This comes too close to their committing to cover more local content and ensuring coverage of the regional tournaments including CECAFA.This is a loss to all you pub owners and home owners too who have paid subscription to the company starting 2009 and the periods preceding.
My quick assessment tells me that the company may have secured most of its finance through debt and thus with the financial crunch hitting all, they couldn’t take it anymore. Let’s see what unfolds as we live in historic times!
The statement from the company's here.
11 comments:
I think this no ordinary financial woes..its just a spat on africa.Without No notice..they terminate all gtv services even to the loyal customers like me.Infact i paid for my package a few days ago now i am pondering whats the next move.?Will they refund our money..What about the dish, decoder??This is really bad..
I reckon its a ploy make us African poor?! Poor planning and Incompetence Cost them.In business you bite what you can chew!!!! Why did the Board have to wait until Subscribers had renewed for the month of Feb!! Its absolute robbery!!!!
Hey Anon 1 & 2, seems their due diligence was not upto the standards. Anon 1 too bad for the loss of your money. Guess we've sank this low as an economy, no standards, no scrutiny, no money ! Back to DSTv monopoly !
I could not believe this has happaned. GTV were doing Africa proud by breaking the dstv mnopoly, promoting African movies and shows, and bringing us world football at an African cost. What a shame, I only hope dstv do not monopolize on the EPL football again.
its okay we still have DSTV use the extras in the GTV channels they show some primer league games like yesterday i watched the Man u vs Evreton game
From unconfirmed reports, there are investors said to be in talks with GV to buy their business (incl of infrastructure. This is I hope is sooner rather than later.
All the same, I wonder why they had to wait this long to wind up the business. Something's amiss.
As for DSTv, it's boom time again. With them having bid for the rights to the World Cup next year,you can sure we'll approach monopolistic tendencies.
Ok a good number of subscribers have lost out, for now at least but what about the people who invested in the GTV franchise and opened offices in their respective countries? These guys have lost everything and more with staff having to be laid off and paid in full, rents to pay, power to pay and no doubt bank loans secured to buy equipment like computers, furnishings and vehicles. For them and their families this is a complete disaster and they had no more prior warning than the average subscriber on the street.
To be honest no time is a good time to go bust as a business but the way GTV HQ have handled this has so far been very shabby.
I wonder when the liquidator gets in and starts selling assets to pay debts who will get the biggest slice of the pineapple? No doubt the banks and their associated cronies. The guys out in the field who now have to bar their offices from crowds of unhappy punters screaming for their money back will no doubt be pretty low on the pecking order.
Sorry for the girl who couldn't watch football but more sorry for the regional owners who may not be able to pay next months school fees for their kids.
Anon @ 22.29; I agree with you, a lot was at stake for them to just close shop without consideration. As usual the 'big fish' eat first then the herrings are left to their own machinations. Options for cable TV are truly limited !
GTV's collapse means that the rights revert to the Premier League, which said it was looking to negotiate a sale of the rights to another broadcaster in time for next weekend.
This from Telegraph UK.
So even if GTV are bought they have already lost their biggest asset which is the EPL and on which their whole business model was based.
Anon@17.15,thanks for the info. We'll keep guys posted on developments.
Anon 22.29 + 17:51 says..
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The English Premier League has found a buyer for the rights to broadcast soccer matches in Africa, outside of South Africa, after the failure of Gateway Broadcast Services Ltd.
The rights reverted to the league after the broadcaster’s liquidation application, Dan Johnson, a spokesman for the league, said in a phone interview today. He declined to name the buyer. An agreement may be signed by this weekend, he added.
GTV, as the broadcaster is known, filed for liquidation on Jan. 30 after it was unable to secure funding to continue operating. GTV had customers in 22 countries. In 2007, Naspers Ltd.’s MultiChoice, Africa’s largest pay-TV broadcaster, lost in bidding against GTV for three seasons of Premiere League rights. MultiChoice and Vivendi SA’s Canal Plus pay-TV unit are GTV’s largest competitors in Africa.
Earlier, Naspers Chief Investment Officer Mark Sorour said if the rights were offered to Naspers by GTV’s liquidators, it “would clearly be interested” at the “right price.” He was not aware of any appointment of liquidators, he said.
Messages left for Canal Plus spokesmen today were not immediately answered.
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