Businessman and promoter of defunct HiTV, Toyin Subair, seeks a return to the pay television industry by free-riding on the 6th National Broadcasting Commission Code which, among other controversial provisions, aims to end exclusivity.

Back in 2014, Toyin Subair, founder of the defunct pay television platform, HiTV, launched an ambitious move to return as a major player in Nigeria’s pay television market.

Subair, whose HiTV, crashed in 2011 after four years, launched PlayTV six years ago, hoping that it would rise to prominence from the rubble of HiTV. The foundation for PlayTV was Continental Satellite Television (Consat), the failed pay television platform owned by former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

PlayTV currently operates from the old Consat office located within the premises of the Tinubu-owned Television Continental (TVC) at CMD Road, Ikosi-Ketu in Lagos.

At launch, PlayTV promised subscribers that it would not be business as usual “as we will be rolling out with lots of interesting channels you’ve always loved and new channels you’d love to watch”.

It also claimed to have the potential to “be available to over 20 million homes and 150 million individuals”.

Six years after, it has failed to go anywhere near Toyin Subair’s projections and is remembered only by decoders bought for N15,000 by subscribers, with many bought by state governments headed by politicians on the same platform with Tinubu.

The Rivers State Government under Mr. Rotimi Amaechi bought 50,000 Consat decoders. Ibim Semenitari, Rivers State Information Commissioner at the time, confirmed the agreement with Consat, saying it was for the purpose of digital migration and a source of empowerment for the people of the state.

“We are getting the decoders because we need to migrate

to the new platform and we are also grooming installers for the project, which will, in turn, empower our youths by way of providing job opportunities,’’ Semenitari said.

She added that since the state-owned television and radio stations were in the process of joining the rest of the world in migrating to digital broadcasting, it was important that the purchase of the decoders was made to enhance the penetration of information to the remotest parts of the state.

Continue reading on https://www.chronicle.ng/2020/06/toyin-subair-plots-return-to-pay-tv-via-new-broadcast-code/

I wish you best of luck sir