Director-General and chief executive of Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Mallam Mohammed Ibn Yakubu has revealed that its partnership with Startimes group, owners of Startimes TV has yielded no revenue since inception over eleven years ago. Startimes is the operator of an online streaming platform intended to offer multi-device streaming features to the viewers. The company’s platform offers streaming of live sports telecasts, web series, movies and other tv channels, enabling viewers to catch their desired programs whenever they are free.
StarTimes has established subsidiaries in more than 30 African countries and uses DVB standards to deliver terrestrial and satellite television services to millions of viewers. It is certainly one of the world’s biggest operators of DVB-based services.
The NTA boss disclosed that the joint venture partnership which saw Startimes transmitting through its facilities has not yielded profits for the past eleven years.
The management of the Federal Government-owned television station entered into a partnership, known as NTA-Star TV Network, with a Chinese media firm, Beijing Star Group, in 2008 and it became operational in 2009.
The joint venture was described as a strategic partnership between the NTA and China’s most influential radio television enterprise, when it was consummated 11 years ago.
The DG made this revelation when he appeared before the Joint Senate Committee on MTEF, saying that the NTA could not remit revenue from that arrangement into the Federation Account.
Members of the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning, who are working on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, however expressed surprise at the development.
The issue of revenue accruable to the NTA has been generating concerns at the ongoing stakeholders’ interactive session on the 2021-2023 MTEF/FSP, organised by the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning.
Ibn Mohammed, on his second-day appearance before the joint panel where he responded to questions from the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Solomon Adeola, also failed to satisfactorily defend the revenue and expenditure of the television station.
He said, “As a matter of fact, when I came on board in 2016, that was one of the first questions I asked. I wanted to know what accrued to the NTA from the joint venture, and I was told that the joint venture had not declared any profit.
“The management said they have been declaring losses every year.” The Managing Director of the NTA TV Enterprises, Maxwell Loko, who was also present at the session, said he was not informed to come with documents on the joint venture.
He said, “For 11 years, you are not getting anything from Startimes agreement and you still continue there. Something is fishy; this is unfair to Nigeria as a nation. This committee will investigate this agreement.
“We will set up an ad hoc committee to investigate all the previous DGs. We want to know where they have kept the Nigerian money.” He also asked them to bring the management account. The panel also queried the NTA’s claim that the Presidential Task Force owed it N1.8bn publicity fund.
Mr Xun Gu, the Managing Director of China’s StarTimes Group recently said Startimes has encountered opportunities and challenges, technical and financial, in the course of exploring new markets and partnerships. Having used DVB solutions for more than two decades, StarTimes continues to pay close attention to where new DVB technology is heading, with a view to identifying future opportunities to provide affordable digital TV, especially to viewers in developing countries.
