HITV was never set up to sell football only, it was circumstances that led us using football at inception as our main stay content, we have used football to gain the high level of acceptance we hoped to get, now is the time to go back to our original business model which offers Nigerians unparalleled entertainment.”

These were the words of  Mr. Toyin Subair, Chief Executive Officer, HiTV, the wholly Nigerian Pay TV platform, while announcing the company’s intention of shedding the ‘football only’ platform toga and its readiness to offer ‘total’ entertainment package.

“Against this backdrop, HiTV would not be bidding again for the UEFA Champions League which process is on now, HiTV will from May not show the UEFA Champions League games again too. Any football content that comes at a high cost to us as a company, we will not acquire anymore because we have now realised that the rights owners are the only ones benefiting in the bargain. When we first bid for the rights, it was $10 million, now it has gone up to over a $100 million, only the rights owners are enjoying the benefit because the strain of such an amount on a company is enormous. You just can’t sell it.”

Subair, a renowned intellectual property lawyer went down memory lane, as he talked about HiTV’s controversial loss of the broadcast rights to the English Premier League last year. “What seemed like our battering ram, main stay content, it seemed we could not use it not through our fault but the fault of banks and the rights owners.

When we started out as a Pay TV business, we went to the banks with our business model and all what we heard was that, without live football, they won’t be able to support us. These same banks were the ones chasing us when we won the rights to the English Premier League. So you will understand why we decided to use football to grow the business, now, we have understood the business and we are going back to our original business model which is purely to offer entertainment to Nigerians. Using something to start a business does not mean you will grow the business with it so we are reinventing ourselves as a company. We need to be alive to give Nigerians brand value.”