₦airaland Forum

Galaxy is the first private TV station while Raypower is the private first radio station...
Nigeria's first private TV station is AIT... don't get it twisted..

SalamRushdie:
Tinubu has failed

This is the summary of it all.

Silentgroper:
you're not the only one

Thank you

Kenobsky:
Wow DITV Kaduna.
This was my boyhood joy.
Just buy antenna and black and white TV.
Fiam you are a big boy.

UHF 53 if I’m not mistaken. Came up in kaduna in primary 5 1993.

dominique:
I thought DBN was the first private TV station in Nigeria, or was it clapperboard?

You're not young. I think Galaxy TV may be the first.

You contradict yourself. Please read your post again. Is it AIT or galaxy

padrey:
Galaxy is the first private TV station while Raypower is the private first radio station...
Nigeria's first private TV station is AIT... don't get it twisted..

AIT was the first 24 hour private channel in Nigeria. Others close at night and resume in the morning

dominique:
Nah, it can't be AIT. AIT opened in 1997, we watched DBN and Clapperboard as far back as 1994. Even channels TV opened before AIT

Tinubu just came into power to destroy bussinesses and the economy and country..it's a pity

This is what you get when you vote an incompetent and clueless president into power..it's a pity

This is what you get when you vote an incompetent,old and dull man into power..it's a pity

Okoroawusa:
Nigeria's first private TV station is AIT... don't get it twisted

It's ditv. It pioneered in kaduna
It's owned by the Baba-Ahmed family. Elder brother to Datti

The experience of the most experienced has been a total experience for everyone. But e be like na the north dey collect pass. The conditions never start, ona don dey cry …..I believe wail was ur favored term under the last admin. Tribalism u played then didn’t favor u. The tribalism u helped install now, is still not favoring u. It is only a mad man that does the same thing again & again while expecting a diff result. Where u not told 'e go reach everybody one one?? Lol, the hunger na 15yrs straight minimum according to his handle buddies so save ur strength!

iwaeda:
https://dailytrust.com/nigerias-first-private-tv-station-suspends-operation/

Back in my days in KD...DITV n KSTV running things , giving NTA kaduna run for their money

Then back in Lagos, it was DBN n Clapperboard

illicit:
I thought it's AIT

Even DBN came before AIT

Watched Atlanta 96 on dbn

dominique:
I thought DBN was the first private TV station in Nigeria, or was it clapperboard?

It was ahead of dbn by few months, both started alone in 96.

Before then, dbn n nta were in partnership for many years

Clapperboard was with ltv 8 , didn't standalone until 1997, disappeared then later rebranded as superscreen. I doubt if they still exist

Worth mentioning was cabetel , it came around in 95 but switched to being Nigeria first paytv

tunwumi:
Galaxy came before them

galaxy Lagos came late though

Solcampbell:
DITV is based in kaduna and owned by a northerner named Shariff Baba Ahmed. He's from same family with Datti Baba Ahmad, Obi's mate.

I was born in kaduna in the mid 90s and I have memories of watching the channel up until mid 2000s when the founder died and the elder brother took over operation. Before the death of Shariff, you would hardly know that it's owner is a northerner because it was highly entertaining, diverse, educative, Disneycartoons, WWE, American soap operas(young and the restless, etc), nolly wood movies etc. Infact it was more sweeter than AIT sef ( since I watched AIT too which was a Nationwide broadcast). Infact it is only when we want to watch superstory that we change to NTA. After the death of Shariff, the elder brother who was more conservative declared all those things Haram and began to air hausa, hausa and Islamic, Islamic programs That's when the channel started dying, like from 2007 downwards. It lost a huge number of viewership from his non Muslim audience. They began to lose revenue too because nobody was coming to advertise with them anymore since they turned it to regional affair.

Don't you love capitalism? I love it! It is the true essence of freedom and the right to choose.

(Just so you know, the population of non-muslims in kaduna is almost similar to that in Lagos. Infact KD is the most civilised northern state followed by Jos)

What do you say about Adamawa and Taraba?

dominique:
Channels started around 95/96.



Could be true. Galaxy has been operating in Ibadan years before opening a station in Lagos in the early 2000s. As far as those of us in Lagos can remember, it was DBN and Clapperboard that were the private TV stations that rescued us from the borefest called NTA in the early 90s. This Ditv claiming to be the first private TV station in Nigeria is not remotely familiar to me in anyway. Google says their station is in Ikeja Lagos and I've never heard of it? They should take it easy with the lies abeg

You are correct. I think it should be between DBN and Clapperboard. Galaxy came after them.

Okoroawusa:
Nigeria's first private TV station is AIT... don't get it twisted

AITis certainly not Nigeria's first private TV station. AIT came late, after many others had already started.

MBI, DBN and Clapperboard began broadcasting in 1994, Channels began broadcasting in 1995 and AIT began broadcasting in 1996.

Meanwhile, the first private TV broadcaster in Nigeria is actually ABG, which began broadcasting in 1985.

This is the reason why someone is saying that Channels TV started in 1993. Channels actually started broadcasting in 1995. DBN started broacasting in 1994. Minaj also started broadcasting in 1994, but they were in Obosi. They came to Lagos in 1995. I didn't mention AIT here because they started late, in 1996.

naptu2:
Oh, yeah! This was on my mind while I was exercising this morning.


Before establishment

The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission was established in 1993 by the Babangida Administration and private radio and TV stations began broadcasting in 1994/1995.

However, there are some popular TV companies that existed long before they were granted TV licenses and long before they started transmitting as independent TV stations. This post is about those companies.

---

Nigeria qualified for the first ever FIFA Under 16 World Championship, which was held in China in 1985 and Degue Broadcasting Network got the rights to broadcast the tournament. At that time the only stations that existed in Nigeria were the NTA and the various state TV stations.

What sports marketing companies usually did was to buy the rights to tournaments, seek for sponsors that would pay for advertisements and then collaborate with the NTA to show the tournaments on the NTA Network Service. This way the company would make its money, NTA would get the chance to deliver a public service and also make money and the advertisers would get exposure. Viewers would also get the chance to see first class sporting action and to support their teams and everybody would be happy.

It was because of that tournament (China '85) that I knew that the company was called DBN. The sign in front of their office at Awolowo Road in Ikoyi read "Degue" at that time.

They also promoted other tournaments after China '85, but I really can't remember the exact tournaments (was it Mexico '86?).

Anyway, DBN began broadcasting as an independent TV station in 1994 or '95 and they became popular for their sports shows and especially for their coverage of Atlanta '96 (Deji Omotoyinbo and Kessington Ajufo). The station was owned by Osa Sunny Adun.

---

Remember that I posted a video of Yellowman performing at Reggae Sunsplash? Well Reggae Sunsplash was very popular in Nigeria because it was shown on the NTA in the early and mid-1980s and the concert inspired the creation of a similar concert in Lagos. It was known as Lekki Sunsplash and it was held at the Lekki Beach.

Lekki Beach was quite popular in the mid-1980s because it was a new beach and people felt that the crowd would not be too much and that the beach would be cleaner than the Bar Beach. Besides, the Bar Beach had begun eroding in the mid-1980s and people just wanted to see the new beach that everybody was talking about.


The creation of Lekki Sunsplash coincided with the growth of Reggae in Nigeria. Many new reggae artistes were appearing on the scene at that time and their songs were very popular. These artistes included Ras Kimono, Majek Fashek, The Mandators, Evi Edna Ogholi, Oritz Wiliki, Kris Hanen, etc. and they all performed at Lekki Sunsplah. However, the concert was not just about reggae music and in fact all the major artistes of the late 1980s and early 1990s performed at Reggae Sunsplash. These included Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Blackky, Alex O, Feladey, Edmund Spice and Danny Wilson.


The promoter of Lekki Sunsplash was Toyin Munis. He held the shows in conjunction with the Lagos State Government (who owned Lekki Beach). I remember that, on one occasion, either Prime People or Vintage People reported that he parked his SUV by a bush path in order to stop people from getting into Lekki Beach via those bush paths (you had to pay before you could get into the beach).


To show you how crazy people were about Lekki Sunsplash I need to make you understand that there was no regular bus service through that area in 1986. There were buses that took people from CMS or Obalende just because of the concert, but getting back was a big problem. Many people walked from Lekki Beach to Sandfill in order to get home, while some walked all the way to Falomo.


In 1991 Toyin Munis began a TV service. He bought time on LTV 8 and showed a wide range of interesting programmes. These programs were usually shown on Saturday mornings and at around 4-6pm on weekdays. The name of the TV service was Clapperboard.

They had Clapperboard Raps on Saturday mornings at around 10am. If I remember correctly, it was produced by Obi Asika. It was basically a Nigerian version of Yo! MTV Raps. They showed some foreign and Nigerian raps songs and then they had a segment for Jimmy's Jump Off. DJ Jimmy Jatt usually played songs in this segment, but he also often showcased new and unknown rap artistes who would be allowed to rap over a beat that Jimmy had chosen. I was shocked when I saw someone that I know on the show in 1991. He was an extremely muscular guy and he appeared as a hypeman (or should I say backup dancer, because he didn't really say much, he was just throwing his hands around) to one of the rappers.

Do you know that 2Face Idibia made his first TV appearance on Jimmy's Jump Off on Clapperboard Raps?


Anyway, the Clapperboard time slot on LTV 8 was shown in 1991, 1992, but then it vanished in 1993. Clapperboard later appeared as an independent TV station in 1994. It was the first private TV station in Lagos and it was on UHF 45.

---

John Momoh was a popular newscaster on the NTA in the 1980s. He usually read the 9 o'clock news. A separate show was created for him sometime around 1989 and it was called "Tonight At 9". It was shown at 9pm on Mondays.

Mr Momoh left the NTA sometime around 1992 and everybody wondered where he went. It was later reported that he had created his own TV production company. The very first programme that was produced by that company (called Channels Television) was an interview of President Ibrahim Babangida on the grounds of the Aso Rock Villa in 1993. John Momoh personally interviewed the president. It was kind of unusual to see an interview of the president outside the usual network news interviews.

Channels Television began broadcasting as an independent TV station in 1995.

This is why ABG claims to be the first private TV station in Nigeria. They started selling satellite systems in 1985 and began terrestrial broadcasting in 1991, but it was pay TV.

naptu2:
There were many companies that started selling satellite dishes in Nigeria in 1985. Those dishes were twice or thrice the size of the regular DSTV dishes that are common today. Two of those companies were Ultima and ABG (there were many others, but I can't remember their names). They carried a wide variety of international channels like Bop TV, MTV, CNN, Sky News, Sky One, Eurosport, etc.

Ultima was the most popular of these companies initially, but ABG became more popular in 1990/1991 when it started broadcasting in the MMDS format. This format utilised a special antenna that was much cheaper than those gigantic satellite dishes and therefore, many more households could afford to purchase pay TV systems for the first time. ABG became incredibly popular and those antennas were everywhere in Lagos. They were called "cable", even though it was not really a cable system (I can still remember ABG's advert. The song went, "ABG, cable satellite systems" )

Other companies also adopted the MMDS format, but ABG dominated the sector.

In 1993, Multichoice bought over ABG's Lagos operations and they also bought over some of the smaller MMDS companies in other states. They thus became the dominant pay TV operator.

It was a bit difficult for Multichoice to break into the Nigerian market in the beginning. There were quite a lot of complaints between 1993 and 1996 because Multichoice did not show the kind of programming that Nigerians liked. ABG, Ultima and the other older TV companies were Nigerian companies and so they knew what Nigerians liked and gave them what they wanted. Nigerians liked R&B and hip hop music, but Multichoice offered Nigerians Kwaito and other forms of music that they simply did not like. Nigerians worshipped football and track and field athletics, but Multichoice prioritised cricket and rugby over football and athletics. It led to a lot of complaints, before Multichoice began adapting their channels to suit the taste of Nigerians.

The other problem that Multichoice faced was the problem of Nigerian content and copyright ownership. The Nigerian government created the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in 1992 and one of the rules of the NBC was that free to air stations should show 70% Nigerian content, while pay TV operators should show 20% Nigerian content. Multichoice needed Nigerian content, so they approached the NTA (NTA 2 Channel 5) and the NTA sold some Nigerian programmes to them. The problem was that NTA did not own those programmes.

NTA sold the Charlie Boy Show to Multichoice. The Charlie Boy Show was owned by New Wave Productions, which was owned by Charlie Boy. It did not belong to the NTA. They also sold some of Onyeka Onwenu's videos to Multichoice. Those videos did not belong to the NTA.

The NTA was a monopoly up until 1994. The only other TV channels that existed were the state TV channels (Lagos Television, OGTV, etc.) which were restricted to the UHF band. The NTA used its monopoly power to bully independent TV producers. Musicians were forced to sign an agreement that the NTA would not pay them for showing their music videos (they had to agree because the NTA was the only way to become famous). The NTA could increase their airtime charges at will because there was no alternative (until Amaka Isaac-Ene showed that there was an alternative by syndicating Checkmate on state TV stations when the NTA's charges became unreasonable). The independent producers were also subjected to government censorship.

A caller on Morning Ride insulted President Babangida and the producer cut him off. The man called back, began talking about something else, then said that he was the one that called previously and then he insulted Babangida again. This made the NTA adopt extreme censorship methods. Godwin "Dudu" Orumen who produced The Best Of Football was told that he had to submit tapes of his show to the NTA one week before the show was due to be aired. This was a crazy requirement because the football matches that were aired on the show would have become stale by the time the show was aired.

Lola Fani-Kayode produced the most popular soap opera in the country (Mirror In The Sun) in 1985, but the show was taken off air because part of the plot offended members of the Federal Military Government (the part about a senior government officer and his girlfriend).

So it was quite understandable that established TV producers would be quite hostile to the idea of the NTA selling their material.

Charlie Boy picketed the NTA and Multichoice's offices and took them to court. Onyeka Onwenu also picketed the NTA's offices.


ABG still has pay TV operations in some states in Nigeria, while Ultima went into TV productions. Ultima now produces "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and "Project Fame".

First picture below is a picture of an MDDS antenna.

dominique:
I thought DBN was the first private TV station in Nigeria, or was it clapperboard?

Yes it was DBN but this one is the first in NORTHERN NIGERIA.

Okoroawusa:
Nigeria's first private TV station is AIT... don't get it twisted

Galaxy TV even started before AIT.

Sister! U don old ooo


quote author=dominique post=133118078]I thought DBN was the first private TV station in Nigeria, or was it clapperboard? [/quote]

Okoroawusa:
Nigeria's first private TV station is AIT... don't get it twisted

DESMIMS is older than AIT.

AIT just sabi hype.

immortalcrown:
First private TV station in Nigeria?

Una too dey lie carelessly and unnecessarily.

ditv in kaduna owned by Datti Baba Ahmed’s father is actually the first. I remember watching their adverts as a child in kaduna where they use to say it. Other channels like AIT came years after DITV started. The are not lying

illicit:
I thought it's AIT

AIT was the first to run 24 hours

mikeapollo:
Galaxy TV even started before AIT.

Mumu...galaxy ko cosmos ni

Abokisulay:
U be small pikin for even mentioning Superscreen, they came in very late

You be olodo if you no sabi simple English. They came later doesn’t mean the same era. We’re talking about private tv stations.

Gerrard59:
Don't you love capitalism? I love it! It is the true essence of freedom and the right to choose.


What do you say about Adamawa and Taraba?

They also have a good popular of indigenous Christians but Kano and Kaduna are more populated both with the indigenous and southern settlers. Even in infrastructure, economically and security wise, the 2Ks are ahead. It was that elrufai that brought killer herdsmen to Kaduna. Makarfi, Namadi Sambo and Yakowa were peaceful and tolerant governors

Rinoxy:
UHF 53 if I’m not mistaken. Came up in kaduna in primary 5 1993.

God bless you Bro.
When life has no meaning then boom came DITV Kaduna to give us joy.
The feeling was superb.
But that Sharia riot really mess things up.
Though I'm still in Kaduna but relocated out of Islamic territory now I'm in Sabo.

drake2:
Wow!. I respect your memory. Back back in the days in Lagos!

I still remember this station..

Back then our television just doesnt like this station as it always appears unclear no matter how many times i romance the antenna.

Old memories...