TVC News headquarters and news vans in Lagos burn as channel is forced off air, Channels TV shuttered, LTV attacked; news crews and reporters from AIT, Silverbird, Arise TV and OSBC harassed by soldiers and protesters as Nigeria's protests spread after government curfew and killings by security forces.

by Thinus Ferreira

As public protests spread in Nigeria, protesters have set fire to the building of the TVC News channel in Lagos, Nigeria that was forced off air, while the Channels TV channel soon afterwards also shut down due to what it called credible threats of an "imminent attack on our staff and operations".

Angry and fearful Nigerians have been demonstrating for the past 2 weeks against the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit that Nigerians accuse of gross extortion, harassment, torture, police brutality and murder. 

On social media Nigeria's protests have been trending under the hashtag of #EndSARS.

According to Amnesty International security forces in Nigeria have killed at least 38 people at the Lekki Tollgate after indiscriminately firing on thousands of protesters in Lagos on Tuesday.

Violent protesters, as well as Nigerian soldiers, have harassed and attacked TV news crews from multiple TV channels in Nigeria. 

Public protest action in Nigeria dramatically escalated after Nigerian security forces shot and killed dozens of protesters in the Lekki suburb on Tuesday evening.

Nigerians have been demonstrating nationwide every day for nearly two weeks against the police unit that rights groups had for years accused of extortion, harassment, torture, and murders. 

The TVC News building in Ikosi-Ketu in Lagos was attacked on Wednesday and set alight. Besides the building, several cars, equipment as well as several outside broadcast (OB) news vehicles were set alight and burnt out as well. Several vehicles not burnt were destroyed.

What’s left after thugs attacked TVC news pic.twitter.com/A6O3ykNW6l

— Naija wants to #EndSARS (@Naija_PR) October 22, 2020

TVC stopped posting news on Twitter and its YouTube live stream broadcast abruptly ceased following the fire.

TVC News is owned by Continental Broadcasting Service Nigeria Ltd. and the channel is carried by pay-TV services in NIgeria like MultiChoice's DStv, as well as China's StarTimes.

The Channels TV channel meanwhile abruptly stopped broadcasting on Wednesday afternoon soon after TVC News started to burn.

Channels, carried on MultiChoice's DStv and GOtv in Nigeria, simply showed the channel logo and ran an on-air scroll simply saying "Channels Television is temporarily shutting down due to imminent attack on our staff and operations".

Channels later switched to recorded rebroadcasts.

Lagos Television (LTV) was apparently also attacked, while the offices of The Nation newspaper was set alight as well.

Reporters of African Independent Television (AIT) and Silverbird Television were reportedly harassed while trying to cover the unfolding protests in Nigeria, while Toyin Yusuf, a journalist with Osun State Broadcasting Corporation was attacked. 

Meanwhile Nigerian soldiers prevented a TV news crew from Arise TV from covering the news at the Lekki Tollgate.

Here's the linear TV channels available at launch on Cell C's streaming video-on-demand service, black, and their channel numbers.

Here's the names of the TV channels available at launch on Cell C's streaming subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, black, and their channel numbers.

Cell C recently launched black in South Africa that offers viewers access to several linear TV channels (meaning traditional TV channels that run 24 hours per day); including channels spanning the genres of entertainment, lifestyle, documentary, reality, film, kids, sports, news, music and religion.

FOX                                        201

FOX Life                                202

Sony Channel                          203

Sony Max                                204

African Movie Channel          205

African Series Channel           206

CBS Reality                            207

Scoop Network HD                208

TCM                                        241

True Movies                            242

Nina TV                                  250

Fine Living HD                       251

Fashion One HD                     252

Fashion Box                            253

FTV                                         254

Travel Channel                        255     

National Geographic               261

Nat Geo WILD                        262

RT DOC HD                           264

Boing                                      301

Toonami Africa HD                302

POP                                         303

JimJam                                    304

Fix & Foxi                               305

Baby TV                                 306

Duck TV                                 307

FOX Sports 1                          401

FOX Sports 2                          402

MUTV (Man United) HD      403

Chelsea TV HD                      404

LFC TV HD                           405

Barca TV HD                          406

Real Madrid HD                     407

Trace Sports Stars HD            410

Extreme Sports                       411

E Sports TV HD                     412

Game Toonbox HD                413

Motorvision HD                      414

Nautical HD                            415

Outdoor Channel HD             416

Sportskool                               417

Havoc TV HD                        418

Fightbox HD                           419

Fast and Funbox HD              420

BBC World News                  501

FOX News                              502

Al Jazeera                                503

Euronews HD                         504

Africanews                              505

Deutsche Welle                       506

France24                                 507

TRT World HD                       508

Russia Today HD                   509

Bloomberg HD                       511

CNBC Africa                          512

Kiss                                         601

Box Hits                                  602

Trace Gospel                           603

Trace Africa                            604

Box Africa                              605

360 Tunebox                           606

Magic                                      607

Kerrang                                   608

GOD TV                                 702

Inspiration TV                         703

Firstly, the list of linear TV channels for this Cell C black service is out of the box very impressive for the service and at the price point (of course yes, the customer also still has to pay separately for actual data).

But the product, taken at face value, on the offering of its number of linear TV channels, is surprising, and surprisingly good and above average for a pay-TV service.

Cell C's black has different subscription services to get access to the linear TV channels, each coming with slightly different access to a different number of these TV channels.

Here's the very bad thing about Cell C's black linear TV channels: There are too many different plans, and these plans are too difficult to understand, and doesn't tell upfront in enough detail exactly what you get for it.

The BINGE Premium, abbreviated as BTV Premium, costs R279 per month and gives access to 60 of these TV channels (and include access to on-demand shows).

The BINGE Access, abbreviated as BTV Access, costs R89 per month. I was unable to figure out, despite research, how many TV channel you actually get access to.

Then there's several other "monthly recurring" TV packages.

Monthly BTV Premium (R189) and Monthly BTV Access (R69) for instance are available but once again Cell C black isn't telling potential consumers how many actual TV channels you get for these packages.

These "monthly recurring" packages also likely mean you're locked into some long(er) term fixed contract. We also don't know that since Cell C black doesn't spell it out clearly.

The soccer club channels costs extra and that's quite obvious.

Also not spelled out and extremely bad of Cell C black and of FOX Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa) are how all the FOX channels also require yet another separate subscription payment.

Even if you pay for the most expensive BINGE Premium Plus package, a very nasty surprise awaits: You will have to pay yet another R99 per month if you want to actually get any of the FOX supplied channels unblocked.

FOX, FOX Life, Baby TV, National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD, Baby TV, FOX News, FOX Sports and FOX Sports 2 will remain unblocked even if you're on BINGE Premium Plus - the most expensive package on Cell C's black, unless you pay yet another R100.

Why does Cell C black have a "BINGE Premium Plus" when stuff like the FOX channels are excluded? it means it's neither "binge", nor really "premium", and definitely not "plus".

The only "plus" is the "plus R100" out of your wallet that you have to cough up if you want to have the FOX supplied linear channels unblocked.

Both Cell C and the South African media supposed to be covering this, have done and are doing an extremely bad job of actually communicating about the linear TV channels available on Cell C's black and what these channels are.

It is impressive however that Cell C black has such a lot of channels (keep in mind that none of the FOX channels are actually usable without an additional payment).

It's equally impressive how Cell C's black is offering so many of these TV channels in high definition (HD) at launch, and that all of these are linear TV channels that are streamed through the internet.

(Even) MultiChoice doesn't offer some of these channels in HD on DStv, which means that from launch, Cell C's black is doing some things better than DStv when it comes to linear TV channels and stream watching.

SABC promises 5 new TV channels - 4 channels catering to different language groupings and SABC Sport as a separate TV channel.

The SABC is planning to launch 5 new TV channels - 4 channels catering to different language groupings as well as SABC Sport as a separate TV channel.

The plan for new language segmented SABC TV channels comes after years of the public broadcaster unsuccessfully trying to launch SABC4 and SABC5 as regional language channels catering to the northern and southern regions of South Africa respectively.

The SABC's four language segmented channels will be run in addition to the existing SABC1, SABC2, SABC3 and the SABC News and SABC Encore channels, the last two of which are packaged for MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.

The additional new TV channels, when launched, will be available on the SABC's digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform and will also have to be available on various pay-TV operators' bouquets as part of the existing "must carry" rules as mandated by the broadcasting regulator, Icasa.

The additional new channels are a far cry from the ambitious 18 TV channels the SABC told parliament in 2011 it wanted to launch with the advent of DTT in South Africa.

The new TV channels plan comes as the SABC's latest new CEO, Frans Matlala remains suspended since November 2015, and with the SABC that reported a staggering loss of R403 million for the last reported financial year.

It's not clear where the struggling SABC that is under great financial pressure, will get the money to run the additional new channels and to produce the costly programming needed for the channels.

A single TV channel requires 8 760 hours of content per year. With the existing SABC channels filled with repeats and rebroadcasts already, its highly unlikely that the SABC will be able to programme multiple further channels scheduled with just brand-new local content.

The SABC that has not given specific channel names or any launch dates, says one TV channel will primarily be the Sotho TV channel, catering to Sesotho, Setswana and Sepedi languages. Zulu, Xhosa, Siswati and Ndebele will form part of a second Nguni focused TV channel.

A third channel will focus on Tsonga and Venda language speakers. A fourth SABC TV channel will be for Afrikaans viewers.

The SABC is also working on establishing its SABC Sport brand as a separate sports channel.

Reporting the news on the SABC, SABC2 Morning Live news reader Lebo Thinane made a Freudian slip, telling viewers that the "several language based TV channels will serve the ANC's audience".

Meanwhile local content will be increased for SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3. The SABC's controversial chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng says most of the new content will focus on languages the SABC marginalised like Afrikaans, Tsonga and Venda.

"As the public service broadcaster we continue to thrive in ensuring that all national languages achieve equal treatment as per our constitutional obligations," says Hlaudi Motsoeneng in a statement.

The SABC is under pressure to maintain its TV audience share that's under pressure as subscription and satellite television in South Africa keeps growing, with MultiChoice's DStv and Platco Digital's OpenView HD aggressively adding viewers year after year and with On Digital Media (OMD) and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat also in operation.

The SABC failed to meet its commercial revenue targets according to its latest financial report, citing increased TV industry competition. The SABC told parliament it will no longer present its commercial plan publicly out of fear over competitors.

The SABC said SABC News bulletins will now "have a segment that is dedicated to news from provinces" and that the public broadcaster wants more local content that reflect various provinces.

The SABC is also dumping the use of all external marketing agencies for marketing campaigns and will do it in-house.

The SABC is also dumping print advertising and advertising on all platforms outside of the SABC for vacancies. With immediate effect the SABC will only advertise available jobs on the SABC's TV and radio stations and its own digital platforms.