in the nigerian market in spite of losing the broadcast rights. within three years it launched over 30 new channels. It has more nigerian content on its bouquet now (Africa Magic Yoruba, Hausa, Soundcity, Bigbrother Nigeria, Comedy live in Lagos, Tinsel,   the list is endless). On top of that, they kept giving us what we could not give ourselves,  broadcasting Nigerian matches to niNigerianshen Hitv and other local stations were busy showing wedding ceremonies and political meetings, portraying the nigerian image positively to Africa and the world.

If any nigerian company seeks to grow, it should stop thinking of how to portray other competitors as bad but rather how to make its products and services better than others (ask Globacom how it is beginning to move forward with it's MainOne fibre optic cable all the way from Europe while others are struggling with SAT3). They should grow up and learn that Multichoice or any other big cable company in the world are decades in the making. They should start from the basics and grow. Not start a battle they can't finish.

GBAM! spot on.
Their focus should nt have been on getting the EPL rights rather on developing their own content and sytle of programming and unique pricing structure to attract and maintain customers. i doubt if they even did a business plan before embarking on this wateful venture. well, as for me i no send because i no get hitv, i was never convinced when they came on board. just pretenders!

tkb417:

what will happen to your Hitv in UK?
LOL

i can still use the decoder so no probs

all i need is th smartcard which i had b4 i switched.

now, im gonna go keep my Hitv smartcard just in case they swap it next year too

hehehe

I am still returning to Naija and my husband is there.
Before i left in July, we paid for 6 months subscription.
E dey pain me die.

HV GOT BOTH DECODERS. BUT I PREFER MY DSTV COS OF LA-LIGA, NOW I CAN
ONLY PAY FOR MY FULL PACkAGE AND WATCH EPL N LA-LIGA ALLTOGETHER.

HURRAY!!

Here's Thisday's version of the story:

Controversy as HiTV Loses EPL Right
By Duro Ikhazuagbe, 07.23.2010

Nigeria’s pay TV company, HiTV, has controversially lost the lucrative English Premier League (EPL) broadcast rights in Nigeria to Multichoice/DSTV beginning from the 2010-2011 season kicking off next month.

THISDAY sources said despite paying $40 million for the content value of the first of the three seasons which it won last year, EPL insisted on bank guarantees for the remaining two seasons.

HiTV was given a deadline of last Monday, but, according to an inside source, “the new processes put in place because of the banking reform meant we could not get the guarantees ready by the Monday, July 19 deadline, but we had letters from Nigerian banks which said the guarantees would be ready by Friday (today)”.

However, DSTV announced yesterday that it had acquired the Nigerian broadcast right to the Premiership for the next three seasons. It held the right until three seasons ago when HiTV arrived on the scene.

Adewunmi Ogunsanya, chairman of MultiChoice Nigeria, SuperSport’s parent company, said he was delighted to have the premium content back on his platform, but said the focus would still remain the growing of the domestic league, a project his company embarked upon two years ago after they lost the Barclay right to their local rival.

“We are happy to welcome back the English Premier League onto the DStv platform in Nigeria, to stand alongside the other exciting international soccer coverage we already provide to our subscribers here.

“However, our focus remains firmly on showcasing home-grown talent from the Nigerian Premier League and we will continue our investments in this regard.

“As a Nigerian business that is committed to providing our growing subscriber community across Nigeria with the world’s best channels and programming, we are pleased that SuperSport are able to take up the opportunity when it presented itself, to ensure that fans of this league will not miss any action from it.”

A dependable source at HiTV confirmed the development, saying that it was as a result of the failure to secure a bank facility to pay for the right.

Meanwhile, SuperSport is promising even better packaging for the return of the bouquet to the MultiChoice fold. According to Ogunsanya, apart from the return coming with all 380 Barclays Premier League matches, there will be a Premier League 24-hour, seven-day-a-week content service in high definition, which will launch on August 13.

The Chief Executive Officer of SuperSport, Imtiaz Patel, added on the issue of the extra packages to accompany the return of the Barclays League content: “Nigeria will be one of the very first countries to receive the 24-hour content service and we are delighted to lead the way with our partners at the Premier League, and associates in Nigeria.”

Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore added: “We are pleased to extend our partnership with SuperSport into Nigeria and are confident they will continue to deliver a premium product that will showcase the Barclays Premier League to our many fans in the territory.”

The Barclays Premier League is the biggest continuous annual sporting event in the world; followed by more than 2.5 billion fans in the world and broadcast to more than 500 million homes

i know FBN got waivers for the seawolf deal from CBN to PPMC and other regulatory bodies just to ensure the survival and growth of seawolf

O boy, how you take sabi this one??

Cot damn! you get ear ooo?

Too bad that this has to happen to a Nigerian company but it all borders on financing and the management's capability of running a business.

Like i said TIME WILL TELL. whether DSTV or HITV show am , i go stil watch EPL even if them two no show am cos of legal battle. Aljazeera dey wait for me.

I was really logged onto FTA things until NTA went off on Intelsat 907/C and the question came up at home as to which DTH service to subcribe to. Naturally, we sought for the services of HiTV and surprisingly, the didn't have 'basic' NTA on their bouquet.
Suffice it to say that we just ditched the idea in a flash.
They've got some real-time packaging to do first, forget about the EPL rights.

If HITV wants to retain it's Nigeria viewership, it should broker some deal with DSTV. This is what Virgin media and some other smaller cable companies are doing are doing in the UK.

Nigeria is one of the hardest place to start a business. But the owners of HITV took a bold step, the banks squeezed them, satellite operators also did same, they were not not given a chance locally and internationally, they fought all the way. Common guys Rome was not built in a day. We need to prevent this country from sliding into the hands of economic stranglers that Supersport is representing. It is only in Nigeria that this sort of exclusivity is allowed. DSTV monopoly of EPL right is no longer acceptable. They have killed similar entrepreneurs in the African front and we will not allow them do same here. EPL should be read the riot act. Nigerian is not their background for crazy gains. We need to stand behind our own and HITV is 100% Nigerian, conceptualized, built, managed by young, brilliant Nigerians. THEY DESERVE OUR 100% SUPPORT.
It took DSTV 15 yrs to get to where they are today, in less than 3 yrs we expect HITV to do the same? Infrastructure, access to and cost of money are all factors we need to consider.
We need to stop this insult on our collective psyche by EPL/ Supersport/DSTV.
I know what I'm saying because im an insider and I know how d whole HiTV's family is feeling right now

I am happy a lot of us are getting the point! hitv has a lot of repackaging to do and in order to compete favourably, they must prove that they can withstand the hurricanes that would be hurled at them by these mega corporations. It you cannot win, why fight? If they reorganise they can come back stronger, let them prepare and wait for an opportunity to pounce just as dstv did and they will be better for it.

I am happy a lot of us are getting the point! hitv has a lot of repackaging to do and in order to compete favourably, they must prove that they can withstand the hurricanes that would be hurled at them by these mega corporations. It you cannot win, why fight? If they reorganise they can come back stronger, let them prepare and wait for an opportunity to pounce just as dstv did and they will be better for it.