Pan-African Television broadcaster, MultiChoice Group has said that its subsidiaries have reached a settlement with Nigerian tax authorities and have agreed to pay a total tax of about $37.3 million.
In a statement, the South African entertainment company said, “The total tax amount of $35.4 billion which MultiChoice Nigeria and MultiChoice Africa Holdings will pay will be offset against the security deposits and good faith payments made to date.”
The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, had in 2022 frozen MultiChoice Nigeria’s accounts and served MultiChoice Group with a N1.8 trillion ($1.27 billion) tax claim for its Nigerian operation and a $342 million claim for value-added taxes.
The broadcaster owns DStv, GOtv, Showmax, M-Net, SuperSport, Irdeto, and KingMakers and offers services to over 23.5 million households in 50 markets across sub-Saharan Africa.
Formerly, MultiChoice had operations in the Scandinavian, Benelux, Italy, Eastern Europe, Greek & Cypriot regions under the Filmnet TV service, Egypt under CNE, Cable Network of Egypt, Middle East under Gulf TV and Arab Radio and Television Network & Thailand under UBC, United Broadcasting Corporation.
In 2020, MultiChoice had a total subscriber base of 20.1 million viewers throughout Africa, and it was asserted that MultiChoice was one of the fastest growing pay-TV operators globally.
