22
˜ ˞ NOVEMBER 9, 2019
FEATURE
Ibrahim Magu, Ag Chairman, EFCC
Modibbo Kawu, DG NBC
Executive Vice Chairman/CEO NCC, Prof Danbatta
Pay TV Content Pirates Leave Signal Owners Scratching Heads The free rein enjoyed by pay television signal pirates across the country threatens genuine content owners, inhibits investments and is capable of suocating the industry, writes Tolulope Ibukunoluwa
L
ast weekend, a group by the name, Association of Cable Operators of Nigeria (ACON), urged the Federal Government to end the perceived monopoly on the country’s pay television landscape. ACON, according to media reports, based its call on the fact that its members generate “revenue for thousands of Nigerians�. The group complained that since the offices of some of its members were raided by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last month, the fortunes of its members have taken a tumble. “In Rivers State alone, we have over 500 cable TV dealers, who survive on the subscription of customers and sale of decoders. Right now, it is as if we are no longer in business because the level of subscription has drastically reduced. In fact, our members are passing through hell at the moment. For instance, if you pay N3, 500 subscription for Metro TV, you get N400 commission. You can imagine how much you will make if you have up to 10 customers a day,� said the group’s coordinator. Though the coordinator was silent on what caused the slump in the fortunes of ACON members, reports in the media last month indicated that the cable television operators had a brush with law. This attracted the attention of the EFCC, which raided the offices of some cable operators deemed to have been pirating the signals of both local and foreign pay television service providers, including DStv, GOtv, StarTimes and beIN, the Qatari broadcaster and exclusive rights owner to many international sporting leagues and other entertainment content. On 6 October, EFCC operatives raided the Port Harcourt offices of CAN TV, Metro Digital TV and Communication Trends Limited (CTL), all members of ACON. The raid, according to the EFCC, was sequel to the receipt of intelligence that they were pirating broadcast signals of DStv, GOtv, StarTimes and beIN.
It led to the arrest of nine staff of the three firms and seizure of equipment used for the alleged illegal broadcast. Responding to the raid and arrest through their lawyers, Chatham Partners, the three firms claimed that there was no need for the involvement of the EFCC in the matter, as the alleged offence was not financial in nature. Paul Osuji, Operations Manager of Metro Digital TV, was quoted in the media as saying: “We did not commit any crime known in law to merit that kind of treatment�. But Chapter 3 of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Code declines to support Osuji’s claim. “The broadcast or rebroadcast of any content shall be only with the express permission of the rights owner,� the chapter states. Responding to ACON, the EFCC insisted that the law setting it up empowers it to investigate both financial and economic crimes. Abulrasheed Bawa, Head of EFCC’s Port Harcourt Zonal Office, said the suspects arrested were rebroadcasting DStv content and selling it to their subscribers. “We received intelligence either in writing or verbally. We conducted complaint analyses. We carried out sustained surveillance on the activities of three media houses that we raided. “We executed search warrant and exhibits were seized and recovered. We got confessional statements. We are empowered by our Act to carry out the search,� Bawa said. Section 40 of the EFCC Act defines economic crime as any non-violent, illicit activity carried out with the aim of earning wealth illegally. Among these are all shades of fraud, illicit drug trafficking, money laundering and intellectual property theft or piracy. The cable TV providers maintained that the laws of the country allow them to redistribute other providers’ content to their customers.
ACON, via a letter dated 8 October and signed their legal representatives - A.A Aiyelabegan and D. T Najime of Chatham Chambers - claimed that in 2015, MultiChoice, owners of DStv and GOtv platforms, reported the piracy of its content to the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), with a request to have such protected from pirates. In turn, ACON said its members approached MultiChoice with a request that they be sub-licensed to redistribute and expected MultiChoice to name its price. MultiChoice, however, named no price. Following the refusal to accede to the sub-licensing request, ACON said it approached a court, praying it to order MultiChoice to sub-license its members. Though the matter is yet to be determined, ACON members are allegedly still redistributing MultiChoice’s content and charging subscribers between N3, 000 and N5, 000 monthly. In addition to the legal steps they took, ACON also launched an adversarial campaign against MultiChoice, which they presented as a bully in the pay television marketplace by claiming to provide cheaper pay television service to Nigerians in the low income bracket. The cable TV operators also alleged that the EFCC raid was instigated by MultiChoice as a way of strangling competition, as it had previously suffocated Hitv, FStv and DAARSat, each of which did not remain in operation for more than four years. They similarly claimed that MultiChoice came up with its digital-to-home platform, GOtv, in 2011, as a way of killing StarTimes, the signal of which they were also pirating. That the EFCC raid occurred at the time of the last wave of anti-foreigner violence in South Africa was a boon to ACON, which jumped on it to whip up nationalistic sentiments against MultiChoice’s South African origins through lavish mentions of the unfortunate development in their public communication. Two days after the EFCC raid, the NCC, which enforces the country’s copyright laws, announced its