The Court of Appeal, sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has ordered MultiChoice to sublicence some pay TV channels to Metro Digital in compliance with the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission’s code. The NBC code is meant to increase the number of players in the pay TV market and allow competition, considering several Nigerian-owned cable TV companies have shut down due to MultiChoice’s monopoly of customer-driven programmes. MultiChoice is the South African owner of the satellite television services – DStv and GOtv – popular subscription-based platforms in Nigeria. Metro Digital Limited is a local multi-channel terrestrial digital satellite service provider.
In the judgement delivered on Wednesday, Olabode Adegbehingbe, the judge, ruled that a lower court erred in 2021 when it dismissed the suit of Metro Digital (the appellant) in which it proved the existence of a dispute between itself and MultiChoice. Metro Digital had approached a federal high court in Port Harcourt after MultiChoice rejected its request for sublicencing rights to retail some of the channels and programmes to its subscribers. But MultiChoice Nigeria had claimed that the channels for which Metro Digital sought sub-licencing rights were not owned by it. Not satisfied with MultiChoice’s excuse, the company approached the Court of Appeal for redress.
Justice Olabode Adegbehingbe, in his judgement on Wednesday, ruled that the lower court erred when it dismissed the suit of the appellant (Metro-digital), the company having proved the existence of the dispute between itself and the first respondent (MultiChoice). The judge then urged the NBC to compel MultiChoice to follow the court order within 21 days. The NBC had recently amended the broadcasting code to break the monopoly in the cable TV market, increasing rights to a programme and eliminating exclusivity to a show.
The significance of this ruling lies in the fact that, for once, a Nigerian court had dared to challenge MultiChoice’s strangulating monopoly of pay TV broadcasting right here in Nigeria. Its big name and financial reach had, before now, thwarted the government’s effort at opening up the market space so that local firms could get a share of it. Now a local court and a Nigerian judge have done what everyone believed was the impossible. Now it’s up to the NBC to follow this epic decision through.
