THE sudden shutdown of GTV Namibia on Friday has sparked a frenzy amongst the pay TV broadcaster's subscribers in Namibia and other African countries.

Irate viewers are up in arms over the whistle being blown on their English Premier League coverage and subscription fees they have already paid.

Subscribers and GTV staff in 22 African countries were served with notice of termination a mere one and a half hours before GTV's signal was disconnected on Friday.

It followed the unexpected liquidation of Gateway Broadcast Services UK (GBS UK).

But all may not be lost for disappointed football fanatics who turned to GTV for the English Premier League after the broadcaster won 80 per cent of broadcast rights in Africa, leaving MultiChoice DStv - which

has a subscriber base of over three million - able to broadcast only 20 per cent of the League.

According to the UK-based paper, the Telegraph, "GTV's collapse means that the rights revert to the Premier League, which said it was looking to negotiate a sale of the rights to another broadcaster in time for next weekend."

MultiChoice, Africa's largest pay TV service, has yet to make a statement on the matter, with a spokesperson from MultiChoice Africa's communication department in South Africa only saying: "At this specific point in time, MultiChoice Africa reported that the news of GTV's closure announcement came as a surprise and we are not currently able to comment on the situation."

And GTV's closure didn't only come as a surprise to MultiChoice, but also to the broadcaster's subscribers and country managers.

Subscribers who contacted The Namibian expressed "shock", "astonishment", and concern about the termination of their GTV services, and more so about the subscription fees paid in advance.

Some had paid their subscription for February on Friday, the day on which services were terminated, and questioned why payment had been accepted, who was protecting the rights of the customers, and what was to become of their decoders.

When The Namibian spoke to Tania Frankle, GTV Namibia's Country Manager, she said the liquidation of GBS UK, of which GTV is a subsidiary, had come as a "bombshell" to the company, and that efforts were still being made to look at the case of subscribers "with absolute urgency".

The decision to liquidate GTV, which has over 100 000 subscribers in 22 African countries, was announced on Friday by the company's Board of Directors.

Country managers were informed of this decision during a 15h00 phone call on Friday, and by 16h30, services were cut off. Country managers were also instructed to vacate premises "without delay", and the communication stated that no logistical or operational arrangements had been put in place to effect the liquidation.

Frankle and GTV Namibia Director Jospeh Mwatotele, in a press release issued on Sunday, criticised the President of the GBS Group, Julian McIntyre, for his "dark silence" at a time where country managers had been caught off guard by the announcement, having to answer to their loyal subscribers, staff and stakeholders.

The Namibian Communications Commission (NCC) says the protection of subscribers in this matter is of utmost importance, and that this issue will be high on the agenda when it meets with representatives of GTV Namibia later this week.

"We will have a briefing regarding GTV's licence, as well as to discuss how those who invested in decoders for GTV will be refunded," said David Imbili, Director of the NCC.

"This was pay television, not free-to-air TV, and we would like to see to it that subscribers and suppliers of GTV's decoder sets are protected accordingly," Imbili stated.

GTV was awarded a five-year broadcast licence by the NCC in 2007, and is now terminating this licence less than two years later.

Frankle could not say how many Namibians had subscribed to GTV since its launch in October 2007.