This was written By Asuquo Eton
He gave the following reasons why he thinks Dstv had to increase it's rate by April 2015
It is no longer news that
MultiChoice, owners and operators
of DStv and GOtv platforms in
Nigeria will be increasing their
monthly subscription fees for all its
satellite/DTT bouquets with effect
from Wednesday 1 April, 2015.
The subscription fee of DStv’s
Premium, Compact Plus, Compact,
Family, Access and Xtra View
bouquets are all set to increase, as
is the price for GOtv and GOtv Plus
bouquets.
So before we rush to pass blame on
the company, take a minute or two
to read an industry expert’s
informed analysis after taking a
deeper and more objective look at
the situation to draw conclusion at
five good reasons why we shouldn’t
blame MultiChoice on the price
review.
1. Inflation:
Nigerians continue to rue the
devaluation of the naira, coupled
with falling oil prices different
reactions have also pointed in
the direction of the country’s
inability to contain the plunging
oil prices and high inflation
because Nigeria is an import-
dependent country.
These economic forces are
beginning to impact businesses
(including MultiChoice). In both the
short and long run the ripple effect
will be felt by businesses. As banks’
lending rates increase,
organizations’ profit margin will be
eroded. Once that happens measures
will have to be taken to cover cost,
shore-up bottom-line and more
importantly assure businesses
profitability and continuity. The
adversely effect of inflation on any
business let alone a capital
intensive one like Pay TV cannot be
over emphasized. Alternatively,
MultiChoice would be left with no
other choice but to take drastic
measures, that may include;
– To re-strategize its business model
by cutting down on its huge
investments in Sports, Nollywood
and Corporate Social Responsibility
projects.
– To downsize its workforce.
– To reduce the acquisition of
contents, channels and compromise
the quality of its programming.
Last year Eutelsat agreed a multi-
transponder deal with MultiChoice,
designed to secure the “continuing
expansion” of MultiChoice’s DStv
pay TV platform over the next 15
years. That deal costs millions and
is being paid in U.S. dollars not
taking into account the free falling
Naira.
Premium content is not cheap:
Perhaps that is the most often
said phrase in the media
business and that might be the
reason why it tells a major part
of the story of DStv’s dominance
in content. The pay TV business
around the world majorly is
driven not just by content but,
at the top end, by the quality of
such content and that doesn’t
come cheap.
Have you tried to regulate the rising
airline fares or asked business class
seat be made available to all
passengers? Nigerians did not
boycott power supply when PHCN
increased tariff in spite of the
epileptic supply of electricity across
the county. How about the cost of
toothpaste or the rising cost of
bread? Why should you to pay less
for premium content? Have you
ever bought a product at premium
price and redistributed it at no
cost?
People talk about DStv being a
monopoly. How can they be a
monopoly when StarTimes (StarSat)
just recently won the rights for the
German Bundesliga from DStv
(starting 2015/2016 season).
Is it the fault of DStv that it has
continually executed a brilliant
strategy of signing multi-year, pan-
African content licensing deals that
enables it offer premium content to
its subscribers? Where is the
monopoly? There are alternatives in
Nigeria’s Pay TV industry, When
HiTV had the rights to the EPL,
these same Nigerians constantly
complained about the quality of the
studio guests/analysts, the broadcast
quality etc. Without deviating from
the subject matter, it’s obvious to all
today that the business model
employed by HiTV was its very
Achilles heel? Where are they now?
Suggesting that any Pay TV operator
offer premium content at a less
than cost value price is ludicrous
and most be discouraged.
3. Piracy:
When thinking about piracy,
most people think of the harm it
has caused the film and music
industry and don’t consider the
impact it has had on television.
Piracy is a growing problem in
Nigeria and the nature of the
Internet has made it one
increasingly too difficult to deal
with.
This means a direct loss of
advertising dollars to the television
companies. This loss of money then
impacts the ability and willingness
of television studios to invest in
new shows. If they cannot generate
a return through advertising dollars,
there is no profit to creating new
and interesting shows.
In a joint effort to combat piracy in
Nigeria, MultiChoice and the
Nigerian Copyright Commission
embarked on a phase out of non-
secure decoders with a series of
FREE decoder swoops, and
introduced more secure decoders
for the transmission of DStv signals
that currently sell at a low rate of
11,500 Naira.
It is agreed allowing piracy to thrive
impacts the economic situation in
the country and deprives many
people in the value chain of their
appropriate income including DStv.
The decision to introduce a more
secure decoder will go a long way to
curb anti-piracy operations across
Nigeria.
4. High cost of doing business in
Nigeria:
To the uninitiated, the promise
of growth, high returns on
investment are good enough
reason to want to invest in an
emerging market economy like
Nigeria, but not so for those who
have had a taste of the bitter
pill, especially the high cost
associated with running
businesses in this country.
Despite assurances by
government of better operating
business environment, there is
still lack of infrastructure, power
supply, inability to access funds,
and multiple taxation.
MultiChoice’s platforms, DStv and
GOtv are dependent on raising
money from subscription priced to
match their ever growing
operational costs.
Despite all these the company has
continued to reaffirm its
commitment to Nigeria which is
clearly demonstrated through the
massive investments in the country.
5. The increase is not new to only
Nigeria:
How can people say that DStv
has substandard decoders? Have
they seen the competition’s
decoders? Perhaps they need to
do so.
DStv in Nigeria is one of the lower
priced packages across all
MultiChoice operations in Africa. Its
operations across Africa have
increased prices including South
Africa.
While the company needs to offer
its subscribers affordable digital
entertainment, they also have to
make sure their business can
survive well into the future.
Many DStv subscribers have asked
why they can’t just pick and choose
TV channels and pay for those (Pay
Per View), well, that also will not
come cheap to subscribers.
I understand that subscribers feel
they will save more money if they
could choose only the channels they
want to watch. Unfortunately this is
not the case. It’s actually more cost
effective to structure channels into
packages.
In reality, choosing your own
package with your own channel
selection would mean you’d end up
paying more than you are now (and
for just a few channels). That’s why
MultiChoice offers a range of
packages with different fees and
channel combinations – to cater for
the viewing choice and pocket of a
wide range of their customer
To conclude, just as with HiTV, it
should not be the fault of DStv that
the other pay TV operators do not
live up to expectation. Why is it
okay for the cost of every
commodity in Nigeria to rise, save
for DStv? Is it a social service?
Nigerians should not always put the
blame of years of poor governance
and bad business decisions on DStv.
We should note that it’s a free
market and the regulators give
licenses to all who qualify. Consat,
Montage, DaarSat, StarTimes, ACTV
all have licenses to operate, so they
should operate! Rather than seeking
to bring down DStv, who has paid
its dues and kept Nigerians
entertained over the past 21 years.
People need to seek more
knowledge on the pay TV business
before disseminating false
information or jumping on the band
wagon of sheer ignorance.

Ehn ehn, really??

This will also affect the price of kongo of garri o any minute from now

Op, u forget to add nepa light
Naija always on generator
we are doomed!!!!!

ceejay80s:
Op, u forget to add nepa light
Naija always on generator
we are doomed!!!!!

Na so

Bro,e be lyk say na dere u dey work ohhhh!
Some of d things u said are true,but there price is too high joor considering d range of customer dat patronizes them!

Bro,e be lyk say na dere u dey work ohhhh!
Some of d things u said are true,but there prices are too high joor considering d range of customers dat patronizes them!

Tobechuckwu:
Bro,e be lyk say na dere u dey work ohhhh!
Some of d things u said are true,but there prices are too high joor considering d range of customers dat patronizes them!

I don't work with them but that's the truth. there are alternatives anyway but not like dstv