Breaking News: HITV Office Sealed

HiTV staff restricted from gaining access into the office premises

Entertainment Highway’s multi-channel digital satellite TV service, HiTV had its offices locked up by officers of the Nigerian Police Force today, Monday November 21.
Sources say the order to lock up the office which is located at 24a, Isaac John Street was issued by the management of Guaranty Trust Bank allegedly due to unpaid debt.
When Nigerian Entertainment Today visited the company this afternoon, some of the company’s staff were seen standing nearby, while others stood directly in front of the gate.
‘They owe GT Bank money, that’s why we have locked the place up’, one of the policemen told our reporters.
None of the HiTV staff granted our reporters audience when they were asked questions pertaining to the matter.
All HiTV servers have been shut down, subsequently affecting the channels hosted on it, including Hi Sports, Hi Nolly and Hi Nolly Yoruba. Third party channels such as 1 Music, Biscon, Hip TV and 4Real TV have also been ‘temporarily’ shut down. However, the other channels with independent uplink servers such as Sky News and E! are still running.
Inside sources have also told NET that staff have not been paid for about four months.
E-mails sent to the PR/Communications Manager at HiTV, Justin Akpovi-Esade were not replied at the time of this report.
HiTV, the first television platform in Africa to deploy Hypercable, a terrestrial pay per view TV decoder system was launched in 2007.