"wait 4 a little while." same old story.we wud keep waiting.

it is d 4th day in d month of may, no new channel on hitv

hi all,hitv as just signed BET,KIDSCO AND A FOREGIN MOVIES channel to announed soon.

I think Kidsco is a good channel with alot of interesting movies for everyone (family) and not just kids.

I hope they will upload soon.

visit site: http://hk.kidscotv.tv/home.aspx

Hi Urfriend
What are your thoughts about this:
Working basically with nine sub genres, DaarSat, the tentative trade name, has what is now called the foundation channels in DTH which include BBC, Al Jazeera, Fox News, National Geographic, MTV, Discovery and a host of others. DaarSat has lots of children programmes.
They claim to be having 40 channels at launch, although I would like to see Multichoices reaction if they show National Geographic and Discovery.

I also understand that HiTV has just offered way over the top (like they did for the EPL) for the Champions League. They must have money to burn. How many subs now, must be good otherwise how do you amortise these costs?

I am scared that DaarSat is coming to knock HITV out of business, because DSTV will survive maybe with shaking legs.

See when they want to commence business, by the time the premiership is over, so that people wont base their judgement on Premiership, and besides, they say lots and lots of sports.

Forty channels no be joke o, no problem, we will buy all but seriously i am feeling for HITv cos i really wish tme well.

hi senga and consti6,let's wait till when daarsat launches.because i heard it's going to be a digital terestrial platform and not satellite.if they what to launch with over 40channels they will need about 5 to 6 satellite transponders.
hitv did not pay over the top for their champions league rights,they just told uefa to part nigeria away from the rest of africa[just like the epl did],they way they don't have to bid to much.africa i heard may have gone to gtv/gbs,while s/africa to dstv.you see bidding is all about politics,money and power.for how subscribers hitv has now,i think it shoud be reaching over 125,000.
you see national geographic channel and discovery channel are for now not open to anyone except dstv,till the contract expires.if they were open,gtv and hitv would have gotten it since.only discovery civiliazation[now discovery knowlege is open,and gtv and hitv already have it.has i have always been saying hitv is about finishing something big[from movies to great contents],to be made public soon.
@ senga,how far with the dth operator you are working with,is it daarsat?.

Hi Urfriend

I am very pleased to see that HITV now has 125,000 subscribers, I shall inform some of the content providers who will be very happy to receive payment for that amount of subscribers.
By the way if Daar is using MPEG4 they can put 40 channels easily on 2 transponders.

hi senga,let wait and see for daar.remember it's just press PR.

Hi Urfriend

It looks suspicious to me as they are trying to raise money through their offering and from what I hear it is not going as well as they wanted. I believe it was supposed to close on the 31st March but as far as I can see it is still open. If you read their last interview they mention in the last paragraph that it all depends on the outcome of their offering.

By the way I am not working with Daar.

i want to direct this to you UrFriend:

Will hitv be showing Euro 2008 and when are we the getting the new contents from hitv ?

Yeah, i will really like to know too if HITV will be showing EURO 2008.

Urfriend/rayhmm, please answer . .

well, they have not replied to the question all these while so that means they wont be showing the euro 2008.

What a disappointment.

I guess we all need to keep our DSTVs cause we can never get what we want with hitv alone.

It doesnt look like the local stations are going to show it either.

hi sology,well hitv must not show everything,they have the uefa champions league,carling cup,coca cola championship,league 1 and 2,serie a,copa liber.,la liga,epl,etc.has a new and young company,they are getting long term investments.euro 2008 is just 3weeks,after that the money dstv paid to uefa would expire.there are till many sporting events[f1,moto gp,tennis grand slams,atp/wta events,iaaf,etc],thet they hitv,are waiting to bid for when it's time to bid for them.that don't mean they will not bring more programmes,contents,and channels.note that with over 164,230 subscribers as at may 13th 2008,each and every one of them have one or two demands that hitv has to work on,so please give them time.

@urfriend

With over 150 thousand subscribers, I dont think you guys are spending as much as u should on other content.

At 4k per month for each subscriber, my calculator ran out of space.Thats a huge turnover.

Please, if hitv is just a sports channel, then let everyone know.

GTV that started with hitv and pushed dstv out of the premiership market in the rest of africa just as hitv did here, has already added and uploaded new channels like discovery education and kidsco and some others.

But hitv keeps talking about plans to add channels.
GTV, is 'ploughing' back profits into the business to ensure customer satisfaction and make sure they position emselves at the top.

Hitv, on the other hand, seems to be just marvelling at the loot.

Dont tell me they borrowed money and are paying back cause GTV borrowed money too.

Urfriend, its not just sports that people watch and thats why DSTV keeps selling even without the premiership.

While we wait for all those carling cup, coca cola and the rest of them(which you can only show from next season), what do we watch?

Also, I have read some comments of yours on new content being added. Please note that a couple of 'series' added to the programes schedule is not the same as adding content like say, a dedicated movie channel, or a documentary channel.

I have read your comments just now that dates back to december of last year about adding new channels like zee, discovery , kidsco or something like that, etc. but this is almost june and none of those is up .

my own no even dey show anything again e just dey tell me no channel
imagine and na one year i pay o

tosinadeda:

my own no even dey show anything again e just dey tell me no channel
imagine and na one year i pay o

Sorry wo!

hi tosinadeda,if ur decorder is saying no channel,what has hitv got to do with that?.is it hitv that made someone in ur house to delete all the channels.i advice u to re-scan ur system and all the channels will come back.

hi soloqy,i understand how u feel.see hitv are currently working with eutelsat on the new transponder they just got.ifeel soon the signed channels[kidsco,zee cinema,foxnews,discovery civiliazation,setanta africa,bet and some others not yet confirmed.]will soon be uplinked by hitv.

eutelsat will also by the second quarter of 2009 launch a new satellite with 70ku transponder[called eutelsat w7,to be located with eutelsat w4,36 degrees east].so for now all hitv will get this year is 1 transponder,but once the new satellite is launched next year hitv dstv and gtv will have more then enough.so pls let's give them time.

sology u should note that just like gtv,hitv is also in discussions with many content,right and channel holders.till an agreement is reach,nothing can be announed or added.

Hi Urfriend
As I have been saying HITV has only one transponder and can only run max 15 channels even less if you run the EPL, unless you are happy degrading pictures.
So HITV subcribers will have to wait 12 months for any new channels.

hi senga,hitv has gotten a second transponder from eutelsat.they are working on some technical issues b4 uplinking/loading channels.note that hitv will not sign and pay for channels when there are no space to put them.for the epl hitv receives it's feed from the premierleague guys direct and not from it's current transponder.

senga,how far with ur dth runs?,when will ur guys start and who are they?.

Hi Urfriend

You need to understand the basics of DTH, the signal from EPL needs to be encrypted for HITV then multiplexed to integrate with their platform, maybe that is why they mess up the transmissions?

By the way where did Eutelsat find another transponder for HITV when all had been taken?

It seems strange to me that HITV have increased by 50,000 subscribers since your last blog, yet the there is no EPL football, you can't tell me these subscribers have come on board because of the quality line up of HITV channels?

See that DAAR is starting DTH transmissions in two weeks, 40 channels!

By the way you will know when we arrive.

@senga

I wont doubt the subscriber figures.

about two months before the end of the EPL, they(hitv) went into the streets and were virtually selling the hitv decoders and dishes like the fixed wireless phone hawkers do(If you have seen starcomms, MTS, reltel and most recently, visafone guys selling on the streets, you would know that they can sell a lot).

And the price was brought down at that period to 14k.

What irks me is their slowness in getting content and channels when you compute the turn-over that they are getting.

They will keep doubting ait's capabilities of starting with 40 channels till they come and start and they will start saying something else.

I will say it again, the turn-over,considering the subscribers on hitv, should be enough to at least get them confortably reposition themselves.

Hi sology

HITV paid way over the top in paying for the EPL, $16 million more than their nearest competitor. I also know here they paid over the top for the Champions League, throwing money at it. They do not seem to understand that there is more to life than sport, only 20% of a platform is watched for sport but these subscribers are the most demanding, especially in Nigeria.
A major mistake made by operators is that if they do not start with a full bouquet of programs (such as HITV) they they think that they can make the funds needed on the "run" and have new subscribers to fund any growth. This is one of the reasons previous Nigerian platforms failed.
HITV paid off most of their debt with a private placement and GTB seem to back them at every turn, they have no excuse in getting good channels onto their platform, apart from what we have been told that there are no transponders left at Eutelsat and as myfriend said they will not be available until the second quarter of 2009.

hi senga,i said hitv has been given a new transponder by eutelsat,and were told if they they or anyone needed more they will have to wait till next year june/july.

for the epl,dstv bidded 22million dollars while hitv bidded 28million.how is that way over the top.remember it is a bidding process,and it's a competition.gone are the days were dstv goes and get rights and contents at give a way prices.daar won the rights to all nigeria national teams matches,they offered nfa N250million x 4years[N1billion],their next bidding partner offered 180million naira.

let's wait and see till when daarsat starts.the order day,dopeksi was saying he want to go into partnership with hitv.they want to get contents for nigerian region to stop the anti-competition moves of dstv.

senga,the epl signal is gotten by hitv via satellite dish,the spread over 5-6 decoders,given to hitv by the epl guys[that way the can show many matches at the same time.hitv has a transmission/broadcast centre in lagos,there they send there signals feed to overon in spain,then overon uplinks for hitv to eutelsat in france.

note hitv has gotten many new channels,all that is left is for the technical work to be finished by eutelsat on the new transponder.

urfriend:

hi tosinadeda,if your decorder is saying no channel,what has hitv got to do with that?.is it hitv that made someone in your house to delete all the channels.i advice u to re-scan your system and all the channels will come back.

ure mad, very stupid in short u dey crase nonsense
been using DSTV for years and no1 deleted any channe!!!!!
so y would dat of Hitv be deleted?

jeeez ure so stupid

Hi Urfriend

So you are telling us that HITV has now two transponders?

Your fact is not correct about DSTv offering $22 million for Nigeria, it was nearer $12 million, trust me.

This anti-competition is a farce. If you ever thought if exclusive rights are withdrawn from DSTV it would allow HITV to get the channels you would be wrong.
It is still up to the Content provider to decide if they want to sell or not to HITV (or any other Platform). You have on one side of the table Multichoice offering payment for 2 million subs, remember the Content provider will get a minimum of $200,000 per month from Multichoice at 10 cents per subscriber. The other side of the table is HITV with, if we believe your figures, 165,000, i.e. $16,500 per month. Now you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see which one the Content provider will chose.
Multichoice uses the argument that if the Content provider sells the Channel to anyone else then the will only pay them $50,000 per month. Thats how they do their business and it works, although it's not exclusivity in the legal terms it is practically that and there is nothing anyone can do about it until they come close to Multichoices numbers.

On your reception of the signal from EPL; I know how you get your signal, but you left it with the signal in France, you still need to get it to your subscribers so therefore you need to send them down from Eutelsat W4 where you have today one transponder, i.e. 15 channels max. Right or wrong?

By the way I love when then there are delays HITV blames everybody but themselves. When there was the strike by the fibre optic supplier SAT-3, HITV sent out to the newspapers apologizing for the problems they were experiencing due to the SAT3 strike. Does anyone believe them anymore, all DTH platforms should have a backup in the form of an uplink satellite feed such as Vsat from Eutelsat, so that the customer does not have any inconvenience.

hi tosinadeda,are u listening to urself.even a blindman will know that if a decorder shows 'no channel' it means that the channels on the decorder were deleted of some pressed factory deflut on the menu list,that way all former setting not put in by the factory will be removed or deleted.so i advice u to re-scan and stop blaming hitv for everything that happens in ur house.by the way am not mad and very stupid,so pls mind ur words.do have ur self a nice weekend.

hi senga,dstv did offer 22million.has for getting chioce contents,with time and at the rate hitv is growing in subscriber rate,especially in one country[nigeria] in just 1year,were it is taking dstv just 14years to get about 500,000 in nigeria.there will be no content provider that will be want to air it's channel or content on hitv.soon we will have discovery,nat. geo.,history,cnn,etc on both dstv,hitv gtv and any other.

last year,dstv was about living uganda[with just 6,000 sub.] because there was not profit from that country,then came gtv to uganda,today gtv has well over 28,000 sub. in that country alone.the dth business is growing fast in africa and very soon,many of the chioce content will be on other platforms[because profit and viewership wise it will pay them].

Hi urfriend

How naive you are on how a Platform operates, I hope you are not involved in that side for he customers sake.
I am not wasting any more of my time telling you how it is, if you don't believe what I write then you have a problem understanding the business.

HiTV will not get National Geographic, Discovery or History as they are in bed with DSTV for a few more years, so don't give false promises to subscribers.

You still didn't answer my question, do HiTV have 2 transponders with Eutelsat?

Remember rule number one: The customer is King, they will not keep taking in all the rubbish you keep telling them and will walk with their feet. A lot would have gone by now and HITV's only saving grace has been the EPL, believe me, lose that in 18 months time and they are dead in the water. I would be concerned that how many subs will HiTV lose during June and July when there in no EPL?

HITV is pure rubbish!!.

I piad for sub since yesterday (saturday) around 10 am and and was promised that by 5pm, i will be getting signal, but up till this moment 3.30 pm (sunday) the scrambled message is still what am getting for parting away with my hard earned 4k.

If these guys are not ready to get the simple and straight forward things such as this in place, then it absolute shame to them and am giving them a thumb-down.

Sometimes organisations like these in Nigeria are making rubbish of hard working naija coys.

One year down the line and they are still finding it difficult to get the simple and fundamental things right. SHAME SHAME AND SHAME to HITV.

Well, as for me, am NOT renewing my hitv subscription till August when premiership resumes.

I hope HITV will learn during this June/July period (when most subscribers won't renew) that it's not all about premiership o!