STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBA migration project at a cost of $273 million. This financing is in the form of a loan and government decided that instead of having the burden of repaying the loan, the funds must be raised from operations of facilities to be established,” she said. iii If this clarification means what is said and says what is meant, then maybe there is good enough reason and justification for the deal. However, misgivings concerning the deal still abound in the sector and among stakeholders, and especially the way it was executed as well as the way it is being implemented. The lack of an all-inclusive and consultative process to get the point of signing is what has caused the persistent apprehensions among those concerned. In time, the entire truth will come out and the full extent of the truthfulness, and benefits or losses shall be known to all. According to media reports and stakeholders, this deal was nothing short of a takeover of a very strategic institution by a foreign entity using dubious means. This disadvantages the state broadcaster as the TopStar Company would be collecting all advertising revenues and broadcast tower rentals to recover the loan due. As a result of the anticipated hit on the finances of ZNBC, it is alleged that government had already issued a directive to hike the TV Levy to K12 from the K3 currently charged. Research further showed that under the agreement, TopStar would hold 60 per cent of the shares while ZNBC would only retain 40 per cent stake which is contrary to the regulation establishing joint ventures in the country which stipulates that a foreign entity can never own a commanding share portfolio. Further, the coming of TopStar has been taunted by various stakeholders that it was going to bring uncompetitive pricing in the broadcast sector since the company will under the agreement enjoy sole distributorship of the decoders in Zambia. This according to pundits will most likely force out long time industry/sector players such as MultiChoice which had hitherto this deal been enjoying a cordial business relationship with ZNBC. As a result of the confusion ensuing from the agreement, GOTv which is a subsidiary of MultiChoice sued ZNBC and TopStar over the alleged blocking of some free to air channels carried by it. GOTv had asked the High Court to restrain ZNBC from disconnecting their services and from continuing to encrypt the signal transmitted by free-to-air content providers. GOTv further asked the Court to declare the operation of public signal distribution network by TopStar illegal and unlawful.iv Such legal challenges to the undertaking only go further to show that something was not done right in the deal. How else would one interpret this if not that due diligence was not undertaken to take care of such eventualities. Ultimately, the most affected entity in such sagas is the consumer of the content who are the general public. The proposed hike in the TV Levy is also 8|Page