TStv boss Bright Echefu and other execs dragged to court over tax evasion, money-laundering and fraud.

by Thinus Ferreira

The CEO of the failed Nigerian pay-TV service TStv and three other executives have appeared in the federal high court of Abuja in Nigeria on 9 charges of tax evasion, money-laundering and fraud.

According to Nigerian media, TStv CEO and managing director Bright Echefu, executive director Felix Igboanuga, and well as TStv and Briechberg Investment Ltd. are accused of money-laundering, tax evasion, as well as unremitted Value Added Tax (VAT) and Paye As You Earn (PAYE) that was deducted from the salaries of 165 TStv staffers.

Bright Echefu is also charged by Nigeria's Economic and Finacial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with fraud and is alleged to have received N150 million from Turaki Kabiru Tanimu, the managing director of Kalsiyam Farm.

In addition, Bright Echefu is charged with fraud and is alleged to have defrauded Turaki Kabiru Tanimu of another N380 million. The money was allegedly paid into the account of Briechberg Investment Ltd. under the false pretence of being a loan to Telcom Satellite for buying technology infrastructure.

Bright Echefu allegedly used the money for personal expenses.

The fake Nigerian pay-TV operation of TStv had a stop-start-stop launch in xxxxx - hoping to compete with MultiChoice Africa's DStv, but quickly became mired in a web of lies and empty broken promises to the Nigerian government, investors, installers and consumers.

The disastrous TStv that made several false promises of launching a new satellite pay-TV service in Nigeria to compete with MultiChoice's DStv and China's StarTimes never got off the ground, pirated TV channel signals from the Middle East and across Africa, made false content claims, stole other content, kept lying about sports content, took millions from investors and installer agents without ever providing anything in return, and failed to pay rent and was eventually locked out of its building.

Nigeria fines MultiChoice, StarTimes and TStv over R200 000 for airing BBC Africa Eye investigative documentary on Nigerian gangs.

by Thinus Ferreira

Nigeria has fined MultiChoice's DStv, China's StarTimes and TelCom's TSTV over R200 000 each for broadcasting the insightful "Bandit warlords of Zamfara" documentary as part of the BBC's BBC Africa Eye investigative news programme.

In a statement from Nigeria's National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), it announced that it has "imposed a N5 million (R201 467) sanction, each" on MultiChoice Nigeria, StarTimes Nigeria and TelCom Satellite Ltd., claiming that the BBC Africa Eye episode "glorified the activities of bandits and undermines national security in Nigeria".

Another Nigerian TV channel, Trust TV, was also fined the same amount for its own news documentary about the same topic entitled "Nigeria's banditry - The Inside Story".

BBC Africa Eye as an investigative TV news programme is broadcast on the BBC's BBC World News channel carried on various satellite pay-TV services throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and is shown on various terrestrial TV channels across African nations as part of syndicated BBC News content deals.  

It's not yet clear whether MultiChoice Nigeria, StarTimes Nigeria, TelCom or Trust TV will appeal the fines for broadcasting the deeply sourced and fact-filled documentaries bringing viewers first-hand accounts and footage of the criminal gangs in northeast Nigeria who are raiding villages, attacking drivers, abducting schoolchildren and killing people.

The hourlong BBC Africa Eye documentary with reporter Yusuf Anka and produced and directed by Kai Lawrence and Daniel Adamson, with Tom Watson as BBC Africa Eye editor and Marc Perkins as head of investigations, has already been watched over a million times on YouTube.

In "Bandit warlords of Zamfara", as told through the eyes of a Nigerian law student living in Zamfara and who has first-hand experience of the crime and violence perpetrated by the gangs, the BBC documentary shows the bodies of those killed - including children - and includes interviews with gang leaders as well as victims.

The NBC, in its statement about the imposed fines for credible news reporting content, claims that "While appreciating the need of educating, informing and enlightening the public on issues bordering on developments and happenings within and outside of the country, the commission wishes to seize this opportunity to advise broadcasters to be circumspect and deliberate in the choice and carriage of content deleterious to Nigeria's national security".

According to the NBC, the BBC Africa Eye documentary contravened regulations that states "no broadcast shall encourage or incite to crime" and that broadcasters must "ensure that law enforcement is upheld at all times in a manner depicting that law and order are socially superior to, or more desirable than crime or anarchy".

The pay-TV operators have to pay the fines before 30 August with the NBC warning them "to desist from falling into antics of using their platforms to promote and glamourise subversive elements and their activities".

Nigerian fake pay-TV outfit TStv finally locked out after Abuja headquarters is repossessed with high court order, TStv fined millions after failure to pay rent for 3 years.

by Thinus Ferreira

The fake Nigerian pay-TV operation, TStv, mired in a web of lies and empty broken promises to the government, investors, installers and consumers and that never got off the ground has now finally lost its 5-storey Abuja headquarters as well, with a High Court eviction order, including a levelled fine with TStv that owes millions to the tenant in unpaid rent

The disastrous TStv that made several false promises of launching a new satellite pay-TV service in Nigeria to compete with MultiChoice's DStv and China's StarTimes never got off the ground, pirated TV channel signals from the Middle East and across Africa, made false content claims, stole other content, kept lying about sports content, and took millions from investors and installer agents without ever providing anything in return.

On Tuesday in Nigeria the law firm Rahael Adakole & Co (Lighthouse Chamber) led by Raphael Adakole, took possession of the Telcom Satellite Ltd. Television (TStv) headquarters in Abuja where the shady and elusive TStv managing director, Bright Echefu, owed rent since 2017.

Officers of the court as wellas 4 police officers went to the property to lock out TStv.

The High Court case sought to get the property back for the tenant, West African Business Platform Ltd., from TStv that entered a rental agreement on May 2017 for the preoperty in the Jahi District on Plot 1191, but that has been millions of naira in arrears.

TStv is now forced to "give up possession of the building together with its appurtenances, fixtures and fittings thereof", with the court order that also states that what's left of the imploded TStv to pay West African Business Platform N20,833,333 (R890 607) as general damages "to deter and serve as a lesson from from treating other unsuspecting landlords in such manner".

TStv is also liable for the cost of the case amounting to N10 million (R427 900) over which Justice Halulu presided.

Nigeria's struggling pay-TV operator TStv in another fake content scam, this time with a TStv letter falsely claiming it has secured rights to the EPL.

Nigeria's struggling pay-TV operator TStv is again embroiled in another shameless content scam with a letter circulating and falsely claiming that TStv has not only secured the rights to the English Premier League (EPL) soccer for its Grande Sports channels, but will also be giving the EPL to all Nigerian terrestrial channels for free.

It's all a lie.

SuperSport confirmed to TVwithThinus on Thursday that the EPL licensing and broadcasting rights reside with SuperSport for Nigeria that is showing the EPL content on MultiChoice Nigeria's DStv satellite pay-TV platform in the West Africa country.

The embattled TStv is notorious for its shocking lies about content, TV channels and acquisitions it never had, for shamelessly pirating sports content from the Middle East's beIN pay-TV operator, and for multiple ongoing lies to the public, consumers and distributors about its TStv decoders.

On Tuesday a purported TStv letter surfaced, claiming that it had "acquired the following media rights", including "English Premier League (EPL) media right [sic] for Sub-Saharan Africa beginning from 2019 to 2022".

"Please note that we would be providing this service to all terrestrial TV channels in Nigeria. Furthermore, Grande Sports 1-3 studios would be available for live match analysis".

The letter further erroneously claimed that TStv had "acquired the exclusive pay-TV and free-to-air rights for DFB Pokal in Sub-Saharan Africa for 2019 - 2022" and that "pre-season matches" would "air live on Grande Sports from 31 July through the month of August 2019".

"All the aforementioned services would be available for free across Nigeria until August when we would begin fresh distribution of decoders".

The same message and information were allegedly shared by TStv on social media on its Facebook account.

SuperSport said that TStv do not have the rights and that SuperSport has notified the Premier League, who will be taking the necessary action against TStv.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 3 January 2019.

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

■ Netflix begs people not to try, and then hurt themselves, with the new social-media 'Bird Box Challenge' that has gone viral.
It's based on the new Netflix horror movie, Bird Box, in which Sandra Bullock and other characters blindfold themselves to avoid seeing monsters taking the form of people's worst fears.

■ Why Nigeria's struggling TStv dumped Nigeria's NIGCOMSAT for Azercosmos in Azerbaijan.
After Nigeria's beleaguered satellite pay-TV operator TStv dumped NIGCOMSAT for satellite transponder services and is now partnering with Azercosmos as it tries to start again, TStv's chief operating officer, Benjamin Zidah, trashes NIGCOMSAT now slammed as a competitor and something that is "against business sense".

■ Carrie Ann Inaba is the permanent new addition to The Talk seen on 1Magic (DStv 103) and Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) replacing Julie Chen.

■ What Netflix is learning from its interactive Bandersnatch episode.
Where Netflix previously focused its data gathering on the ways users engaged with its content - what they watched, when, and for how long - this new data from its first live-action choose-your-own-adventure episode for adults, is indicative of real-world decisions like product preference, musical taste, and engagement with human behaviour.

■ The Hidden Beauty of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
In an interactive story where the character has no choice and the viewer makes all the choices to influence the outcome, the symbolism explained and how to try and get the best and correct ending where the character does get to make his own choice.

■ Bandersnatch: Is interactive television watching the way of the future?

■ EastEnders seen on BBC Brit (DStv 120) to introduce the British soap's first gay bar coming to Albert Square to better reflect London's diversity.

■ It's basically impossible to be a mom in TV news.
New American research finds women's decision to have kids is basically a career-ender if you work in television news as it's too hard to leave at a moment's notice to cover whatever breaking news is unfolding.

■ Is the end of Netflix's golden age in sight?
Netflix is facing competition from content suppliers, including video streaming rivals like Apple and Amazon Prime Video.

■ Thousands of kids continue to get injured - and die - from TV sets toppling over.

■ Attention-seeking Kenyan lawyer says TV channels in Kenya hire women as TV presenters based on their breasts.

■ Netflix censors and pulls an episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj critical of Saudi Arabia.
Netflix damages its freedom of expression reputation and dumps an episode from its service that is critical of Saudi Arabia and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

■ Every American TV series that will be ending in 2019.
Goodbye Modern Family, Game of Thrones, Shadowhunters, Gotham and several more.

■ Lost Television: Meet the raiders of the lost British and African broadcasting archives.

■ Lusaka Magistrate's Court in Zambia sentences a man to 2 years in prison and hard labour for stealing a TV remote.

■ S24 starts in Uganda as a new streaming, business TV channel.

■ What Netflix's investment in Nigeria means.
The Mail & Guardian on whether - and how - Nollywood will benefit from Netflix.

■ A lot of the publicists and PR departments of South African TV channels and broadcasters are guilty of this.
The non-TV story of the day: How Donald Trump's White House won't even respond with a "no comment" to acknowledge media enquiries from journalists, and often simply has no response to questions although people are getting paid real money to handle media enquiries.

Nigeria's TStv now promises a yet another new subscription model - pay-as-you-go with 'an hourly rate' - as the faltering pay-TV upstart announces a partnership with Azerbaijan's satellite operator, Azercosmos.

The faltering TStv wannabe Nigerian pay-TV operator that has kept lying to consumers and distrobutors on Friday held a press conference in Abuja, Nigeria, to announce that it is once again "re-strategising" to stealmarket share from MultiChoice's DStv, China's Startimes and other pay-TV players in the West African nation.

So far TStv has remained silent about how it lied about its initial TV channels line-up that was bogus, has remained silent about how it illegally pirated TV channels without authorisation and deliberately stole content, has remained silent about lying to distributors and would-be agents about its decoders that never arrived and kept changing, while TStv hasn't said a word about the numerous false promises  and false starts.

TStv suffered massive brand and reputational damage from bad management and multiple lies and fraudulent public statements by Bright Echefu, TStv CEO.

On Friday Benjamin Sida, TStv chief operating officer (COO), at a pre-Christmas press conference, once again promised yet another new TStv subscription model change, now saying that TStv's soon-to-be-introduced subscription model will be a pay-as-you-go system, allowing TStv subscribers to watch "all available channels" but charging "an hourly rate".

TStv will run a single TStv channels bouquet with around 70 TV channels, and all these TV channels will be made available to subscribers at an "hourly rate".

Benjamin Sida also name-dropped a new company - Azercosmos, that TStv is now in partnership with.

"Azercosmos is an open joint stock company and a satellite operator based in Azerbaijan, and the first satellite operator in Caucasus region. We have entered into partnership to improve our content offering. We are also in various advanced talks with other international content providers to acquire more premium content and channels," said Benjamin Sida.

Benjamin Sida said that TStv "has not abandoned" Nigerians, and that TStv has "In our bid to serve our customers better, recruited seasoned,  experienced talents and, veterans who have occupied similar roles and capacities in the pay tv industry to manage TStv".

Furious TStv dealers, agents and installers in Nigeria stage public protest at shambolic pay-TV start-up's headquarters; demand millions back they've paid over a year ago to sell TStv decoders they never received.

Furious TStv dealers, agents and installers in Nigeria have staged a public protest in Abuja, accusing the Nigeria's TStv satellite pay-TV operator of massive fraud and demanding their money back that they had paid over a year ago for TStv decoders that never arrived.

The shambolic TStv had already been caught out over multiple fake promises to consumers, a litany of false starting dates and even pirating stolen TV channel signals.

Angry TStv dealers on Tuesday held a public protest at TStv's headquarters in Abuja where they were not allowed to enter and with TStv CEO and managing director Bright Echefu refusing to answer their questions.

They are demanding a refund of more than N1 billion ($2.74 million / R39 million) that they had made more than a year ago to Telecom Satellite TV (TStv) in pre-payments for TStv decoders, satellite dishes and other accessories that haven't been delivered as part of the company's false promises to agents, customers and the Nigerian government.

TStv that tried to compete with MultiChoice Africa's DStv and China's StarTimes imploded with lies and fraud, and in April yet again claimed to start selling TStv decoders after multiple postponed dates and a failed launch in October 2017.

The claimed "Sassy" decoder that no longer looked like any of the stolen images TStv earlier used, and that was to be sold without a satellite dish or LNB, is apparently nowhere to be found.

After the failed launch, with TStv first promising multiple TV channels it had no channel carriage contracts for, and blatantly pirating stolen TV signals, also dropped its false claims of  free WiFi - the Sassy isn't capable to provide it.

Dealers and agents who were lured by TStv with fake and false claims to hand over money to sell decoders and do installations are now demanding their money back.

They are accusing Bright Echefu, as well as Nigeria's clueless minister of information, Lai Mohammed who gave TStv a three year tax waiver, of fraud and deceit.

In a statement protesting TStv dealers say "When TStv launched operations last year October with the aid of minister of information Lai Mohammed, a lot of us took up their dealership with N13.6 million each being paid for TStv decoder and accessories with vouchers".

"But as we speak not a single decoder has been given to the dealers, with several failed promises and deceit by CEO Bright Echefu since last year October. We have to speak out and let the whole country knows what we are going through, more so since TStv is still collecting money from innocent Nigeria."

Today at tstv headquarters in Abuja. Dealers demanding for their money. Tstv turns out to be a scam aided by Alhaji Lai Muhammad and malam kawu madibo of NBC pic.twitter.com/eYoYin5DDu

— TstvSuperDealers (@TstvD) October 16, 2018

TStv staffers in Nigeria have allegedly gone unpaid since April and TStv's headquarters has apparently been mostly deserted after 80% of the TStv staff got fired who have also been owed months of unpaid salaries.

My friend works there. Hasnt been paid since April. The went to work one morning to find the whole place deserted after sacking more than 80% of them and still oweing them 4 months salary.

— Emeka Okoro (@lewisemekaokoro) October 16, 2018

The scam we all fell for who will save us now... After paying millions of Naira since last year to @tstvafrica the MD has refused to answer our calls.... We go to their office and they lock us outside.... We are tired of these lies.. Someone pls save us ooooo... @segalink https://t.co/TOyFSiqxzK

— Babajide (@Babajide3) October 16, 2018

The last time Bright Echefu made a public statement was in late August, when he issued a statement saying "From the date we announced TStv, it has been fight all the way".

"I doubt if a week passed without us quenching one fire or the other. We didn’t anticipate that there would be war. We were also not trained to fight in the arena we were pushed into."

"The kinds of weapons our enemies would later contend us with, showed they had stocked their armoury waiting for a time like now."

"We may not have their kind of money, neither their kinds of weapons, ''connections'' and networks but one thing I sure know we had more than them was a determined spirit and a steadfast God. A God who doesn’t fail."

On 20 August Bright Echefu said "Our struggles drained us financially and pitched us against all good meaning Nigerians, subscribers and dealers that believed in us. We were wrestled even down to our satellite providers but our God is ever faithful."

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 4 April 2018.

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

■ The BBC says younger viewers in the United Kingdom now watched more Netflix than the BBC and fears being "overtaken by competitors" as on-demand viewing grows. While the BBC is concerned, South Africa's SABC is doing very little although it's facing a similar crisis.

■ Swaziland's minister of information Dumisani Ndlangamandla wants the board of Swaziland's Television Authority (STVA - that country's state-run broadcaster - to resign over the appointment of Bongani Dlamini as Swazi TV CEO who's contract ended December 2017 but who is still in the job.


■ Nigeria's trashy TStv, fraught with lies and fraud, is now allegedly, again starting decoders sales after multiple postponed dates.
The trashy Sassy - that the decoder name - no longer looks like any of the stolen images TStv earlier used. Also the decoder is going to be sold from April without a satellite dish or LNB.
There's only 70 channels without the beIN Sports channels TStv pirated along with others. And gone is the WiFi, internet and free data that was promised - Sassy isn't capable of it. Nigerian consumers buy this trash at their own peril!


■ Zambia's corruption-laced Topstar venture between its state-run broadcaster ZNBC and China's StarTimes is criticised by TV stations over heavily inflated transmission fees.
Of course this was going to happen, but the Zambian government didn't care. Now TV channels are furious over the botched migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in Zambia, accusing TopStar of being both a signal distributor and a content provider.
- The shocking Topstar deal is one of the biggest financial scandal in modern-day Zambia, says the anti-corruption watchdog organisation, the Southern Africa Network Against Corruption (Sanac).

■ France's 24-hour TV news channel, France24 launches in Kenya and will be available as a free-to-air TV channel - the first international TV news channel to be available freely in the East African country.

The lying Nigerian pay-TV wannabe TStv finally backs off from its fake TV channel claims, its new reduced channel list no longer includes 10 beIN Sports channels with a dozen other channels also finally removed.

The lying Nigerian pay-TV upstart TStv (Telcomm Satellite TV) has finally stopped its fake claims of carrying and offering more than a dozen TV channels on its satellite pay-TV platform that it never had the rights to in the first place.

After a litany of lies, a string of broken promises and several false starting date announcements that all came and went since October, the Abuja based wannabe TV operator mired in a mess of its own making, is finally backing down from its continued theft and piracy of the signals and brand identities of a raft of TV channels it never had any authorised carriage contracts for.

TStv CEO Bright Echefu kept lying to Nigerian consumers even after TStv was exposed as being dishonest about marketing and promoting a pay-TV service with a collection of TV channels it never legally signed carriage deals for.

The beIN Media Group, Turner Broadcasting, Discovery Networks International, Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa), FOX Networks Group Africa and eMedia Investments all directly confirmed to TVwithThinus that none of them have any dealings or contracts with TStv.

The fly-by-night operator TStv lied and claimed it has 10 beIN Sports channels, CNN International, Investigation Discovery IDx, Discovery Science, Eurosport, MTV Base, National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD, Fox Life, FOX Sports, FOX Sports 2 and even e.tv's pan-African channel version eAfrica and eNCA.

The carriage of several more TV channels on TStv turned out to be lies - Fashion One, AMC Networks International's kids channel Jim Jam, Trace Africa, CBS Reality and Scripps Networks Interactive's Fine Living.

The truth is that TStv doesn't have any of these channels, and doesn't have the right to show any of these channels.

Shockingly, TStv kept lying after TVwithThinus and other media exposed the fraud, saying reports that the Qatar based beIN Sports channels won't be on TStv are "rumours" and that TStv has a carriage agreement.

TStv also kept lying and continued with the fake promise of telling Nigerian consumers that it will be showing sport like English Premier League (EPL), UEFA Champions League and other big international soccer tournaments.

These sports rights however MultiChoice Africa and SuperSport already acquired previously for sub-Saharan Africa in exclusive multi-year agreements stretching into the future to be shown on DStv and GOtv.

Now TStv has quietly done away with the beIN sports channels of which it illegally pirated the signals without making any announcement or saying why it is now dropping its fake claims.

After TStv was exposed for claiming and marketing a fake TV channel line-up on its website, TStv took down the list.

TStv has now put up a new channel line-up list without any of the stolen, pirated and fake-claimed channels.

TStv's latest culled channels line-up is greatly reduced from its former false claims and now offers a set of "Mama Africa" film channels in Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa; as well as a "Grande" branded series of channels ranging from Grande film channels like Grande Novella and Grande Bolly to Grande Series 1 and Grande Series Asia.

Kids channels listed on TStv are now only two: A1 Kids and A1 Kids Junior.

Music channels are gutted to Hits TV, Grande Gospel, Hits Africa and 360 Tune Box.

The lofty fake promise of a raft of beIN Sports channels has been replaced by 8 non-descript "Grande" sports channels named Grande Sports Highlights, Grande Sports 1 to 6 and a Grande Sports Entertainment channel.

Awkwardly, Nigeria's idiotic minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has been quiet about the TStv fraud and widening scandal.

In October Lai Mohammed - clueless about the inner cross-continental workings governing content acquisition and channel carriage agreement contracts in the pay-TV industry - announced a 3-year "tax relief" that he's granting to TStv, not knowing that the wannabe pay-TV operator is making false claims and stealing content.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 15 November 2017

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

■ MultiChoice Zambia and M-Net censor Talk with Kwangu on the Zambezi Magic channel on DStv.
MultiChoice scramble to remove all marketing for Talk with Kwangu and a rebroadcast of the episode on DStv Zambia's platform after an episode in which a woman details Zambian government and police brutality and Kwangu talks about how media plurality in Zambia is non-existent.
- Meanwhile Zambia's information minister (Zambia still has something like an "information minister") denies that the government threatened DStv.


■ MultiChoice and M-Net, Africa's largest TV platform, has a growing free speech and censorship problem.


■ Lowly-paid reporters at ANN7 (DStv 405) feel traumatised.
- ANN7 workers complaining of "exploitation" by Indian senior editors in particular say they're told they can't be paid more "because of the structure of the company".
- Almost all black ANN7 anchors have considered quitting.
- Have the words "permanent trainee" inserted into contracts in order to justify low pay.
- Owner Mzwanele "Jimmy" Manyi refuses to answer media questions and puts the phone down in a reporter's ear.

■ Zimbabwe woman Rumbidzai Evelyn Sibanda guilty and fined
for illegally selling DStv decoders in Zimbabwe that have been registered with South African addresses to give Zimbabwe viewers access to DStv South African content and making as if she's a MultiChoice agent.

■ The BBC will now have to reveal how many complaints it gets from viewers every two weeks.
Angry BBC not happy about having to reveal the number of complaints it receives every 2 weeks, having to identify the shows that received more than 100 complaints, and having to explain the editorial issues raised by the complaints.

■ Watching too much TV is bad for you, even if you exercise.

■ The latest channels list of TStv in Nigeria.
Which channels are being pirated illegally?

■ I want to love Star Trek: Discovery but it's an absolute mess.

■ How The Good Doctor seen on M-Net (DStv 101) became the new TV season's breakout hit.

beIN Sports warns viewers of Nigeria's lying TStv pay-TV upstart pirating its signals that 'you are viewing beIN Sports content illegally' on TStv.

As the fraudulent Nigerian pay-TV upstart TStv illegally keeps stealing TV signals it has no right or contracts to, Qatar's beIN Media Group on Thursday night ran a conditional access (CA) bar notification on the pirated sport channels signal to tell TStv viewers that they're watching illegal content before the channels went black.

Dumb and foolhardy Nigerian consumers still believe Telcomm Satellite TV, that has now twice missed its own-set commercial starting dates that it announced and that came and went, that made shockingly fake claims about a litany of TV channels it doesn't actually have and won't since it has no carriage agreements with channel providers.

The lying TStv based in a green building in Abuja, Nigeria, with CEO Bright Echefu, keeps being dishonest to consumers.

beIN Media Group, Turner Broadcasting, Discovery Networks International, Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa), FOX Networks Group Africa and eMedia Investments all directly confirmed to TVwithThinus that none of them have any dealings or contracts with TStv.

The fly-by-night operator TStv lied and claimed it has 10 beIN Sports channels, CNN International, Investigation Discovery IDx, Discovery Science, Eurosport, MTV Base, National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD, Fox Life, FOX Sports, FOX Sports 2 and e.tv's pan-African channel version eAfrica.

The truth is that TStv doesn't have any of these channels, and doesn't have the right to show any of these channels.

TStv further lies by promising that it will show sports like English Premier League (EPL), La Liga and even the UEFA Champions League - sub-Saharan rights already signed and acquired by MultiChoice, MultiChoice Africa and SuperSport years ago and for years into the future in multi-year contracts.

It means that the pay-TV rights to several of these soccer tournaments are exclusive to DStv in sub-Saharan Africa and is not allowed to be broadcast on other pay-TV operators' services.

Further questions are swirling around channels like Scripps Networks Interactive's Fine Living, Fashion One, Trace's TRACE Africa, and AMC International's kids channel Jim Jam who are yet to respond whether they have carriage agreements with TStv as TStv claimed.

On Wednesday TVwithThinus again confirmed with beIN Media Group in Qatar that no agreement exists. 

beIN Media Group sent TStv a cease-and-desist letter in late-September but TStv has blatantly ignored it and continued to broadcast beIN Sports channels in Arabic - something it's not allowed to do.

On Thursday beIN started to run on-air notice bars telling TStv viewers watching beIN Sports channels that "you are viewing beIN Sports content illegally via TStv in Nigeria".

Shortly after the beIN Sports channels abruptly went black. TStv again lied to consumers, telling some that it was "hacked", that it's "engineers" are working on it and that TStv hopes to have the beIN Sports channels "back up soon".

Nigerian pay-TV upstart TStv misses its 2nd launch date on 1 November; now blames dealership accreditation delays, keeps lying to consumers about content.

The Nigerian pay-TV upstart, TStv has missed its second launch date of 1 November and is now blaming dealership accreditation, while it continues to lie to consumers about the content it will have on its platform and carriage agreements with channel distributors that it definitely doesn't have.

TStv (Telcomm Satellite TV) on Tuesday announced that it will again miss its self-imposed, pushed-out deadline of 1 November for a commercial launch - the latest abrupt delay coming after TStv retro-actively referred to its first hyped commercial launch on 1 October 2017 as a "ceremonial" launch.

On Tuesday TStv suddenly said that its commercial launch is being postponed indefinitely, without giving a new date.

TStv is now suddenly calling November another "test month" and says on its website that the few people who have decoders will now get "all our channels free-to-air for one month".

Further revealing the amateur and fake-trash nature of TStv, services, especially pay-TV services, do their "signal testing" long before the launch commercially, or announce a launch date.

"We are very conscious of the need to offer Nigerians value. That is why we have opened all our channels for free," TStv suddenly says now.

"All our channels are up and free-to-air for this period of test broadcast".

Subscription television content from pay-TV providers is not allowed to be shown free to air anywhere in the world due to encryption and digital video content rights issues - suppliers want their content protected - as well as issues regarding age and content restrictions for which channels must get proper licenses, usually from local broadcasting regulators.

Meanwhile Nigerian newspapers who don't have the ability to properly investigate TStv's channels and content claims, keep parroting TStv press statements and did so again on Tuesday, and are doing a disservice to Nigerian consumers.

Nigerian consumers remain largely unaware that the content and TV channels that TStv keeps promising won't be available, and that where some of it is, it is being illegally transmitted.

TStv blamed so-called "dealer accreditation" for the latest delay - as if TStv is required to have all dealerships properly accredited in bulk as one big group before it can start selling decoders.

It's a reason that doesn't hold water since pay-TV dealers - agents and street shop vendors who sell decoders - are never accredited in bulk, but on a one-by-one basis.

There's no reason why the agents and dealerships who have been accredited the past month - if any were - and those possibly accredited prior to October, shouldn't be operating and selling TStv decoders.

TStv latest abrupt "commercial launch" delay signals bigger and as yet unknown problems that are very likely besetting TStv and its CEO Bright Echefu behind the scenes of the Abuja-based pay-TV operator.

TStv in a statement on Tuesday said the latest indefinite delay is "to ensure the proper monitoring and evaluation of the signal strength and quality of channels and programmes nationwide" and that "the accreditation of selected dealers was ongoing in addition to the full branding of the dealers' outlets across the country in order to achieve uniformity and evenness in the sales of its decoders".

TStv said that while "accreditation of our dealers are still ongoing, commercial sale of decoders will not commence until the accreditation process is concluded".

TStv said "we are not unaware of our promise to commence full commercial sales and operations of TStv Africa on 1 November 2017 nationwide," and said "we seek your further understanding and support in this value driven course".

TStv keeps telling Nigerian consumers that its rumours and fake news that TStv does not have carriage agreements with the beIN Media Group to carry 10 beIN Sports channels.

TVwithThinus confirmed with beIN Media Group in Qatar that no agreement exists.

TStv keeps telling consumers that it will be showing sport like English Premier League (EPL), UEFA Champions League and other big international soccer tournaments.

These sports rights however MultiChoice Africa and SuperSport already acquired previously for sub-Saharan Africa, and in exclusive multi-year agreements stretching into the future.

Turner Broadcasting also confirmed that TStv has no deal to carry its news channel CNN International that TStv in October laid claim to.

Discovery Networks International also confirmed that TStv doesn't have any carriage agreement for the range of Discovery-supplied TV channels TStv in October claimed it will carry.

Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) and FOX Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa) both also confirmed that they have no channel dealings with TStv despite TStv claiming in October to carry some of their channels.

TStv in October claimed it will carry channels ranging from FOX Life, FOX Sports and Nat Geo WILD to even MTV Base. All of these channels said no contracts with TStv exist.

TStv in October also claimed in printed marketing and publicity materials - using channel logos and names - that it will carry channels like Fashion One and even AMC Networks International's kids channel Jim Jam - all channels that seem very unlikely to have contract agreements with TStv.

TStv in October also claimed that it will carry channels like eMedia Investments in South Africa's e Africa channel. eMedia Investments told TVwithThinus on Wednesday that "e.tv does not have an agreement with TStv to carry eAfrica. We are investigating the matter".

TStv also claimed in October that it will have Scripps Networks Interactive's Fine Living channel.

TStv for instance used a wholly-wrong, green leaf-type logo simply grabbed off of the internet that isn't remotely Fine Living's correct channel logo.


Angry consumer backlash starting
Despite little real information and reporting from the lame-duck Nigerian press that didn't do much to really probe TStv's fake promises and failed to contact content providers TStv said it had deals with, more and more gullible Nigerian consumers on Thursday finally started figuring out for themselves the murky mess of TStv's fake promises and lies.

TStv started to trend on Thursday in Nigeria as a consumer backlash against TStv started, and angry Nigerians wanted answers and started slamming TStv for its litany of false starts and fake promises.

"Your PR is poor. I can do better," said Adams Emmanuel.

"TStv tell us the truth, so it can set you free. What really is the matter?" asked Val. "Lies upon lies. No sale of any TStv decoder," said Agharandu Ugochukwu.

"You guys are just taking people for a ride," said Innocent Inedu. "Liars," said Kadri Akeem.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 23 October 2017

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

■ Messy Bessie.
SABC acting chief operating officer (COO) Bessie Tugwana is one of top SABC executives embroiled in extremely dodgy deals of millions of rand now under investigation by the Special Investigative Unit (SIU).
Other SABCers embroiled in the money wasting mess are the suspended head of sports, Sully Motsweni; manager in the office of the SABC CFO, Thandeka Ndlovu; and Marcia Mahlalela, strategy and planning manager in the SABC Sports division.


■ MUST READ: 10 things TStv should have done differently before it tried to launch.
Incredibly insightful and spot-on article with 10 excellent points as to why TStv in Nigeria is probably going to fail.

- TStv hype turned out to be a fake flash in the pan.
- What will happen to failure-to-launch TStv after the arrival of Kwesé Nigeria since "TStv is having too much suspicion around them as to their credibility"?
- Kwesé TV Nigeria launches while TStv that made a lot of noise has no decoders to sell.
- Nigerian xenophobia against DStv and MultiChoice Nigeria while TStv is actually responsible for it's own mess and failure to launch.

■ Star Trek fans shocked by profane Star Trek: Discovery's F-bombs and should Star Trek use the F-word?
- Is Star Trek: Discovery on Netflix about to copy the Tribble Kingon twist from "Trouble with Tribbles"?
- Jason Isaacs reveals the chaotic nature of Star Trek: Discovery scripts and script changes.
- What the hell is Star Trek: Discovery; spending time with these characters feels like a drag.


■ Netflix settles with a former executive who accuses Netflix of "tolerating harassment and discrimination".

■ Actress Sean Young says sex predator Harvey Weinstein pulled his penis out of his pants before her.
"You know, Harvey, I really don't think you should be pulling that thing out, it's not very pretty."

■ Actress Heather Kerr says sex predator Harvey Weinstein forced himself on her.
Unzipped his pants, pulled out his penis, grabbed her hand, forced it onto his organ, and held it there.

■ Mickael Chemloul, former chauffeur of sweaty "The Pig" Harvey Weinstein reveals the sex predator's filth.
Kept condoms in the car, binged on sugar before orgies, fury when prostitutes didn't show, raped women in cars and hotels, fed so much at Naomi Campbell's party his gastric band burst.

■ How sex predator Harvey Weinstein exploited the fashion industry as a pipeline to get models.
Project Runway also used to funnel young models to the abuser.


■ Blaise Godbe Lipman accuses APA agent Tyler Grasham of getting him drunk and sexual assaulting him. Film and TV editor Lucas Ozarowski says Tyler Grasham groped him.
The APA agency suspends Tyler Grasham and then fires him over the sexual abuse claims.
- The star of Netflix's Stranger Things, Finn Wolfhard, dumps APA.
- The Disney Channel's (DStv 303) Descendants actor Cameron Boyce is also done with APA.
- Several complaints over Tyler Grasham "hip-pocketing" teenage actors.


■ People in Northern Ireland urged (by the TV Licensing Department!) to turn their TV Licence papers into origami - like paper swans.

■ StarTimes is an embarrassing no-show at the press conference of the sport it sponsors.
Akorfa Dnajkui, StarTimes marketing manager in Ghana is embarrassingly missing without an excuse.

■ Oppressive Mauritania government shuts down all TV stations.
except the state broadcaster, TVM.
Mauritania's five privately owned news stations - Dava, Sahel TV, Chinguitt, al-Watania and Al-Mourabitoun TV - are all shut down amidst civil unrest in the country on orders of the Mauritanian Radio and Television Broadcast Authority.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 20 October 2017.

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


■ France Got Talent abruptly suspended after judge accused of sexual harassment.
Judge Gilbert Rozon is abruptly gone, and the 12th season is suddenly suspended after 9 women accused him of sexual harassment.

■ Netflix and why the future of streaming video services looks like old-school TV.
The same flip side that is dragging down traditional pay-TV subscription TV providers will eventually also come for Netflix - here's why (and how).

■ German naked celebrity reality show set on a tropical island returns.
German rapper Farid Bang declined to appear saying his massive ding-dong would scare viewers.

■ Romance is dead in TV's new crop of dating shows.


■ British TV industry facing catastrophic consequences because of Brexit.
UK faces disastrous exodus of actors, directors, highly-skilled special effects technicians.
- Britain's TV bosses says harsh post-Brexit immigration rules will damage their biz.


■ Qatar hit by Egypt in a beIN sports rights fight.
beIN Sports dragged into the political fallout between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as Egypt's prosecutor-general drags beIN Media Group CEO Nasser Al-Khelaifi into a commercial court case alleging "monopolistic practices" and allegedly violating Egyptian laws.
- beIN has cut off its beIN Sports channels from Nilesat, forcing subscribers of Egypt's Nilesat service to switch to the Qatar-owned Sohail service.


■ Trouble in New Zealand where Sky TV sheds 28 000 subscribers.
That's a massive - roughly 3% - drop for a year for (the/a) traditional pay-TV operator in New Zealand. Sky TV now has 824 782 subscribers in New Zealand left.

■ That thing was out of control!
MUST READ! Kate Mtsitouridze, the head of Russia's Roskino film body, is the latest woman to accuse the vile sexual predator Harvey Weinstein of shocking sexual harassment.
- Press junket in corridor outside his hotel room; wondered if she screamed, anyone would hear.

■ And yet another incident: Marisa Coughlan says predator Harvey Weinstein wanted sex in exchange for film roles.

■ MUST READ!: Lupita Nyong’o shares her shocking story of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein and the conspiracy of silence.

■ The Weinstein Company staffers slam serial sexual predator Harvey Weinstein in open letter.
They're saying they didn't know they're working for a monster: "We are as angry and baffled as you are at how Harvey's behaviour could continue for so long".

■ BBC reporter Rajini Vaidyanathan says there was no cover up at the BBC when a married sex pest who sent her sexually explicit messages was fired within days.

■ Amazon Studios' top executives now under scrutiny after exit of alleged sexual harasser Roy Price.
Joe Lewis, head of drama and comedy development, and Conrad Riggs, head of unscripted, will likely be gone from Amazon Studios as well soon.

■ Advertising executives say they haven't personally witnessed sexual harassment on their sets.
Notice how the very bad WWD article only interviews male advertising executives.

■ MultiChoice Tanzania doing a special 2-day exhibition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of DStv Tanzania.
Will take place at the Mlimani City in Dar es Salaam and will be open to the public; pay TV-operator now has 5 regional offices throughout Tanzania.

■ Update on the SABC's editorial policy review process.
The SABC got over 200 submissions from the public by email and from the SABC's provincial offices. The SABC's Editorial Policy project team is currently consolidating the oral submissions from the provincial public hearings.

■ Nigerians are finally becoming wary of the new pay-TV operator TStv that failed to start with no decoders available.
TStv that lies about TV channels it doesn't have any carriage agreements and contracts for is seeing its "buzz deflate day by day".

StarTimes Nigeria introduces pay-per-day (PPD) and pay-per-week (PPW) as new pay-TV subscription options in the face of increased competition.

The China sponsored StarTimes Nigeria has introduced new pay-per-day (PPD) and pay-per-week subscription fee options for StarTimes Nigeria subscribers in the face of increasing competition in the West-African country's pay-TV market.

Saying "entertainment just got subsidised" StarTimes Nigeria announced a new payment option whereby subscribers can get access to 40 StarTimes channels for N300 (R11.27) for a week, or all StarTimes channels for N60 (R2.25) per day. 

The new pay-per-day (PPD) and pay-per week (PPW) StarTimes payment plans will become available from 1 November 2017, with payments that will be possible both online and offline.

StarTimes Nigeria didn't release any statement to the media but the new payment offerings are part of the squeeze all pay-TV operators in Nigeria are facing in the fight to find new subscribers and to combat churn.

Competition in Nigeria's pay-TV sphere has been heating up between StarTimes Nigeria and MultiChoice Nigeria's DStv especially as the Nigerian currency, the naira has been tanking, as well as the entrance of the new wannabe rival TStv, that doesn't have decoders available and has been lying to consumers about TV channel carriage agreements it doesn't have.

StarTimes Nigeria's new "pay-per-day" and "pay-per-week" concept is interesting since pay-TV operators who bill subscribers for content costs they themselves have to pay, don't have the luxury of paying for that content "per day" or "per week".

In that sense, StarTimes Nigeria's very on the nose "entertainment just got subsidised" commercial comment is actually highly accurate - StarTimes Nigeria is the one doing the subsidising, since it will StarTimes Nigeria losing money.

StarTimes Nigeria,like all satellite pay-TV providers, have to source and pay for content in and as package deals, output deals, and over much longer contract periods, like for a year or in multi-year channel carriage deals and other content contracts.

Channel and content providers don't do "pay-per-week" and "pay-per-day" contracts with operators like StarTimes Nigeria, so it's StarTimes Nigeria itself that's breaking down the decoding and access to customers in smaller day and week bits.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 19 October 2017.

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


■ Where has TStv gone? 18 days after its 1 October launch in Nigeria, TStv is seemingly nowhere.
Biola Kazeem wonders about Nigerian's gullibility and their willingness to accept fake promises like thelies about TV channels TStv says its carrying but isn't allowed to.
- TStv isn't what we need now," says Nigerians. "We actually need an uninterrupted electricity supply".

■ MIPCOM TV market told: Black people are rare as unicorns on prime time TV

■ Australian breakfast show presenter lurks and hides behind her car!
Lisa Wilkingson hides behind her car from the paparazzi after a nasty fight following abreakdown in salary negotiations goes public between a TV star's agent in Australia and the Nine network.

■ China's StarTimes says Uganda is one of the African countries that benefitted from the $2.5 billion contract for digital terrestrial TV migration.
Of course StarTimes itself benefitted commercially too - since it's China's money.
Meanwhile StarTimes has taken 51 journalists from across Africa to Beijing and China for a media tour and to cover the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China but has deliberately excluded South Africa's media.

■ New SABC board Febe Potgieter-Qubule claims:
"I don't see myself compromised". Says her new SABC board position will make her reconsider her role in the ANC going forward.

■ Econet Media officially launches Kwesé TV in Uganda.
Has a media launch event in Kampala where Kwesé TV will now have to battle it out against MultiChoice Uganda's DStv and China's StarTimes for pay-TV viewers.
- Quite inane and non-sensical comments from Herbert Mucunguzi, Kwesé TV Uganda general manager as to what Kwesé TV Uganda offers. You'd think he or the PR people would put in actual effort to come up with non-stock comments not already used before by MultiChoice and StarTimes for their offerings.
- Kwesé TV Zambia's general manager Kapa Kaumba fawning over Zambia's government, likewise talks a lot that means absolutely nothing.


■ Nielsen to measure viewing of shows streaming on Netflix.
The service aiming to measure and find ratings for On Demand video streaming services, will provide data comparable to what Nielsen provides for linear TV, including ratings, reach, frequency and demographics.
- Netflix slams the effort and Nielsen: "The data that Nielsen is reporting is not accurate, not even close, and does not reflect the viewing of these shows on Netflix".

■ Digital TV a massive and expensive flop in Thailand.
Digital terrestrial television migration came too late and audience behaviour had already changed due to technology.

■ Final 4th season of Star Wars Rebels on Disney XD (DStv 304) will be more serialised.
Last season just started in America, no date yet for when it starts in South Africa and Africa, but Dave Filoni says "episodes will be more serialised than you're used to".


■ The actor Javid Iqbal doesn't really exist, Star Trek: Discovery made him up since actor Shazad Latif is apparently playing both Voq who disguises himself to become Ash Tyler.
- Maybe some clarity about the confusing plot points in Star Trek: Discovery.
- Jason Isaacs says Star Trek: Discovery is "of our time, and for our time."
- Klingon Voq can't stay missing for much longer.


■ How big is delayed TV viewing in America?
In some cases it's even bigger than live viewing - in others almost nothing. Here's how some of America's biggest TV shows break down when it comes to viewers who watch it after its been shown.

■ Why competing with Netflix and Amazon is impossible.
MUST WATCH: Barry Diller discusses what makes Netflix and Amazon today's leaders in video.


■ Executive producer of Viacom's The Mist TV drama, Amanda Segel, accuses Harvey Weinstein's brother Bob Weinstein of sexual harassment.
- Variety's TV critic Maureen Ryan says a TV executive sexually assaulted her.
- Hollywood's other open secret: Preying on young boys.
- Inside Harvey Weinstein's horrific history of bullying: "Has never done anything that was consensual".

■ The shamed Roy Price out at Amazon after shocking sexual harassment claims.

■ And a MUST READ: Inside Amazon and the fall of the vulgar exec Roy Price.
As usual Amazon and Roy Price are silent and refused to comment. Amazon insiders reveal Roy Price's "crude sex talk" at gatherings, asked staffers if stars in a TV series would "show their tits";  misogyny of scripts.

■ Fighting the pirates.
How illegal downloads and streaming of TV shows is now impacting the global TV industry.
Netflix says it's pushing to secure global rights and release all originals simultaneously to global members to help address piracy, and "that there's been a notable reduction in piracy in countries where we operate".

■ Lifetime (DStv 131) finally releases a trailer for the delayed 3rd season of UnReal.
The 3rd season will start in America on 26 February 2018 and will this time revolve around a bachelorette looking for Mister Right. No word yet on when the 3rd season will start on Lifetime in South Africa and Africa on MultiChoice's DStv.

■ The delicate art of the TV series finale.
Ending a TV series properly with a perfect final episode is equal parts craft and philosophy.

■ Next year the Swiss will vote to get rid of TV and radio licence fees.
Switzerland voting in March 2018 on a proposal to scrap the licence fee for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).

■ Nigerian presenter of a TV crime show sues over being blocked by Nigerian police.
Aisha Tosan, the presenter of presenter of Crime Fighters, Police and You files papers in Lagos High Court to stop Nigeria's police from blocking her, and impeding her right to give out information.

■ Chelsea Handler's talk show, Chelsea, on Netflix cancelled after 2 seasons.
Went from daily in the first season, to weekly in the second season to cancelled.

■ In a new generation of social media-driven dramas
viewers decide the outcome in the next episode, as part of TV's next big new trend.