The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TSTV Africa, Bright Echefu has announced that the wholly owned Nigerian innovative Pay TV Operator is back.
Launched October 1, 2017, 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.
In an open letter to Nigerians, Echefu said TSTV is now live following the successful acquisition of five units of 35.5MHz transponders on Nigcomsat.
Echefu letter reads; “Dear Nigerians,
“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. The kinds 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 networks but one thing I sure know we had more than them was a determined spirit and a steadfast God. A God who doesn’t fail.
“It has not been easy one bit. Our struggles drained us financially and pitched us against all good meaning Nigerians, subscribers and dealers that believed in us. We were wrestled even down to our satellite providers but our God is ever faithful.
“Today 20th of August, 2018, I am happy to inform Nigerians that TSTV is back live and direct but this time under the watch of Abba Father. With our successful acquisition of FIVE units of 35.5MHz transponders last two weeks on Nigcomsat through our collaboration with Intertel, Federal Ministry of Communications and Nigcomsat, TSTV can now offer Nigerians the true meaning of video entertainment. Our TSTV has successfully migrated to Nigeria Communication Satellite. ALL CHANNELS in Full HD. No one does that. More channels are being added daily.
“Guess what!!!, TSTV management in appreciation to EVERYONE have 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 lets enjoy premium entertainment together.
“We are now a True Nigerian Brand and we all should support ours. Kindly monitor our progress by tracking your dish to 42.5oE, Frequency 12589, Symbol Rate: 30,000. Polarization: Horizontal.”
Recall that barely a week after the initial takeoff of the embattled satellite brand, TSTV was accused of intellectual property theft.
There were two purportedly leaked letters with the first being from a company known as Turner Broadcasting System Europe Limited Company who claims to be the parent company of CNN and also having the exclusive rights to broadcast the channel in Africa and the second being from Bein Sports who holds the rights to view certain sports channels.
Both companies alleged that TSTV did not seek permission before proposing to air their channels on the TSTV platform.