Thanks. It might be worth posting my experience there as well.

Thanks, i'm honestly not sure which it is. It would be nice to hear about other people's experiences.

HiTV: Cable TV Providers or Cable TV Fraudsters?
By Iso Bassey (Iso.Bassey@nigeria-friends.com)

I have been a DSTV subscriber for over 10 years and was dismayed when they lost the rights to show majority of English Premier League matches last year. It doesn’t take much to guess that I am a fan of the EPL. I am in fact an Arsenal fan. That’s by the way though.

Soon after DSTV lost the rights, I was made to understand that a little-known company called HiTV had acquired these rights. I also learnt that HiTV was allegedly bankrolled by a former President and his minister for Information. I had no idea their acquisition of these rights was a good or bad thing, but considering that I had to get my weekly football fix, I quickly came to terms with the fact that I would need to splash out on a new decoder and other hardware components. I considered it the least I could do to support my then misfiring Gunners.

I contacted a local agent in Port Harcourt where I am based and had a look at the channels on offer through HiTV. Besides the football, there was little else of interest. I had hoped that the channel offering would be such that I could discontinue my DSTV subscription and switch solely HiTV and in the process save cost on subscription fees. As a result of the poor choice of channels on HiTV I felt rather arm-twisted having to subscribe to their service while still retaining my DSTV. To cut a long story short, I signed up to HiTV simply to be able to watch EPL matches.

If I remember correctly the whole package cost me about N40,000. I hate to say that I felt a sense of disgust the very first time I watched an EPL match on HiTV. The best description I can offer is that it was like watching a YouTube video on a 56kbps Internet connection. I watched the match in frames delivered a few seconds at a time. These frames were often interlaced with displays of “Scrambling/Descrambling” This for me appeared to be the first sign of the HiTV con. I contacted my local agent who had done the installation and he offered a long explanation which I could hardly understand. It revolved around something to do with the decoder being either a HiTV decoder or a “Strong” decoder. I believe “Strong” refers to the manufacturer. Considering that I had just signed up for 3 months it quickly dawned on me that I might have been 419’d. For the next 3 months I could only support my Gunners one frame at a time as HiTV permitted. This was probably just as well considering that we ended the season with no silverware. I threw that in for a bit of humour. It is by the way.

After repeated complaints, towards the end of the 3 months subscription period, my local agent informed me that there was a software upgrade he could carry out on my HiTV decoder to help improve the viewing experience. I was mad at him for not coming to my rescue earlier. He then explained that this fix had only just been made available. We were both puzzled as to why HiTV could not automatically carry out software upgrades on decoders in a seamless manner like DSTV does. He then began to explain to me the challenges his company was facing dealing with HiTV. He complained that their customer service was appalling. At the time we spoke he said that his company had credited HiTV’s bank account with subscription fees of several customers and that HiTV had failed to activate these accounts. They were battling to resolve these issues and had become inundated with complaints by frustrated customers. He explained to me that although he would be losing a small commission if I failed to renew my subscription, it was in my best interest to hold on for a while until HiTV got their act together. I gratefully agreed with him.

A few months went by before I contacted my agent again. During this time a national daily (It might have been Guardian or ThisDay) featured a profile of the C.E.O. of HiTV Mr. Toyin Subair in which he was presented as the young dynamic entrepreneur who had defeated Multichoice, given CNN a bloodied nose and emerged the symbol of national pride. It was laughable. By the time I was talking to my agent again, my HiTV decoder had gathered quite a bit of dust and the EPL’s 2008/2009 season was about to get started again. He told me that things seemed to have improved on the HiTV front and that it would now be possible to renew my subscription without delay. He also told me that I could pay for my subscription directly through any branch of GTBank. That got me excited as GTBank happens to be my bank. Sometime in August I made my first direct payment to HiTV’s bank account using a cheque. Not up to 48 hours after my payment was made, my HiTV service was restored. I was impressed and I thought to myself that the company might have finally resolved its customer service problems. A month later when my August subscription had expired, on 26th September 2008 my secretary made a payment. Only this time we paid by cash rather than cheque. Sadly as I write this article on 29th October 2008, HiTV has still not restored my service. In other words although I paid for subscription until 26th October 2008, I have not been able to watch anything on HiTV since around 24th September 2008. I have e-mailed them repeatedly using the e-mail address on their website i.e. info@hientertainment.tv. I have even attached a copy of my deposit slip showing proof of payment. I have called their customer service number on several occasions and gotten through just once. When I did get through the lady was very quick to dismiss my call.

As a result of my experience with HiTV and the information I have gathered from my HiTV agent and other subscribers in Port Harcourt (where I am based) I have come to the following conclusion. It is either HiTV is a VERY inefficient company who went ahead of itself to take on a task it was incapable of handling or perhaps it is a company that was deliberately setup to con Nigerians by preying on our love for football. As I come to terms with the fact that I might have fallen victim to a HiTV scam, I can only conclude that the latter seems more likely to be the case. I am considering taking legal action against HiTV as a matter of principle.

I have one simple advice for football-loving Nigerians. If you are thinking of subscribing to HiTV, DON’T.
I have discovered that it is possible to watch EPL matches live on your computer free of charge if you have a fast Internet connection. Since the purpose of this article is not to advertise any service, I won’t be any more specific than to ask those interested to google ‘TVU Networks’. Good luck. I have resigned myself to watching matches on my laptop until such a time as a proper company win back the rights to EPL matches.

Iso Bassey is based in Port Harcourt and runs www.nigeria-friends.com and www.outletng.com

HiTV: Cable TV Providers or Cable TV Fraudsters?
By Iso Bassey (Iso.Bassey@nigeria-friends.com)

I have been a DSTV subscriber for over 10 years and was dismayed when they lost the rights to show majority of English Premier League matches last year. It doesn’t take much to guess that I am a fan of the EPL. I am in fact an Arsenal fan. That’s by the way though.

Soon after DSTV lost the rights, I was made to understand that a little-known company called HiTV had acquired these rights. I also learnt that HiTV was allegedly bankrolled by a former President and his minister for Information. I had no idea their acquisition of these rights was a good or bad thing, but considering that I had to get my weekly football fix, I quickly came to terms with the fact that I would need to splash out on a new decoder and other hardware components. I considered it the least I could do to support my then misfiring Gunners.

I contacted a local agent in Port Harcourt where I am based and had a look at the channels on offer through HiTV. Besides the football, there was little else of interest. I had hoped that the channel offering would be such that I could discontinue my DSTV subscription and switch solely HiTV and in the process save cost on subscription fees. As a result of the poor choice of channels on HiTV I felt rather arm-twisted having to subscribe to their service while still retaining my DSTV. To cut a long story short, I signed up to HiTV simply to be able to watch EPL matches.

If I remember correctly the whole package cost me about N40,000. I hate to say that I felt a sense of disgust the very first time I watched an EPL match on HiTV. The best description I can offer is that it was like watching a YouTube video on a 56kbps Internet connection. I watched the match in frames delivered a few seconds at a time. These frames were often interlaced with displays of “Scrambling/Descrambling” This for me appeared to be the first sign of the HiTV con. I contacted my local agent who had done the installation and he offered a long explanation which I could hardly understand. It revolved around something to do with the decoder being either a HiTV decoder or a “Strong” decoder. I believe “Strong” refers to the manufacturer. Considering that I had just signed up for 3 months it quickly dawned on me that I might have been 419’d. For the next 3 months I could only support my Gunners one frame at a time as HiTV permitted. This was probably just as well considering that we ended the season with no silverware. I threw that in for a bit of humour. It is by the way.

After repeated complaints, towards the end of the 3 months subscription period, my local agent informed me that there was a software upgrade he could carry out on my HiTV decoder to help improve the viewing experience. I was mad at him for not coming to my rescue earlier. He then explained that this fix had only just been made available. We were both puzzled as to why HiTV could not automatically carry out software upgrades on decoders in a seamless manner like DSTV does. He then began to explain to me the challenges his company was facing dealing with HiTV. He complained that their customer service was appalling. At the time we spoke he said that his company had credited HiTV’s bank account with subscription fees of several customers and that HiTV had failed to activate these accounts. They were battling to resolve these issues and had become inundated with complaints by frustrated customers. He explained to me that although he would be losing a small commission if I failed to renew my subscription, it was in my best interest to hold on for a while until HiTV got their act together. I gratefully agreed with him.

A few months went by before I contacted my agent again. During this time a national daily (It might have been Guardian or ThisDay) featured a profile of the C.E.O. of HiTV Mr. Toyin Subair in which he was presented as the young dynamic entrepreneur who had defeated Multichoice, given CNN a bloodied nose and emerged the symbol of national pride. It was laughable. By the time I was talking to my agent again, my HiTV decoder had gathered quite a bit of dust and the EPL’s 2008/2009 season was about to get started again. He told me that things seemed to have improved on the HiTV front and that it would now be possible to renew my subscription without delay. He also told me that I could pay for my subscription directly through any branch of GTBank. That got me excited as GTBank happens to be my bank. Sometime in August I made my first direct payment to HiTV’s bank account using a cheque. Not up to 48 hours after my payment was made, my HiTV service was restored. I was impressed and I thought to myself that the company might have finally resolved its customer service problems. A month later when my August subscription had expired, on 26th September 2008 my secretary made a payment. Only this time we paid by cash rather than cheque. Sadly as I write this article on 29th October 2008, HiTV has still not restored my service. In other words although I paid for subscription until 26th October 2008, I have not been able to watch anything on HiTV since around 24th September 2008. I have e-mailed them repeatedly using the e-mail address on their website i.e. info@hientertainment.tv. I have even attached a copy of my deposit slip showing proof of payment. I have called their customer service number on several occasions and gotten through just once. When I did get through the lady was very quick to dismiss my call.

As a result of my experience with HiTV and the information I have gathered from my HiTV agent and other subscribers in Port Harcourt (where I am based) I have come to the following conclusion. It is either HiTV is a VERY inefficient company who went ahead of itself to take on a task it was incapable of handling or perhaps it is a company that was deliberately setup to con Nigerians by preying on our love for football. As I come to terms with the fact that I might have fallen victim to a HiTV scam, I can only conclude that the latter seems more likely to be the case. I am considering taking legal action against HiTV as a matter of principle.

I have one simple advice for football-loving Nigerians. If you are thinking of subscribing to HiTV, DON’T.
I have discovered that it is possible to watch EPL matches live on your computer free of charge if you have a fast Internet connection. Since the purpose of this article is not to advertise any service, I won’t be any more specific than to ask those interested to google ‘TVU Networks’. Good luck. I have resigned myself to watching matches on my laptop until such a time as a proper company win back the rights to EPL matches.

Iso Bassey is based in Port Harcourt and runs www.nigeria-friends.com and www.outletng.com

HiTV: Cable TV Providers or Cable TV Fraudsters?
By Iso Bassey (Iso.Bassey@nigeria-friends.com)

I have been a DSTV subscriber for over 10 years and was dismayed when they lost the rights to show majority of English Premier League matches last year. It doesn’t take much to guess that I am a fan of the EPL. I am in fact an Arsenal fan. That’s by the way though.

Soon after DSTV lost the rights, I was made to understand that a little-known company called HiTV had acquired these rights. I also learnt that HiTV was allegedly bankrolled by a former President and his minister for Information. I had no idea their acquisition of these rights was a good or bad thing, but considering that I had to get my weekly football fix, I quickly came to terms with the fact that I would need to splash out on a new decoder and other hardware components. I considered it the least I could do to support my then misfiring Gunners.

I contacted a local agent in Port Harcourt where I am based and had a look at the channels on offer through HiTV. Besides the football, there was little else of interest. I had hoped that the channel offering would be such that I could discontinue my DSTV subscription and switch solely HiTV and in the process save cost on subscription fees. As a result of the poor choice of channels on HiTV I felt rather arm-twisted having to subscribe to their service while still retaining my DSTV. To cut a long story short, I signed up to HiTV simply to be able to watch EPL matches.

If I remember correctly the whole package cost me about N40,000. I hate to say that I felt a sense of disgust the very first time I watched an EPL match on HiTV. The best description I can offer is that it was like watching a YouTube video on a 56kbps Internet connection. I watched the match in frames delivered a few seconds at a time. These frames were often interlaced with displays of “Scrambling/Descrambling” This for me appeared to be the first sign of the HiTV con. I contacted my local agent who had done the installation and he offered a long explanation which I could hardly understand. It revolved around something to do with the decoder being either a HiTV decoder or a “Strong” decoder. I believe “Strong” refers to the manufacturer. Considering that I had just signed up for 3 months it quickly dawned on me that I might have been 419’d. For the next 3 months I could only support my Gunners one frame at a time as HiTV permitted. This was probably just as well considering that we ended the season with no silverware. I threw that in for a bit of humour. It is by the way.

After repeated complaints, towards the end of the 3 months subscription period, my local agent informed me that there was a software upgrade he could carry out on my HiTV decoder to help improve the viewing experience. I was mad at him for not coming to my rescue earlier. He then explained that this fix had only just been made available. We were both puzzled as to why HiTV could not automatically carry out software upgrades on decoders in a seamless manner like DSTV does. He then began to explain to me the challenges his company was facing dealing with HiTV. He complained that their customer service was appalling. At the time we spoke he said that his company had credited HiTV’s bank account with subscription fees of several customers and that HiTV had failed to activate these accounts. They were battling to resolve these issues and had become inundated with complaints by frustrated customers. He explained to me that although he would be losing a small commission if I failed to renew my subscription, it was in my best interest to hold on for a while until HiTV got their act together. I gratefully agreed with him.
A few months went by before I contacted my agent again. During this time a national daily (It might have been Guardian or ThisDay) featured a profile of the C.E.O. of HiTV Mr. Toyin Subair in which he was presented as the young dynamic entrepreneur who had defeated Multichoice, given CNN a bloodied nose and emerged the symbol of national pride. It was laughable. By the time I was talking to my agent again, my HiTV decoder had gathered quite a bit of dust and the EPL’s 2008/2009 season was about to get started again. He told me that things seemed to have improved on the HiTV front and that it would now be possible to renew my subscription without delay. He also told me that I could pay for my subscription directly through any branch of GTBank. That got me excited as GTBank happens to be my bank. Sometime in August I made my first direct payment to HiTV’s bank account using a cheque. Not up to 48 hours after my payment was made, my HiTV service was restored. I was impressed and I thought to myself that the company might have finally resolved its customer service problems. A month later when my August subscription had expired, on 26th September 2008 my secretary made a payment. Only this time we paid by cash rather than cheque. Sadly as I write this article on 29th October 2008, HiTV has still not restored my service. In other words although I paid for subscription until 26th October 2008, I have not been able to watch anything on HiTV since around 24th September 2008. I have e-mailed them repeatedly using the e-mail address on their website i.e. info@hientertainment.tv. I have even attached a copy of my deposit slip showing proof of payment. I have called their customer service number on several occasions and gotten through just once. When I did get through the lady was very quick to dismiss my call.

As a result of my experience with HiTV and the information I have gathered from my HiTV agent and other subscribers in Port Harcourt (where I am based) I have come to the following conclusion. It is either HiTV is a VERY inefficient company who went ahead of itself to take on a task it was incapable of handling or perhaps it is a company that was deliberately setup to con Nigerians by preying on our love for football. As I come to terms with the fact that I might have fallen victim to a HiTV scam, I can only conclude that the latter seems more likely to be the case. I am considering taking legal action against HiTV as a matter of principle.

I have one simple advice for football-loving Nigerians. If you are thinking of subscribing to HiTV, DON’T.

I have discovered that it is possible to watch EPL matches live on your computer free of charge if you have a fast Internet connection. Since the purpose of this article is not to advertise any service, I won’t be any more specific than to ask those interested to google ‘TVU Networks’. Good luck. I have resigned myself to watching matches on my laptop until such a time as a proper company win back the rights to EPL matches.

Iso Bassey is based in Port Harcourt and runs www.nigeria-friends.com and www.outletng.com