Nigeria’s latest satellite TV operator, TSTv in a statement released today has announced it will commence full operations by November next month. TSTv had earlier been scheduled to commence operations on the 1st of October.
Reasons behind the delay
Managing Director of the company, Dr. Brighe Echefu while briefing newsmen, attributed the delay to the ongoing screening of the firm’s distributors.This was to avoid any possible form of sabotage.
We had applications from over 3,000 individuals who want to be our dealers, so far we have cleared about 750 of the dealers. We are currently conducting due diligence checks on our dealers. We do not want a situation where individuals posing as dealers buy up our decoders and go dump them somewhere.
TSTv will also distribute 5000 decoders to members of the public in order to carry out test transmission. The satellite tv operator has been dogged by various controversies since it announced commencement of operations. First was an alleged letter accusing the firm of copyright infringement, which it has since denied. Various operators in the broadcast sector have also kicked against the firm receiving a 3 year tax holiday.
TSTV is a Direct-To-Home (DTH) broadcast service that came to be as a result of a multi-transponder agreement between ABS and Telcom Satellites TV to deliver DTH to Nigeria on the ABS 3A satellite. The service is set to air more than 100 TV channels a first and grow to above 150 with time
