Will Toyin Subair get it right with PlayTV ?

Digital Play Nigeria Limited, Executive Chairman, Toyin Subair, has assured subscribers of its Direct to Home (DTH) broadcasting system, PlayTV, of highly entertaining and informative channels, especially from Nollywood.

“The brand will evolve over the next few months, launching various products both for Nollywood, making Nollywood available to people in their homes even if they don’t have internet…”

Popular hip hop musician Olamide aka Baddosneh  last week launched his music and lifestyle channel, Voice of the Streets (VOTS) on Play Tv.

His experience with HiTV

Toyin Subair is a household name in the pay-TV industry in the country, having launched the now defunct HiTV  in 2007. The entrance of HiTV into the pay tv industry gave South African based company DSTV, owned by Multichoice, its biggest competition to date.

HiTv successfully challenged the virtual monopoly enjoyed by DSTV through its acquisition of the viewership license for European football matches such as the Premiership, Spanish La Liga, and the Italian Serie A. Unfortunately, this was short-lived.

Towards the close of 2009, funding to renew the license became a major challenge. The company’s financing model was highly skewed towards debt. HiTv was paying between 25% and 27% interest rate.

Boardroom squabbles also affected the PayTV platform and a planned IPO could not hold due to the stock market crash. It was too late to raise any more funds from banks to pay for the Premiership rights.

Will he get it right with PlayTV ? 

Subair seems to have learned from his experience with HItv and moved away from focusing on sports to developing indigenous talents in the creative industry on the continent.