During the week, a photograph showing businessman Toyin Subair having a conversation with the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, went viral on social media.
Although the photograph was obviously intended to fill a yawning vacuum created by Tinubu’s continued absence from the country, long after the formal flag-off of political campaigns by the Independent National Electoral Commission, it held a different meaning for society watchers. They interpreted the picture to mean the subtle but gradual return of Toyin to the scheme of things, perhaps, in the digital media space.
For many who do not know or do not recall, Toyin was virtually a household name between 2007 and 2011 when he presided over the affairs of High Television, otherwise known as HiTV, a multi-channel digital satellite television service, which was poised to give South Africa-owned Digital Satellite Television, DSTV, a run for its money.
At the time, Subair was the poster boy for corporate Nigeria and the toast of the Nigerian celebrity space. Unfortunately, all that changed when HiTV lost the rights to broadcast the English Premier League, the proverbial cash cow that had been the reason for the explosion in its subscriber base. Also, financial mismanagement allegedly set in and thus began the downward spiral, which culminated in the company winding up and its subsequent extinction.
Allegations of financial impropriety followed suit, leaving some of the investors, one of who was the late managing director of a new-generation bank, expressing concerns. Without much ado, HiTV under Subair’s leadership racked up so much debt that the new generation bank was forced to send receiver managers to take over the operations of the company until every kobo of the debt owed the bank was paid back.
Expectedly Subair attempted to fight back by blaming a clause in HiTV’s original shareholders agreement, which, according to him, allowed founding shareholders (perhaps the bank) to block the company from raising funds or selling off a subsidiary.
It said that the bank participated in the sale of the UEFA Champions League in a manner that was inconsistent with agreed contractual terms and therefore filed in court a case regarding the improper sale of the UEFA rights along with other issues concerning its relationship with the bank.
Rather than wait to see the case through, Subair fled Nigeria and got holed up in London for years. His marriage also packed up. But for one who is a sucker for love, he soon gave love a second chance to an Asian who he shields from the public glare. Years after his failed TV project, Subair subtly began to seek a return to the pay television industry by free-riding on the 6th National Broadcasting Commission Code which, among other controversial provisions, aims to end exclusivity.
He launched PlayTV with hopes that it would rise to prominence from the rubble of HiTV. The foundation for PlayTV was Continental Satellite Television (Consat), the failed pay television platform owned by Tinubu. Unfortunately, years after it was launched, it failed to meet Subair’s projections and is remembered only by decoders bought by subscribers, with many bought by state governments headed by politicians on the ruling party platform.
Rising from the ashes of Play TV, Subair launched an Over-the-Top (OTT) platform, a hybrid of Ad-based Video-on-Demand (AVOD) and Subscription-backed Video-on-Demand (SVOD) services, Free TV. Subair badly craves for a replication of the success of HiTV by tapping into his political connections which has become stronger since 2015 to make this happen.
With President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration winding down, Subair is obviously leveraging on his growing political connections and may likely return with a bang to take back his place in the terrestrial television space.
