The Federal Government has said South African satellite broadcast firm, Direct Satellite Television (DSTV), a subsidiary of Multichoice, can no longer broadcast the English Premiership League (EPL) in Nigeria.
THISDAY gathered weekend that the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Frank Nweke, has directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to inform the management of EPL of the country’s decision to ban the broadcast of any content or channel where Nigeria is bundled with any other country.
At present, Multichoice has bought the exclusive rights, on behalf of all the countries in Africa, to broadcast EPL as well as other channels, including Discovery, Reality TV, National Geographic, etc, on the continent.
A Ministry of Information official told THISDAY weekend that the message to owners of all the affected channels was that “henceforth, it is no longer acceptable that a foreign company would buy the exclusive rights to broadcast the league in Nigeria when there are Nigerian companies operating in that sector”.
He disclosed that the ministry would soon be making representations to all content and channel owners of the damaging effects of their current mode of doing business on the Nigerian economy and the Federal Government’s new direction.
According to information, this new development is part of the reforms taking place in the Nigerian entertainment industry centred around the protection of the sovereignty of the country and the growth of its media, film and music, as well as sport industries.
The official said as a way of enforcing the country’s position, copyright laws and regulatory powers would no longer be used to support and or defend such unpatriotic and colonial structures and systems of doing business saying “we must begin to encourage our local businesses and help them grow”.
He said it has now been realised that it is only in the African continent that any content is sold exclusively across a whole continent to one entity “but we are going to ensure that it is corrected. Multichoice can buy on behalf of other countries if they so allow but the South African company would no longer buy any content on behalf of Nigeria. That practice must end.
“You will not believe it that indigenous Direct-to-Home satellite companies that were in operation have all gone under incurring huge loses as a result of their inability to get good content that will attract customers. Contents and channels that could have helped them remain in business have been exclusively bought or warehoused by a South African company on behalf of Nigeria. This is ridiculous.
“Even if their aim is to control broadcasting in Africa, we do not have problems with that as long as they are not making any attempt to control broadcasting in Nigeria.
“We are writing and making representations to all content/channel owners around the world, especially the English Premier League and others, that they can no longer bundle Nigeria with any other country.
“We are also telling them that we would no longer accept the sale of broadcast rights to any foreign company for onward transmission to Nigeria. There are Nigerian companies that are capable of doing that.
“We are also ready to ban the transmission of their channels into Nigeria should they think they can undermine the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Federal Government is very serious about empowering Nigerian businesses just like any other responsible government across the world”, the official said.
Only last week, the Federal Government broke DSTV’s monopoly in Nigeria following a review of the nation’s policy on broadcast rights and exclusivity in programme acquisition and delivery.
NBC, the agency in charge of licensing and regulating use of broadcast frequencies in Nigeria announced some new policy directives on the mode of operations of licensees on the Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform to guide operators.
Head, Public Affairs, Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, Mr. Ladan Salihu, told THISDAY Thursday that the review became necessary because the commission had for some time now been inundated by a barrage of complaints from satellite television subscribers and other satellite television broadcast operators on the dangers posed by creating a monopoly in the system in a largely free enterprise economy.
Salihu disclosed that while other local satellite operators such as FSTV and Trend invested about $20m each to acquire their licenses and on infrastructural development, the exclusivity rights enjoyed by DSTV has continued to keep them out of business.
Under the new rules, “no licensee shall acquire rights for broadcasting for the territory of Nigeria together with any other territory which presupposes the exclusion of any other Nigerian operator from having opportunity to acquire same; where existing contractual agreements obtain, upon their lapse, subsequent rights acquisition agreements must designate Nigeria as a stand-alone territory and where such rights exist the holder shall not be allowed to exploit them except other licensees are given the opportunity to exploit or access them.”
An official statement from the National Broadcasting Commission said the shift in policy was not only in line with the Nigeria Broadcasting Code and the Act establishing the NBC but also in furtherance of the Commission’s desire to provide a level and competitive playing field for small Direct-To-Home operators in the country.
According to the NBC, strict compliance with the new rules will be scrupulously monitored while breaches will attract maximum sanctions. It also withdrew some of DSTV broadcast licences which it had not used over the years.
With the current development, Nigerian subscribers who have been hooked to DSTV for global news and sports over these years of its monopoly may now have a variety of choices in terms of satellite television viewing in their homes.