HiTV Loses N5 billion to Broadcast Pirates

HiTV owned by Entertainment Highway Limited has lost over N5 billion to the activities of broadcast pirates, a gang of unarmed but dangerous criminals, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
 The pirates who have perfected the acts of using decoders they acquired for home use to operate viewing centres and in hotels and bars all over the country are costing HiTV legitimate income  and also denying the country extra revenue by way of taxes.
HiTV, Nigeria’s preferred Direct to Home  (DTH) satellite operator (cable operator) is reputed for its unrivaled value especially the English Premier league.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that pirates have converted the decoders purchased for home viewing into commercial ventures thereby denying the operator right to legitmate income and preventing the uptake of new subscribers.
Martins Akingba, head of sales, HiTV explained that condition for the sale of HITV service is “that it is meant for use by a single domestic household or for private residential unit. Redistribution of any type of the signal from the decoder is deemed illegal.”
HiTV, entrenched rivals to DSTV owned by Multichoice in July introduced its commercial bouquet for hotels, viewing centres, cafes and club houses and embarked on a prolonged enlightenment campaign to make the affected class of people see reasons and pay the monthly subscription of N20, 000 which was later reviewed downward to N15, 000.
After months of enlightenment, the NCC and HiTV decided to carry out its first of the series of raids which led to the arrest of 12 suspects last month.