MultiChoice Africa finally promises Zambia's GOtv subscribers they will get their signal restored from today, apologises, and explains what happened - 2 weeks after they were abruptly cut off.

MultiChoice Africa has finally promised Zambia's GOtv subscribers they will get their signal restored from today and apologised, 2 weeks after they were abruptly cut off - with subscribers to MultiChoice's terrestrial pay-TV service that will likely get at least half a month's refund if not more for the bad service interruption.

GOtv subscribers has now been without any service or a signal for half a month with MultiChoice Zambia that should be refunding subscribers who have to pay but got no service for the past two weeks.

Last week furious GOtv Zambia subscribersstormed MultiChoice Zambia's offices with public protests after MultiChoice's failure to speak to them, to explain quickly what is going on, to offer and to promise refunds and to engage with the media to properly explain what is going on regarding the GOtv Zambia signal loss.

Mwika Malindima, MultiChoice Zambia PR manager, sounding incompetent after a week of GOtv subscribers suffering from signal loss, said MultiChoice Zambia would only issue a statement to GOTV Zambia subscribers "once we conclude our discussions" with authorities.

What's been happening is that MultiChoice Zambia encountered unexpected signal interference on its GOtv digital terrestrial television (DTT) frequency, making it impossible for GOtv Zambia subscribers in Livingstone and Solwezi to receive a signal, plunging paying GOTV subscribers into a TV blackout the past two weeks.

On Wednesday, MultiChoice Zambia finally held a press briefing for the media where Caroline Creasy, MultiChoice Africa general manager for corporate affairs, took over.

Caroline Creasy apologised and explained what has been happening, and promised that the GOtv Zambia signal will be restored in Livingstone and Solwezi today.

Caroline Creasy explained that MultiChoice engineers have been working on the signal interference issue. She explained that Zambia's broadcasting regulator, the Zambia Information and Communications Technology (ZICTA) was to blame since ZICTA gave out MultiChoice Zambia's terrestrial frequencies for GOtv Zambia to another operator.

“We are engaging ZICTA and other stakeholders in Zambia to secure the future of our business. However, we sincerely apologise to our clients for the blackout.”

“ZICTA confirmed they gave our signals to another operator and they allocated us a different frequency. The engineers came back from Solwezi and they are now working in Livingstone.  We are doing everything possible to have the signal restored,” Caroline Creasy said as reported by the Times of Zambia.

GOtv Zambia subscribers will apparently be "compensated" for the GOtv Zambia service loss although the specifics of what the compensation amounts to isn't clear.

MultiChoice Zambia abruptly drops lawsuit against StarTimes, ZNBC and the Zambian government in its fight over the removal of free-to-air channels from GOtv Zambia.

In a surprising move, MultiChoice Zambia has abruptly dropped its lawsuit against the Zambian government, China's StarTimes and the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation over the removal of free-to-air channels from MultiChoice's GOtv digital terrestrial TV (DTT) platform.

At issue was and is the shocking removal of free-to-air TV channels, supplied by Zambia's state broadcaster, to pay-TV operators - and specifically to MultiChoice (and its GOtv Zambia offering).

It happened because China's StarTimes took a 60% shareholding in the new digital terrestrial television (DTT) joint venture, TopStar Limited, created between Zambia's state-run broadcaster, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) and China's StarTimes.

TopStar with its 60% stake in ZNBC as a supposedly national broadcaster, gets to collect all ZNBC advertising revenue as well as digital terrestrial tower rental revenue for a whopping 25 years in the highly controversial deal.

Because China's StarTimes as a commercial company suddenly had this massive corporate interest in Zambia's national broadcaster, the ZNBC yanked its free-to-air channels off of MultiChoice to rather give it to StarTimes for its DTT set-top box (STB).

Hilariously, the Zambian government and the ZNBC still claimed that the media lied about a private "take-over"of Zambia's national broadcaster, although that is exactly what has been happening after over 400 000 GOtv pay-TV subscribers in Zambia overnight lost access to several free-to-air channels.

MultiChoice Zambia through its GOtv Zambia entity decided to take the Zambia government, TopStar (meaning StarTimes) and the ZNBC to court to get the free-to-air channels restored.

Now MultiChoice Zambia decided to end the court action - after it first sought an urgent interdict in the Lusaka High Court earlier in 2017 to block ZNBC from removing its free-to-air channels from GOtv, and after the court found that the court case must proceed since MultiChoice Zambia showed sufficient grounds for a court case to proceed.

TopStar (meaning StarTimes and ZNBC) wanted the case dismissed and MultiChoice Zambia now wants to find a way to settle the case out of court. It's not clear why.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 13 February 2017.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read, and that you should too:


■ Zimbabwe government going to try and revamp Zimbabwe Television (ZTV), slams DStv.
Similar to South Africa's SABC, the Zimbabwe government is desperate to lure back viewers lost to MultiChoice's DStv.
Zimbabwe slams slams DStv for "programmes in conflict with our values and culture" and wants to launch 5 new TV channels as part of digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration to try and win back viewers.


■ Naspers' ShowMax launching in Poland.
The South African subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service will launch in Poland on 15 February costing 5 euro (R70.90) per month. ShowMax's little publicised development hub is of course based in the neighbouring Czech Republic.


■ GOtv Zambia to court to force ZNBC to restore its channels on its pay-TV service.
GOtv Zambia (with MultiChoice Africa as shareholder) wants Zambia's national broadcaster ZNBC to put back its channels and to stop interfering with its digital terrestrial television (DTT) services.

■ For context: It's part of a much bigger fight as rival China's StarTimes - a private foreign company - shockingly bought a 60% share in ZNBC's and its digital migration joint venture. This of course caused ZNBC wanting to dump MultiChoice Africa and GOtv Zambia.

The growing Zambian TV scandal has become so bad that Zambia's government is forced to say "ZNBC has not been sold to StarTimes" although it clearly looks that way.


■ Australian TV news anchor terrorised by a stalker sending death threats.
Peter Hitchener bombarded with death and abuse threats from a crazed stalker.

■ From now on all BBC TV shows will "track their carbon footprint".
BBC says its an attempt to "make TV productions more sustainable". Springwatch is reducing carbon emissions by using waste vegetable oil, while Dragon's Den uses low-energy lighting to keep the temperature of the lights on the contestants down.

■ TV's surprising staying power.
A must-read Economist long-read on the ongoing evolution of television and how "TV is now the best it has ever been".

■ Two abducted and severely abused Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / StarSat 257) staffers released in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The two Congolese were freed 5 days after they were kidnapped when the kidnappers took the two local staffers hostage but left the 3 foreign journalists - a Brit, an Italian and a Kenyan alone.

■ Pakistan TV crew member shot dead.

■ TV set of the diner of the new youth drama Archie on M-Net (DStv 101) diner is so realistic
that an 18-wheeler truck driver stopped at Pop Tate's Chock'lit Shoppe, thinking it was real and open.

■ Russia Today (DStv 407) is expanding; set to launch a French version in France.
RT's French operation is set to expand dramatically with the launch of RT en Français, that will joins RT's existing channels in English, Spanish and Arabic.

■ Why CNN International (DStv 401) now foist White House press briefings on viewers.
Almost every time there's a White House press briefing by the obnoxious Sean Spicer CNN International dumps its scheduled programming to show it although international viewers don't care and are not given actual news - here's why: it lifts viewership in "daytime" in America.

■ Netflix dominates Saturdays in America.
Research suggest people binge-watch most over weekends.

■ American Idol is planning a possible come-back.
But will jump from FOX to NBC.

■ Hong Kong's TV broadcasting industry is in shambles.
The South China Morning Post on the TV biz "slowly committing hara-kiri" and how it's better TV content that might save it.

■ When did TV get so meta?
Vulture on how almost every TV series has now gotten self-referential and self-aware through in-show references.

■ A woman secretly video-recorded on cellphone in restroom on NBCUniversal's Universal Studios lot in Los Angeles.

■ It's time to restore the SABC's image.
Never in the history of the SABC has the image of the public broadcaster been so soiled as by Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

■ Ghana government officials allegedly stole DStv decoders
right out of the president's office.

■ New HBO drama Big Little Lies coming to M-Net (DStv 101) from 22 February
leaves TV's "male anti-hero era" behind.