₦airaland Forum

hi all,sony entertainment is not a indian movie channel,but a foreign entertainment channel[sitcoms,soaps,comedy,movies,etc.

hi sology,when the uplink from nigeria is done expect to see about 4 channels.then about 4 foreign channel [setanta sports,kidsco,discovery and sony entertainment television].total about 7-8 channels in all.but note they will be added set by set.

hi all,the uplink was not completed due to the weather conditions friday.hopfully will be completed this coming week.

hi bluehorizo,why do u guys always like to complain for everything.who told u hitv does have the caf champions league?,they have the rights to all CAF events[nations cup,champions league,confederation cup,u-17,u-20,home-base nations cup]till 2016.[2008-2016].did u check the site[www.hitv.co.ng/league fixtures].pls alway check ur facts.

hi enitan 2000,in most cases of eutelsat w4 freq.,they take a max. of 16 to 17 channels.there will is no more freq on w4 till may 2009,when eutelsat launches w7 to annex w4.w7 will have 74 transponders[freq],with beams for africa/south africa/nigeria,russia,europe,west asia and internet.

when u use mpeg 4 daar will be able to add 20 to 21 channels on a freq.most of the freq on nss7 are mpeg4 that why u see 20 tv and 3 to 4 radio channels on it.but i till daar will be using digital cable transmission.that why they are opening up ait stations nationwide to house the base station.

hi,all trend tv 16 channels has been released ones again.so enjoy while it's till freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

hi all,the hi channels went off-air due to the upgrating and uplinking been carried out from nigeria.any moment you shall see a clean picture quality hi-channels and some new additions.

hi all,the caf champions league will be live on hi soccer-EL HAIL VS ENYIMBA AT 6PM FRIDAY
COTON SPORT VS TP MEZEMBE AT 3.30PM SATURDAY
DYNAMOS VS ASEC MIMOSAS AT 2PM SUNDAY
EL AHLY VS ZAMALEK AT 6.30PM SUNDAY

hi ,channels will be added soon.work is on going to uplink some channels from nigeria.b4 the foreign channel will be added.

hi bigjoe,why do u think that conax is a good cas?

hi all more info on daarsat,-"WE want a nation where everyone could have access to equal opportunity and aspire to be anything in the land. My father was a chief clerk in government office and my mother sold Ankara (local fabrics) in Ibadan just to see us through. Technically, I am the son of nobody. I simply aspired"

With these words, Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi told reporters recently that DAAR Communications, owners of African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower F.M now belong to the Nigerian people.

"We are simply holding it in trust for them."

Dokpesi, a doctorate degree holder in Marine Engineering, said, he got to his present position not due to any form of Godfatherism or otherwise but because life has great opportunities for everyone and neither governments nor individuals can scuttle that.

He explained that for Nigerians to buy into the dream of organised private broadcasting exemplified by DAAR Communications Plc, public offering means that "these people believe in us and our modest achievement."

With the 100 per cent success of the public offering conducted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), DAAR Communications wants to change the face of broadcasting in Africa.

"We want Nigerians to aspire for greatness and this is possible.

"This forum is to acknowledge the support of our friends in the media, print and electronic. We are sincerely grateful to those people who have supported us tremendously, both as individuals as well as using the platform of your organisations, to support the growth and development of DAAR Communications.

For some of you, you will recall that the development aspect of DAAR Communications faced a lot of challenges about year 2000 when we had receiver managers take over the premises of Alagbado in Lagos. And a lot of people thought that was the end of the organisation, after all, we said private broadcasting would never thrive in Nigeria. That it was absolute madness and this man called Raymond Dopkesi came alone, dazzled everybody, thinking that it was something that is feasible, "

"But thanks to your support at that time, thanks to the support of millions of Nigerians, we were able to weather that storm, we managed to get ourselves back on the track. And like I said at that time that the issues that DAAR Communications were confronted with, were not economic issues but political. It was out of the desire of the government at that time to really bring DAAR Communications and private broadcasters to their kneels. That was why we found ourselves in the situation that we were in. But if God has fought for one, you don't start wearing gloves and start looking for a ring! You can only glorify, thank God and everybody that saw us through the challenges at that time.

"Soon after 2000 crisis, we came back on air in October 2001 after we had run skeletal services both on radio and TV, and as soon as we just settled down to start running properly, around June/July 2002, Abuja office where we were operating from, Labour House, was set ablaze with the fire bomb. Now, that still remains a lot of mystery, just like several deaths that have taken place in Nigeria. But we had it on good authority that it was the soldiers that were advancing to Zak Biam at that time, on their way, they had to silence Raypower and AIT and the place was set ablaze. Well, those are the things of development in a developing country. And that compelled us to start looking for accommodation and permanent site. That is how we were able to get to this virgin land as it were at that time in Abuja.

"I remember my colleagues who came here first, the trees and plants that were here were higher than this AIT building. There were busy animals, and there were people that were farming all around. By the time we came in, they captured our people and they wanted to sacrifice them to their gods. It took a lot of pleading to say that no, we were just allocated the land, and that we were not enemies, we wanted to be able to co-operate with them, and long negotiation started with the inhabitants. They have their village down there, and we had to pay them compensation for their crops, we had to plead with them, build them a school, buy uniform for the children, equip them with the assurance that we were here to uplift and assist them. And one of the major promises that we made that still remains quite un-fulfilled today, even when we had put our best efforts, is to get power to the village down there. We thought that the present Minister of the FCT when he was Minister of State for Power for the short period we did make effort to get power across here, but we were not quite successful. So, we ourselves here, have been running on Generators for most of the time, almost 99 per cent of the time.

"From then onward, we faced several other challenges. The third term saga, the perceived support for the members of the National Assembly against the Executives at that time, and a lot of miscarriage of information, it was just impossible to expressly talk about all the things that happened during that period. But for us in DAAR Communications and for most of the private broadcasters or private electronic media owners, the eight years of the Obasanjo administration was possibly the most unfriendly in the history of electronic media development in this country. Even the military - Babangida that had the courage to, first of all, deregulate broadcasting, Abacha that gave filip to it and so on, were much more positively placed to the growth of private electronic media than the eight years of this Obasanjo administration.

"But all that is history right now. Soon after the end of that administration, we started going back. In 1999/2000, we had thought of going to the Stock Exchange. Our intention was to meet the minimum five years requirement that the SEC placed for a company to have operated as a private limited liability company before coming to the stock exchange, when suddenly in 2000, we were accused of supporting Okadigbo, supporting members of the House of Representatives under Ghali Na'Aba that were determined to impeach the president, that we gave them the platform, these were the issues that necessitated the federal government getting in touch with the consortium of banks to demand the facilities that we had agreed on the repayment terms. But they insisted we should pay back within one week. I said, 'look the asset base of the company at that time was about N3.5 billion, and what we were owing was just about N400 million from the bank, obviously, the asset covered the credit, and we were servicing it, then why must we pay? And the threat was that 'if you do not pay back, we are taking over.' That was how the receivership issue came up at that time. But we thank Almighty God, all that is history. All that is past, we planned to go to the Stock Exchange earlier on, but we had to wait. The amount of damage, dent put to the image and perception of the organisation had to be corrected over a long period of time to restore the confidence of Nigerians that it is possible, and that electronic media as complicated and difficult as it is, as a new area of economic endeavour as it was at that time, it is something that is possible to make really work, but it needs a lot of commitment, sacrifice, and a lot of pain had to be gone through to bring it to this level.

"You are all living witnesses now that by February this year, the offer for DAAR Communications actually opened and ran through from about February 26 to March 31. Well, I do not have to sing the praises of DAAR Communications to mention all the firsts and all the ground-breaking efforts that we had gone through. Those are easy to find. But significantly, we have tried to change the face of broadcasting in Nigeria. We have paid our dues, we will continue to pay our dues. We went to the Stock Exchange believing very strongly that the ordinary people of Nigeria have faith and confidence in DAAR Communications. And that the measure of our acceptance, the measure of the appreciation of Nigerians for the sacrifices that we have made on their behalf is an indication that the airwaves do not belong to us. It belongs to the Nigerian people, we are just holding it in trust for all Nigerians. We try to keep it as much as possible to say have your airwaves back, keep it yourself and so on. If you want us to continue to manage it on your behalf, we would be glad to do so, but you should be the owner. And there was quite a positive response as you have seen in the last couple of days. The offers put for subscription and for sale were 100 per cent subscribed. Really, it was about 100.2 or .3 per cent, but in order not to run in the issue of over subscription, we had to do some juggling around to really be sure that we were able to fall within the limit. There were multiple applications by individuals along the line. We tried as much as possible that these were eliminated early enough, plead with the persons that were involved.

"Also, the delay in the release of the result had to do with the performance of the issuing houses that were involved. And the deadline that the SEC had set in ensuring that every process connected with the offer was perfected.

"By and large, the result is out. Let me thank all of you most sincerely, because without the tremendous support of the entire media, both print and electronic, I do not think that we would have had the possibility to have gone as far as we were able to go. I am using this forum to thank all of you who, through your various columns and write-up encouraged and inspired Nigerians to participate. And to thank Nigerians at large for the confidence they have reposed, the sacrifices they have made in investing and placing hope in DAAR Communications.

"Let me reiterate also that the offer proceeds will be applied very strictly and prudently. One to the national networking expansion programme that we are embarking upon, both for radio and TV for which Mr. president graciously granted approval for the second national network in Nigeria to DAAR Communications earlier in the year -January 4, 2008.

"We are also going to be coming up with multi-channel, pay-TV platform which we hope will be taking off from Abuja. We are also looking at totally transforming and upgrading the facilities in each of the stations across the country from analogue television broadcasting to full digital TV platform. Not only in term of the studio facilities - cameras, switches, but in actual fact, the whole entirety of broadcasting for all our stations across the country. We also look at the issue of building a film village in Lagos to enhance our capacity to undertake some productions, not only movies for sale to other people, but also for our own television consumption. We are looking at TV consuming content and enhancing, uplifting the standards for us to come at par with modern day television broadcasting in any part of the world. Especially, next year will be the Nigeria's 50th anniversary of coming of television to Nigeria. We are looking forward very strong to bring Nigeria's glory in broadcasting back to its proper place. Nigeria, in the continent of Africa, started TV broadcasting in October 1959, but today, we have to depend on South Africa and other African countries for modern day television broadcasting. We want to play our small role in ensuring that Nigeria's honour and glory are fully returned and also re-establish the leadership role we ought to be playing in TV broadcasting in the continent.

"This is, more or less the objective of this meeting. We have not received the offer proceeds yet, but you are invited to see efforts we have put on ground on our own, so that when the offer proceeds come in, it can only go further in enhancing and consolidating our giant strides. It was an offer at give away price, but we will see how it goes.

"For the multi-channel project, we are looking at starting test-transmission on August 1, 2008, and the official take-off on September 1. The equipment for that is already on ground. Some of the facilities are at testing point, while installation is still on going. But the good point is that every item that is required is already on the ground. We are starting with 40 channels. It is going to be transmission on High Definition. It is quite challenging. We are launching broadcasting at a different pedestal. I was glad to host, last week, somebody from CNBC Africa, and he was flexing muscle to say that 'Oh, I have the best latest broadcasting equipment in the whole of Africa.' By the time I took him round a little bit, he bowed and said he could accept that this one is much more superior, this is much stronger. But I had to give it to him that he started first.

"Apart from the newsroom that we are building, other facility is on ground. We are pursuing vigorously all the things that I said in the documentary. We have been on course and pushing it all along.

On manpower to run the new vision

"You are right that we need to get more hands. We need to train. We need to expose our people to new technology. But new technology is not about increasing manpower. It is the direct opposite. There is going to be a lot of reduction of manpower. But the casualty will not be too high, because we are building 20 other stations. We are expanding from our current levels of 8 stations to 24, so, about 16 new stations will be coming up between now and October. The transmitters both for radio and TV are on ground. The buildings are coming up right now in the various locations across the country, as they finish, the equipment will start going and people will be redeployed to various other areas. The truth of the matter is that the younger ones have to be given more opportunities. There is the problem of transition from the old way of doing things to modern way. And it is easier to bend a fish that is fresh than the one that is dried already. It is the younger ones that we will be placing more emphasis on. I must admit to you that after going through the facilities in Lagos, I am determined to assist the Group Managing Director, Alhaji Ladi Lawal, in retiring a number of the very senior staff in order to allow the younger ones that are still flexible, capable of meeting the challenges of their contemporaries in other part of the world be given the chance.

"For instance, in the master control room where we used to have about 12 people working, it is only one person that is required! In the programme injection room where you needed about 8 programmers, with the new technology, you only need two. And the natural human reaction is to say, 'when this thing comes in, I may likely loose my job.' So, either you stall the growth or you start destroying the equipment. That is the scenario in our Lagos office right now. Unfortunately, Abuja is 100 per cent digital; Lagos is about 60 per cent on digital platform; and there is the need to raise the level to that ,

At the first stage, my vision was to get Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt to feed in on digital content. We are transmitting now to the USA, UK, Asia, far East, up to Korea, Japan, China, on WH5 and across the continent of Africa. If we were to get to that level, unfortunately, the way we do things have to change. We have to come up on the full digital platform. It is not easy to tell people that that is what is going to happen. But we have no choice. But we must have right attitude. One of the major challenges that the Nigerian broadcasting industry is going to have in transiting from the present analogue to digital would be the manpower. I think we are starting a little bit late in training and exposure of our engineers. Those of our engineers graduating from the universities, unfortunately, do not have the opportunity to get in touch with modern equipment and facilities and when they come out, they come into an environment with analogue facilities. They have not seen a proper digital environment from which they can gain proper experience. We do have facilities to set some aside as laboratories where students can acquire basic knowledge and experience.

In our own little way, we are surmounting this. I have some expatriates over there, in order to let our staff learn on the job, especially the younger ones that are flexible and versatile with computers.

On training and re-training:

"But as far as training is concerned, all facets, sub-divisions in the broadcast chain would need complete training. What we have done is to have a versatile reporter for instance. A camera man should be able to handle audio, video, lighting. He has to be one man in all. The days are gone when the duty of a cameraman is to carry the camera; somebody else would be carrying the light; another adjusting the audio, one person would have to do all these at the same time. The issue now is to build video journalist - a reporter who is able to handle the camera, come back to his office, write and edit the story, pass it to his editor, later to the graphics people and finally for transmission. The orientation has just got to change. The focus therefore has to be on the younger ones and invest on them in training at both local institutions and abroad. From October, we will be sending about 25 people to UK for training for a period of about 4 to 6 weeks."

Long term plans

"The long-term measure as regards training is to collaborate with the training institutions we have here in Nigeria. They are two - TV College in Jos and FRCN Training school in Lagos. It's easier and better for us to strengthen what we have than every individual wanting to start something new every time. At the two centres, there are buildings and lecturers. They may not have been exposed to all this level of sophistication, we can bring in people from time to time to assist in the training. The structures are already there, even if we have to donate some equipment, it is better and easier to take up from that ground than to starting a new school on your own. The days of one man, one organisation have come and gone. It is highly capital intensive.

The pay-TV project

We are going to be looking at the entertainment sector. We are bringing in a number of channels that have to do with movies from Hollywood, Bollywood, and Nollywood. In UK, AIT Moviestar is already making waves. Ecostars in the US, we are having discussion to have both AIT general entertainment channel and Moviestar bundled together for the American audience. We are looking at kids, so we are bringing in the strongest, all the 32 channels that are foreign to make up the 40 channels pay-TV platform are the highly rated channels that are available across the world. For news, we have quite a number of channels that are coming in. There is also a lot of sports. We have been acquiring a lot of the sporting rights. Though, I have to dough my hat for our friend at HiTV who has done tremendously well in acquiring right, but I have a different approach and view about that. We also have documentaries. In the nearest future, we want to build up documentaries on West Africa history.

About the eight channels, from DAAR Communications, we have AIT News, which is a 24-hour news channel with correspondents in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, together with US Bureau and UK Bureau. Then the general entertainment channel; and Musical Channel to be co-ordinated by Adepetu. We are thinking of bringing in the Gateway TV to the platform. I do not have any objection to even have NTA on the platform. It is just a matter of Africanising and bringing in to our people those things that are indigenous to us, thereby supporting their growth.

"In addition, there is going to be children channel. We have about 12,000 hours of children programmes that we have acquired, total library that we have taken on. From last quarter of October when all our network stations would have been on stream, the whole face of AIT would totally transform. Whether we will be able to have sufficient advertising support is what I have left to the financial people to look at. But for me, the entire dream of transforming and strengthening and upgrading the face of television would have been substantially achieved.

"There is going to be Sahara 1 for the Indian loving people; from the US, Fox Sky is coming in as well as detective stories, This is the rationale behind some of the structures we are putting up here in Abuja as the headquarters of DAAR Communications."

hi they are events.please it's[man utd tour of africa,and not asia],sori 4 the mistake.

HI FEMO7,HITV HAS THE RIGHTS TO AIR THE CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.COVERAGE STARTS ON FRIDAY WITH ENYIMBA VS EL HAIL OF SUDAN,AT 6PM.THERE WILL ALSO BE 3 OTHER MATCHES[1 ON SAT. AND 2 ON SUNDAY].

ALL,KEEP UR FINGERS CROSSED ON THE OLYMPICS AND PRE-SEASONS[E.G MAN U TOUR OF ASIA OR EMIRATES CUP].ONCE I CONFIRM THEM I WILL INFORM U GUYS.SO WATCH THIS SPACE.

hi foxnews,zee cinema,and cnbc africa.coming really soon-setanta sports,kidsco,discovery,kennis,biscon,dovevision.

just keep watching, ,it's till in the oven

hi all,hitv more great things from hitv.

hi more should have been added since last week,but because hitv is sharing the new freq[12130],with gtv they have to workout technical terms eash time they want to both add channels.any moment from today one or two channels will be added[setanta sports,kidsco,discovery.]

hi all,thanks a million times,

hi the NIGERIA reality show was put on hold,should to a court case bending at thje fed. high court.hitv was sued by dstv.dstv is calming hitv stole thier concept of reality show.
for the hitv website,a brand new site shall start soon,it's under construction.

yes,take it to hitv office,

hi Gamine,good for u.that is the beauty of competition[freedom to choose].

hi,u always think every that supports hitv is a staff/insider.we are talking of satellite signal not cable.am not saying hitv don't have it's wrongs,but when they do good things we should also commend them.all i can say is that more more good things are coming all hitv subscribers way.

well if u have first hand info,why are u till asking questions?.

hi if u think hitv don't get/buy content on time then i say u are died died wrong.hitv has purchased so many contents and live events,we time you shall begin to see them.there are so many issues relating to the olympics that one can't say.

hi just check www.hitv.com.ng.but note a brand new site will start soon,

hi pls anytime u have signal problem never blame it on hitv.u beta call ur intaller to re-set ur dish and let's stop putting every little thing on hitv

hi,hitv has started adding more channels.the activation process has improved and will be even beta b4 august.
more great contents are coming by august.a tv mag/guide will be in hitv sub. homes by august.

hi Gamine,thank you.the problem with most nigerians is that they alway want everything,now now.hitv is till a young company.let's not forget that the pay tv business is a long term investment,dstv is jusy 14years in nigeria,but yet they are till not perfect.they[dstv]had monopoly for many many things in africa,but now they are little by little opening up.you shall see a new changed hitv soon, [b4 december].just keep your eyes and ears open].

we know,all we need to for them to be them selfs[i.e,hitv].

hi sology,foxnews was just added on hitv.cnbc africa was removed from hi sports2 space and put on it's own.more channels to come,

hi all,hitv just added foxnews and cnbc africa.more channels to come[12130 H 27500],

hi all,hitv just added foxnews and cnbc africa.more channels to come, freq[12130 H 27500].