LONDON: MultiChoice Africa’ Digital Satellite Television (DStv) planned tariff hike from April 1 while Nigerians warn that they may ditch the pay-tv platform if it goes ahead with the increase.
Daily Times gathered that some customers on this platform blamed the government for failing to call MultiChoice Africa with over two million subscribers in Nigeria to order when on March 3, 2015 it announced a price increase for DStv to take effect from April 1. The price increase will set the DStv premium, which is currently at $77/monthly to $81/monthly. The increment is the same across other DStv packages and bouquets, and between five per cent to 10 per cent increase, but comes with ShortsTV, Ginx TV and Eurochannel as additional channels.
Emmanuel Balogun, Lagos based businessman said that even though the increase is uncalled for as a customer using GOtv, the company is bound to face strict competition from ACTv, StarTimes or ConSat decoder as people begin to shift over to these platforms. Tayo Demola a Lagos civil servant lamented that DStv does not have any major infrastructure investment in Nigeria because they are using satellite signal, therefore, increase in tariff may in the long run may bring the all expected competition just like the Mobile Number Portability introduced in the telecom sector in Nigeria.
Public Relations Manager at MultiChoice Nigeria, Ms. Caroline Oghuma, declared in a press statement that “MultiChoice implements annual subscription price increase in all its operating countries, however, a price increase was not implemented in Nigeria last year.” Director and Head, Public Affairs at the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Awwalu Salihu said that Commission had received several complaints from subscribers of the Multichoice Nigeria services of DSTV, and Details Nigeria Limited of GOTV, expressing their dissatisfaction over the proposed increase in subscription fees by the companies. Salihu revealed that the purpose of setting up the NBC to regulate broadcasting is to ensure that the Nigerian public, on whose behalf it is managing the spectrum, gets served well. It willbe recalled thatNigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has ensured that Nigerians will get fair and better service from all service providers.
