Federal Government Grants TSTv 3 Years Tax Relief

The federal government has granted TStv Africa, three-year tax relief and tax-free dividends to all investors in the company.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the incentives on Sunday night in Abuja at a dinner to mark the official unveiling of the new company.

M. Lai  Mohammed who performed the official unveiling of the new company and its products said the tax reliefs were in line with the Pioneer Status recently granted to the Creative Industry by the Government.

The Minister also congratulated the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Dr. Bright Echefu and his team for liberalising and breaking the monopoly of Pay TV in the country.

He said:

“The important thing about what Echefu has done today is that he has redefined the pay per view television industry and from today, that industry will never remain the same again.

“What he has done is to democratise the media and entertainment industry and make it possible for even a peasant farmer to have access to the best entertainment and news in the world.

“It is a great opportunity for me to be the one to unveil tstv because just like a nigerian made history by crashing the cost of telephony in nigeria, i am glad that another nigerian is now coming forward to crash the cost of pay tv.”

The Minister commended the courage of the CEO for coming from the Diaspora to invest in his country and for believing in the government’s seriousness about diversifying the economy.

He said the company had also demonstrated that government alone could not do all things but needed the participation and synergy of the private sector.

The Minister said that the Government was aware of the huge contributions of the creative industry to the nation’s economy and would continue to support the sector.

“I want to assure that this administration will continue to assist you and other investors in creating the enabling environment for businesses to grow, ” he said.

He identified contents and the lack of objective audience measurement as major challenges that had retarded the growth of TV and advertising industries in the country, adding that with the liberalisation of the industry, content has become very key because content determines which channels are being watched and which are not.

The Minister also announced that the National Broadcasting Commission and his Ministry would organise a workshop on Nov. 28 to address the challenge of Audience Measurement.

The CEO, Bright Echefu said that TStv Africa had gone through a lot of challenges and was birth to liberalise PayTV in the country, make it affordable to every Nigerians with added values.

He said for the first time, Nigerians could now enjoy Pay Per View because with TSTV, “subscription runs as you watch and It has the facility to pause your subscription when you travel.

He said that TStv for a start has 70 premium channels model with the cheapest pay-TV in Africa with a maximum subscription fee of N3000.

Mr. Bright Echefu added that as a fully Nigerian brand with consideration for the masses, TSTV is not classified and that it has a model that accommodates subscription as low as N200 and N500 for a period of time.

TSTV Africa also comes with PVR (Personal Video Recorder) Decoder which allowed viewers greater control over their viewing experience with functions like pause, rewind, forward, save and record of programmes of interest.

Echefu said that once you subscribe to TSTV, you will also get complimentary internet service, enabled Wi-Fi, as well as video calls and video conferencing services.

“It has an array of amazing TV channels with premium entertainment, educative programs that cut across all genres.

“The genres included, News, Music, General entertainment, documentary, movies, religious, sports, health, kids, fashion and lifestyle that better define the uniqueness of Nigeria’s diverse culture and traditional values,” he said.

The CEO said TStv which was modelled for Nigerians had come to stay, he also assured Nigerians that they would deliver on their promises.