GBS collapses!

Posted by on January 30, 2009 at 6:59 pm in Business

gateway

Satellite television service operators Gateway Broadcast Services (GBS) has shut down.

The company has gone into liquidation and has thus withdrawn all its services effective Friday January 30 2009.

A statement issued by the board of the company blamed the global financial crisis had forced them to reach a unanimous decision to go into liquidation.

GBS says on its website “with great regrets GTV (GBS) announces immediate termination of all services”.

Though the service is still in operation in Ghana, reliable information available indicates that the entire network has gone off in Kenya.

News reaching citifmonline.com indicates that Gateway Broadcast Services is currently in talks with a French company, Canal Horizon concerning a possible takeover so the compnay can resume sometime in the near furure in Africa.

The unfortunate turn of events for the company which came into existence two years ago would have devastating effects on millions of subscribers all over Africa, especially Ghana where a lot of people have subscribed in recent time for live broadcast of the English Premier league.

The company also sponsors the local Ghana premier league. It is unclear what this means for the sustenance of the some of the clubs since the first installment of sponsorship package is yet to be paid for the season.

Over the last few years the company has spent over 200 million pounds creating new markets across 23 African countries.

Gateway Broadcast Services Limited provides pay-TV service in Africa. Its service comprises a range of sport, movies, popular series, music, education, and religious content.

The company’s pay-TV service addresses the popularity of European football in Africa. Gateway Broadcast Services is based in London, the United Kingdom. Gateway Broadcast Services Limited operates as a subsidiary of Gateway Telecommunications Plc.

Some Ghanaian subscribers of the GBS network who spoke to Citi News expressed their frustration about the development.

One of the subscribers, Clement, said “I think this is very pathetic, especially when the weekend is nigh and we are expecting to watch our favorite Premier League teams play. They came in with so much promise and am surprised it has gotten this bad”.

Another subscriber, Emmanuel, noted that “I think it is very surprising. I don’t know how come they found themselves in this situation at the moment. I was really looking forward to the Premiership game tomorrow”.

2 Responses to “GBS collapses!”

  1. Kelvin said:

    Please help us to watch kotoko and hearts match

    on February 2nd, 2009 at 8:43 pm
  2. Velma said:

    This is so outrageous!They should try and do their best or else they will loose a lot of customers that is big time customers and they have started loosing a lot in africa.We already had DSTV but because of futbal,we bought GBS only to see that they have gone on strike or maybe strike forever,GUSH.!

    on February 4th, 2009 at 7:12 pm

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