Broadcasting
Chomzy Emerges as the First Female HOH in BBNaija Level Up
It’s week five of Big Brother Naija and similar to previous weeks, all housemates except the incumbent Head of House, were eligible to participate. Unlike previous weeks, however, the winner of the games and eventual HoH would have immunity from eviction for only themselves and whoever they nominate as deputy.
The first game was played in two rounds. For the first round, the female and male housemates participated separately. The top two female and male housemates from the first game would qualify for the next challenge which meant game 2 would feature 4 housemates (2 females and 2 males).
Before proceeding to the games, Big Brother had Phyna in the spotlight and asked if she completed her punishment as last week’s Tail of House. Sadly, she didn’t and this automatically disqualified her from participating in the games. Biggie also declared her the Tail of House for the new week.
With Phyna’s punishments meted out, Biggie then asked the eligible female participants to take their stand behind the stools with their name tags. Each stool had a bowl containing 20 donkwa and the challenge was to move one donkwa at a time with their mouth to an empty plate on the other side of the arena within one minute. Damaged, chipped or broken donkwa would not be counted as part of the score.
At no point were they allowed to use their hands to touch the donkwa except to lift the bowl. The top two participants with the highest number of donkwa would move to the next challenge.
The first game among the ladies began at the sound of the buzzer and after a minute they were asked to stop. Eloswag was called to count each female’s donkwa and at the end of the count, Daniella and Chomzy drew with 13 donkwas on their plate.
Next up were the male housemates with the same rules applying. After a minute of moving the donkwa with their mouths, Eloswag once again was asked to count each male participant’s donkwa. Bryann and Giddyfia emerged as the male winners of the first round with 16 and 15 Donkwas respectively.
After some tense moments, Biggie disqualified Daniella and all the male housemates from participating in the next challenge for carrying more than one Donkwa at a time.
Due to these disqualifications, Chomzy and Bella, who came third, were the only qualified housemates to proceed to the next round. For the second challenge, each lady was provided with a test tube containing multi-coloured candy on one end of the table.
Timed at five minutes, the challenge was to recreate the exact arrangement of the coloured candy in an empty test tube using a picker. The first lady to successfully recreate the test tube was to indicate by shouting ‘Head of House’ to emerge the winner. However, shouting HOH with the wrong colour combo would lead to automatic disqualification.
After some minutes of recreating the new test tube, Bella was the first to indicate she had completed the task and once again, Eloswag was asked by Biggie to confirm her arrangement. Unfortunately, she got the arrangement wrong, and Chomzy was declared the winner and first female Head of House for season 7.
As the new Head of House, she is exempted from the next HOH games and immune from eviction. Also, the HOH bedroom is available to her for use. After listing out her rewards, Biggie then asked her to select a companion of the opposite gender to share the room with and she chose Eloswag. As a companion to HOH, Eloswag is also immune from this week’s eviction.
As part of her reward as the week’s Tail of the House, Phyna is required to keep quiet when she hears the TOH sound and was given a writing tab as her tool of communication when she is required to be mute.
In a new twist, Big Brother asked each housemate to nominate two people for eviction. Although fake, the housemates with the most nominations are Chi Chi and Adekunle. They were both nominated four and five times respectively.
BBNaija Season 7 is headline sponsored by Pocket by Piggyvest (formerly Abeg) and associate sponsored by Flutterwave.
Video entertainment company MultiChoice’s woes are persisting with the company continuing to suffer massive losses in revenue and subscribers.
This emerged today when the DStv parent company announced its financial results for the year ended 31 March (FY25).
In a statement to shareholders on the Stock Exchange News Service, the JSE-listed firm says the past two financial years have been a period of significant financial disruption for economies, corporates and consumers across sub-Saharan Africa due to challenging macro-economic factors.
Combined with the impact of structural industry changes in video entertainment such as the rise of piracy, streaming services and social media, this has materially affected the overall performance of the MultiChoice Group, it notes.
Over this period, MultiChoice says the group lost 2.8 million active linear subscribers and had to absorb a R10.2 billion negative impact on its topline due to local currency depreciation against the US dollar.
For the year ended 31 March, the company reveals that linear subscribers were down 1.2 million or 8% year-on-year (YoY) to 14.5 million active subscribers, with the loss evenly split between South African (600 000) and Rest of Africa (600 000).
Although reflecting an improvement on FY24 trends, MultiChoice says this indicates ongoing broad-based pressure across the group’s entire customer base.
Active paying Showmax subscribers were up 44% YoY, reflecting healthy growth and gaining regional market share, it adds.
Group revenue declined by R5.2 billion or 9% YoY to R50.8 billion, mainly due to an 11% decline in subscription revenues (-1% organic) caused by foreign currency and subscriber volume headwinds and the deconsolidation of the NMSIS insurance business from December 2024, it explains.
According to the firm, this was partially offset by inflationary pricing and new product growth (DStv Internet, DStv Stream and Extra Stream).
Trading profit, which declined by R3.8 billion or 49% YoY to R4 billion, was materially affected by the R2.3 billion organic increase in trading losses in Showmax and the R5.2 billion in foreign currency revenue losses, partially offset by a significant outperformance in delivering total cost savings of R3.7 billion.
Adjusted core headline earnings, the board’s revised measure of the underlying performance of the business, shifted to a loss of R800 million (FY24: earnings of R1.3 billion) due to lower trading profit and hedging losses in FY25 (compared to gains in FY24), partially offset by smaller losses on cash remittances from Nigeria.
The group incurred a free cash outflow of R500 million in FY25 (FY24: inflow of R600 million), impacted by lower profitability, higher lease repayments due to timing and partially offset by improved working capital management as well as a 29% YoY decline in capex.
At year-end, the group held R5.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents and retains access to R3 billion in undrawn general borrowing facilities.
A part of the R12 billion term loan was repaid early by using the R900 million upfront proceeds from the NMSIS transaction (ie R1.2 billion, net of tax), says the company.
The group operates in numerous markets across Africa and internationally, resulting in significant exposure to foreign exchange volatility.
Amid the challenges, MultiChoice states that management acted decisively to ensure that the group could withstand these headwinds, focusing on key areas within its control.
It notes that this has meant maintaining a discipline of inflationary pricing, with price increases of 5.7% in South Africa in FY25 (FY24: 5.6%) and an average of 31% in local currency in Rest of Africa (FY24: 27%), which enabled the group to offset subscriber volume pressures and deliver 1% YoY organic revenue growth in the current financial year.
In addition, further efficiencies were implemented to manage costs and cash flows without unduly sacrificing the group’s customer value proposition, it adds.
In this regard, the group delivered R3.7 billion in cost savings, well ahead of management’s initial R2 billion target (and the revised R2.5 billion target set at interims) and almost double the R1.9 billion saved in FY24, the company says.
Afia TV & Radio has announced its official entry into the Lagos media market, in its commitment to expanding the broadcaster’s footprint, connecting businesses to audiences across Nigeria, and redefining regional media excellence.
Chief Emeka Mba,
Nnamdi Obanya, general manager of Afia TV & Radio, said there is only one digital satellite and one digital station in the southeastern region of Nigeria, which is Afia.
Obanya, stated that: “We are specialists in developing products. A programme on our channel, ‘How Market’, is where we talk to the people in the market to tell their stories and advertise their products on AFIA.”
According to him, “the market world has changed a lot, as the physical market has become a ware house while people are buying digitally.”
Chief Emeka Mba, founder and CEO, stated: “The parley brought together top media buyers, advertising agencies, and communication professionals for engaging conversations around emerging trends, innovation, and future-forward strategies in media planning and buying. The event also served as a platform for Afia TV and radio to unveil its offerings, platforms, and unique value proposition to Lagos-based stakeholders.”
While noting that they are thrilled to bring Afia’s fresh, original, and regional perspective to Lagos, Mba said, “this parley signals our readiness to collaborate, innovate, and deliver impactful results for our partners through data-driven content and targeted reach especially for brands looking to penetrate the southern Nigerian market.”
Equipped with modern broadcast studios, digital-first production capabilities, and a highly experienced team, Afia TV & Radio is poised to make a bold impression on the Lagos media landscape.
The media brand delivers high-quality programming ranging from news and documentaries to lifestyle, business, culture, and entertainment only in south-east but in Lagos, African and beyond, we want to be chief marketing platform of the eastern region, we are the only 24/7 radio station now in Enugu.
Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has warned disc jockeys (DJs) against publicly playing music without proper authorization or a valid license.
NAN reports that John Asein, NCC director-general, gave the warning in an advisory issued in Abuja.
He said the commission’s attention had been drawn to the growing practice of DJs playing music in public spaces without obtaining copyright licences from their approved collective management organisations (CMOs).
Asein said under sections 9 and 12 of the Copyright Act, 2022, only the owner of copyright in a musical work or sound recording has the exclusive right to reproduce, perform, or communicate it to the public.
The NCC threatened to prosecute defaulters in a case that could lead to a N1 million fine or a 5-year jail term upon conviction.
“Engaging in any of these acts without the owner’s authorisation constitutes an infringement under the Act,” he said.
“Such infringement may constitute a civil wrong or a criminal offence under section 44 (7), punishable upon conviction by a fine of not less than N1 million or imprisonment for a term of not less than five years or to both.”
Asein advised DJs to obtain the necessary licences and pay royalties to the approved CMO before performing music publicly.
The NCC director-general added that the commission will arrest and prosecute anyone found violating the law.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the approved CMO for musical works and sound recordings in Nigeria is the Musical Copyright Society, Nigeria (MCSN),” he said.
“The Commission is aware that the Disc Jockey’s Association of Nigeria (DJAN), as the umbrella body representing DJs in Nigeria, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with MCSN.
“Under the arrangement, DJAN is authorised to work with MCSN to facilitate the payment of royalties by DJs nationwide, based on the tariff that DJAN had negotiated with MCSN.”
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