Go-Cast Enterprise
What a ministry satellite TV channel really costs, and what your own TV apps cost instead
A ministry cannot get an NBC licence, so a satellite channel means a licence, uplink and capacity abroad, priced in foreign currency, and a schedule that never stops. Your own TV apps are priced in hosting and bandwidth. Here is what each line actually is.
In short: Nigerian law does not let the NBC license a religious organisation, so a ministry's satellite channel has to be licensed and uplinked from outside Nigeria. It then costs a foreign licence or registration, uplink and satellite capacity paid for in foreign currency, a playout operation that fills every hour of the day, and whatever a pay-TV or free-to-air platform charges to carry you. A ministry running its own television apps over the internet pays instead for hosting, streaming bandwidth and the apps themselves, and can broadcast only when it has something to say. Satellite still reaches homes with no internet; your own apps reach anyone with a connection, on the television, phone and computer, under your own name.
Most ministries that ask about television ask the wrong first question. "How much is a channel?" has no single answer, because a satellite channel is not one purchase. It is four or five separate commitments, several of them recurring and one of them priced in dollars. Here they are, one at a time.
The cost lines of a satellite TV channel
A Nigerian ministry cannot hold a broadcasting licence of its own. Section 10 of the National Broadcasting Commission Act bars the Commission from granting a licence to a religious organisation, and to a political party. That is why ministry satellite channels watched in Nigeria are licensed and uplinked from outside the country, then beamed back in and carried on satellite platforms.
So the cost lines of a ministry satellite channel are all, in practice, foreign ones:
- Licence or registration abroad: in the country the channel is uplinked from, on that regulator's terms, renewed whether or not the channel is earning its keep.
- Uplink and satellite capacity abroad: leased from a teleport and a satellite operator, quoted in US dollars or another foreign currency, so the naira cost moves with the exchange rate.
- Playout: a channel is expected to be on air continuously, which means programming, scheduling and people to run it for every hour of every day, not only Sunday morning.
- Carriage: being placed on a pay-TV bouquet or a free-to-air platform is negotiated with that platform, and the terms are theirs to change.
- Production: cameras, a control room and a crew, which you need whichever way you distribute.
Carriage is the line ministries underestimate, because it is the one they do not control. In January 2024 one of Nigeria's best-known ministry channels was removed from a major pay-TV platform. Years of audience-building on that platform did not travel with it.
The cost lines of your own TV apps
Running your own television channel over the internet removes the foreign licence, the uplink and the satellite capacity entirely. What you pay for instead is a platform and the bandwidth your viewers use. With Go-Cast Enterprise, that is a dedicated deployment on your own domain: live video and a video-on-demand archive, delivered to apps for Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, Samsung and LG televisions, alongside your phone and web apps.
- Set-up: the deployment provisioned, your branding applied to every app, each app submitted to its store and taken through review, and a verified first broadcast before you go public.
- Running costs: hosting and streaming bandwidth, monitoring, backups, platform updates, and keeping the apps current as Apple, Google and the television makers change their requirements.
- Production: the same cameras and crew as before. Distribution changes; making the programme does not.
Go-Cast Enterprise is priced by quotation rather than on a public price list, because the bandwidth a ministry needs depends on how many people watch and for how long. The quotation covers the set-up and the yearly service, so the comparison with satellite can be made line by line.
Satellite channel and own TV apps, side by side | Satellite TV channel | Your own TV apps (Go-Cast Enterprise) |
|---|
| Licence | Not available to a ministry in Nigeria (NBC Act, section 10); licensed and uplinked abroad instead | No satellite licence or uplink: delivered over the internet |
| Biggest recurring cost | Satellite capacity and uplink, usually priced in US dollars | Hosting and streaming bandwidth, which grow with your audience |
| Hours on air | Continuous, so every hour needs programming | Live when you have something to broadcast, with an on-demand archive in between |
| Where viewers watch | Homes with a dish and decoder | Smart TVs, TV sticks, phones and browsers, anywhere with internet |
| Whose name is on it | A channel number inside someone else's line-up | Your own apps in the app stores, under your name |
| Who can switch you off | The carrying platform, on its own terms | Nobody but you, short of a store policy breach |
| Countries reached | One region per satellite footprint; worldwide coverage needs several satellites, each leased and carried separately | Every country with an internet connection, at no extra cost per country |
| Viewers without internet | Reached | Not reached |
One satellite covers one region
A satellite broadcasts to its footprint: a continent, or part of one. A ministry that wants to reach Nigeria, Europe and North America by satellite needs a satellite, or a beam, for each region, and every one is leased and paid for separately, often with its own carriage arrangements. Covering the whole world takes several.
An internet channel has no footprint. The same app on a smart television in Lagos, London, Houston or Johannesburg plays the same service, live or on demand, and adding a country costs nothing extra.
A satellite channel reaches one region per satellite, each leased separately. Your own channel reaches every country with an internet connection — Lagos, London and Houston on the same app, at no extra cost per country.
When satellite is still the right answer
If a large part of the people you serve watch through a decoder and have little or no mobile data, satellite reaches them and the internet does not. Video over the internet uses data, several hundred megabytes an hour even at modest quality, and in many homes that is a real cost. A ministry whose congregation is mainly rural, older and offline should weigh that honestly.
For most urban ministries, and for any ministry with members abroad, the balance has moved. Smart televisions and inexpensive TV sticks have put an app store in the living room, and a member in Houston or Manchester was never going to find you on a Nigerian decoder anyway.
Satellite rents you a slot in someone else's line-up. Your own apps put your name in the app store.
A sensible way to decide
- Count where your viewers actually are: in Nigeria with a decoder, in Nigeria with data, or abroad.
- Price the satellite route in full, from the foreign licence and uplink to carriage, and convert every foreign-currency line at a pessimistic exchange rate.
- Ask for an internet-television quotation sized to your real audience, not a theoretical one.
- If you can afford both, many ministries keep a satellite presence for reach and add their own apps for ownership and the diaspora.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a satellite TV channel cost in Nigeria?
There is no single price, and none of it is a Nigerian licence: the NBC Act bars licences to religious organisations, so a ministry channel is licensed and uplinked abroad. You pay for that foreign licence or registration, uplink and satellite capacity priced in foreign currency, a continuous playout operation, and any fee a platform charges to carry the channel.
Can a church get an NBC broadcasting licence?
No. Section 10 of the National Broadcasting Commission Act bars the Commission from granting a broadcasting licence to a religious organisation or a political party. Ministries reach Nigerian viewers by buying airtime on licensed stations, by satellite channels licensed and uplinked abroad, or over the internet.
Can a church have its own TV channel without satellite?
Yes. A ministry can broadcast live video and keep an on-demand archive through its own apps on Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, Samsung and LG televisions, reaching viewers over the internet. Go-Cast Enterprise provides this as a dedicated deployment under the ministry's own name.
Can our church channel be watched all over the world?
By satellite, only within the footprint of each satellite you lease, so worldwide coverage needs several satellites, each paid for separately. Over the internet, yes: your own apps play your channel in every country with an internet connection, at no extra cost per country.
Do viewers need a decoder or subscription?
No. Viewers install the ministry's app on a smart TV or TV stick, or use the phone and web apps. They need an internet connection, which is the main limitation compared with satellite.
Is Go-Cast Enterprise the same as Go-Cast Audio?
No. Go-Cast Audio is a self-serve live audio platform with public plans. Go-Cast Enterprise is a separate, dedicated deployment that adds live video, television apps and branded apps under the ministry's own name, and is priced by quotation.
Ask for a Go-Cast Enterprise quotation
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