Television broadcasts row takes new twist

What you need to know:

Speaking under one umbrella, the operators – Star Times, Ting and Continental – told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they arrived at the decision after the owners of 34 stations, who are registered under their services, failed to pay the fees for the past eight years.

Dar es Salaam. Pay TV operators say they will remove all free-to-air channels from their decoders if TV station owners will not pay fees in the next 30 days.

Speaking under one umbrella, the operators – Star Times, Ting and Continental – told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they arrived at the decision after the owners of 34 stations, who are registered under their services, failed to pay the fees for the past eight years.

Their statement comes a few days after the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) threatened licence cancellation for some pay TV companies, which charged customers to access local channels, one of them being Star Times.

The chairman of the union of the pay Tv operators, Dr Vernon Fernandes, said they won the tender and the law permits them to build a network of television owners who can use decoders to air content at indicative prices per month.

“Every TV station, which uses our installations, should pay Sh2.4 million per month, but we have not been paid the money since 2010. This has left us counting the losses,” said Dr Fernandes.

He said despite spending more than $300 million (approximately Sh686 billion) investing in the project, which involved construction of 47 towers, they have not benefited from payments they were expecting from their clients (TV stations owners).

“Instead, the stations owners have been benefiting twice and forgot to pay for the services,” said Dr Fernandes.

Furthermore, he said: “We submitted our claims, including informing the TCRA and the respective ministry, but nothing has been done so far. It has been a long time now.”

Contacted for comment on the matter, the TCRA head of communications, Mr Semu Mwakyanjala, asked this reporter to submit questions to the authority and wait for answers.

“You can send us your questions or bring us a letter to our office,’’ said Mr Mwakyanjala.