By Ijeoma Olorunfemi

Dr John Nwafor, Managing-Director of Metro Digital Limited, operators of SLTV satellite television network, has offered subsidised packages to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Nwafor, in an interview with NAN on Monday, said the subsidy was the company’s way of ameliorating the economic challenges Nigerians face daily.

He also said that the cost for SLTV dish, decoder and subscription package would remain stable for a period, to encourage other local players in the satellite television industry.

According to him, in the next two weeks when stock will be available, the outfit will be offering a special package to NAN staff members.

”We will work very hard and demonstrate to the country that we can do this business very well and that will encourage other Nigerians to come in for healthy competition.

”Nigerians will benefit at the end as the subscription will come down. We are here to let our people know that we are for them; we are not going to start raising prices because of the economic situation.

”We are assuring Nigerians that our prices will be stable for a reasonable length of time and show example to other Nigerians to come into the industry to make it more vibrant.”

The managing director, while clarifying the claims of SLTV connection to MultiChoice’s DSTV, said that the paid television industry had always contributed to the economy of any nation.

He said that Nigerians had been prevented from being part of the industry by dominant players and there was the need for the government to put an end to that.

”Paid TV industry is always a major part of the economy of any nation and if you look around in the Nigerian industry, there is almost no industry that is actually participating.

”Recently, the government decided to work on that problem by making some changes to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Code to outlaw exclusivity.

”Exclusivity to content is one of the things that have discouraged all the indigenous players that wanted to come on board in the industry,’’ he said.

He added that the amendment of the NBC code was followed with a court injunction to further enforce sub-licensing and avail them of television channels exclusively held unto, in the past.

He explained that SLTV was formed in the wake of what the government did and the objective was to provide quality programming for Nigerians.

Nwafor revealed that available channels included contents on football, movies, news, children’s cartoons, all kinds of programmes at reasonable prices.

”Right now, we have a package that starts from N2,500, while the full package is only N5000; we believe that is actually affordable for our people.

”We have created five local channels and three are in the major Nigerian languages, while two are in English, based on our local content.

”We are going to be creating more eventually in the next one or two years and we are looking at establishing a studio where we can engage creative people for interesting contents.

”People are looking for things that they can relate to; they want familiar content. We are passionate about producing that for our people,’’ he said.

He added that investing in indigenous satellite television would reduce capital flight and ensure that resources were deployed into developing infrastructure within the country.

He also said that the company was considering floating other initiatives like the Pay-As-You-View, which he said would end exploitation of Nigerians.

He called for the support of Nigerians in ensuring that indigenous satellite television networks thrived in the country, as it had the capacity to create massive employment.

“The industry needs liberalisation and it is our people that will make it work,” he said. (NAN)

Edited by Deborah Coker and Ephraims Sheyin

Published by

Philip Daniel Yatai

Principal Correspondent, NAN Abuja

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