Follow Us on Google Discover
Multichoice’s recent notification that there would be a price increase in subscription fees triggered a lot of reactions among Nigerians, mostly negative. Going by the new price, DStv Premium package will now cost N21,000, DStv Compact plus will cost N14,250, Compact package will cost N9,000, Confam will cost N5,300, Yanga will go for N2,950, and DStv Padi will cost N2,150.
There is a similar price increase across the Gotv packages too. Gotv Max will sell at N4,150, GOtv Jolli for N2,800, GOtv Jinja for N1,900, and GOtv Lite for N900.
The explanation that this increase is necessitated by the rising costs of business operations, fell on deaf ears, even though most people can attest to the rising cost of living. Nigerians would not be pacified. As far as they were concerned, no reason could be acceptable for increasing the price of valued service. At the core of the complaints is that Multichoice is only exploiting subscribers in Nigeria with these higher prices.
As a subscriber myself, I got curious and decided to find out if it was true. As far as I was concerned, there could be no justification for charging Nigerians higher for the same service. Life is hard enough for Nigerians, and if there is anything a Cable TV should be doing for Nigerian subscribers, it would be to reduce the charge so that they can afford quality entertainment to take their minds off everyday worries.
Also Read
To get the subscription fees in other countries, I checked the DSTVAfrica website and checked the fees for the DStv subscriptions across the different African countries where the services are offered. Multichoice offers its PayTV services across 10 different African countries and each country is charged its subscription fees in their local currency. To make the comparison easier, I converted all of the fees to US dollars, and decided to focus on the two most expensive packages – DStv Premium and DStv Compact plus. Here is what I found.
It is easy to see from the above that Nigerians are not paying more when compared to other countries. If anything, Nigerians have been paying less when compared to the other countries. Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania are the biggest spenders on Multichoice services, and they pay $80, $79.77 and $79.41 respectively for the Premium package. This is the same product that Nigerians will be paying $50.49 for, in the new price regime.
The same goes for the Compact plus package where Nigerians will now be paying $34.26 compared to Ethiopia’s $54, Uganda’s $52.96 and Tanzania’s $52.87. On the Compact Plus package, only subscribers in South Africa in Ghana will be spending less. I felt more than a little relief at my findings.
If some Nigerians complain that they are paying more, it is certainly not in comparison to other African countries, as we can now see. Perhaps, they mean paying more relative to earlier prices of the service.
A customer wrote on Twitter that he could not believe that the price of the DSTV Premium Package had risen from N9,000 in 2009 to N18,400 in 2020, and now N21,000 with effect from April 2022. From a customer perspective, that might be spending more but in real monetary value, it could be that ‘more is less’.
As a multinational business, Multichoice runs all its expenses and costs of production in foreign currencies. Purchasing viewing rights, equipment and other logistics are made in dollar terms, so the comparison of subscription prices over the last decade would be better understood in dollar terms as well.
This comparison unearths even more shocking facts. While it may seem like we are paying more in naira terms, the price of Multichoice service to Nigerians has actually fallen over the years. The N9,000 paid for the DStv Premium package in 2010 was actually worth $73.65, whereas the new price of N21,000 is worth $50.49 going by the current exchange rate of the naira to the dollar.
In real terms, the price of DStv subscription package to Nigerians has not increased. The free fall of the naira against the dollar caused the company to increase its price in order to meet up with its financial obligations which it pays in dollars.
Nigerians are paying less?
Yes, we actually are. It may not feel like it, considering the heat from the inflation, rise in fuel price, rising cost of food and transportation among others, but we are paying less. When compared to our counterparts in other countries, we are paying less for Multichoice services. When compared to what we paid in 2009, we are paying even way less than we want to admit.
With such understanding, I began to appreciate that Multichoice has tried to bear the brunt this long. It would probably be the wise thing to take advantage of the concessions Multichoice has made for customers who pay before their due date or pay 10 months upfront. Because experience shows that the naira has hardly made sustained gains over the dollars for long.
Article was written by Abiola Banjo. Banjo is a financial analyst with over 10 years experience and is based in Lagos.
Your findings was correct in respect of subscription in Nigeria and other Countries, but going by largest subscribers, Nigeria is rated no 1, they have millions customers/viewers than other countries, so let our old price be
Abiola, thanks a million for this. I am equally a subscriber (to the Premium bouquet plus Xtra View) and was of the view that I was paying too much. Your detailed analysis and breakdown is however clear and difficult to argue against. This is the question I’ve also asked about the cost of refining 1 litre of petrol in Nigeria. We may never get an answer for obvious reasons. Keep up the good work. Regards.
I totally disagree with Abiola Banjo analysis.
This is what we call kangaroo analysis. In your analysis you did not take into account the minimum wage in the country, you did not consider Nigeria Subscriber base vis a vis other countries. DSTV subscribers in Lagos State alone supercedes that of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya put together. Meaning Multichoice rake more money in Nigeria than in other regions of Africa put together.
Now, you said we pay less; alright do the arithmetic, convert N21,000 to Ghana cedi, then convert the amount you get to US Dollar. Tell us what is your answer.
You said it all. There is no basis for comparism if the writer failed to consider Nigeria customer base to that of other countries. Also, looking at what multichoice give back in other countries, how many of those happened in Nigeria, and we’re the largest consumer of their products. In marketing analysis, penetrating pricing strategy is a function of the consumer base. Therefore. Multichoice should stop cheating us in Nigeria.
Why use the official exchange rate. How many Nigerian can access usd at the official rate?
Er…using the unofficial or black market rate would make the Nigerian rates even CHEAPER in dollar terms – and most of DSTV’s programming and equipment are sourced in dollars and not in Naira.
This analysis can not be complete until you tell us the duration and terms of subscription. Is it a pay as you go on data basis? or a fixed pay not bound to data consumption.
How do these differ by Country?
But there are no new programs on DSTV especially for compact and other lower viewers. Nothing interesting to watch. They keep recycling old outdated programs.
Then do not subscribe, simple! Is it by force to subscribe to DSTV. Go watch NTA for free!
Not sure why the Nigerian government treats DSTV as if it is electricity, water or some sort of public utility. If they put in even half as much effort in making education cheap, Nigeria would be in much better shape. But I guess if gullible Nigerians are busy watching EPL, they won’t notice the country is going to hell in a handbasket.
Oga go and sit down! Which one is gullible Nigerians watching EPL? What has a “Not gullible” Nigerian done to better his immediate environment. You would just come here and be capping nonsense
How many million people are using DStv in other countries? Like Nigerians
I totally disagree with you analysis of price comparison vis a vis Nigeria and other African countries. You don’t take price in isolation. What’s the number of subscribers in Nigeria to all these other countries. How much is Multichoice making in Nigeria in comparison to the countries mentioned. What justification do they have to jack up price from N18k to N21k.
Thank you so much @adetunji, I guess the writer is working for multichoice, how many subscriber to they have in all this country put together, and compare to that of Nigeria.
How much is Multichoice SPENDING in Nigeria as opposed to those other African countries? Why do so many of the comments here seem to misguidedly believe that there’s no cost for customer acquisition, service and support? Even just the cost of running generators 24/7 across Nigeria is probably higher than the aggregate cost of revenue in most of these other nations. Nigeria is a HIGH COST territory.
Great work and analysis. Fact is Nigerians are living in denial. How many of the people complaining here are running businesses in this clime? If they are, can they categorically state that they have not implemented new tariff, increase in their sales/services ? In a country where you have to practically source for everything yourself, how do we think Multichoice is coping ? We attack foreign investors who have nurtured their businesses over time, kept working despite the unfriendly environs and we keep quiet at the insanity and continuous pilfering of funds by our government officials. Our basic amenities have also taken a hit, consider the cost of water, food stuffs , transportation . Even the fees for entertainment has increased. Not talking about Power , Education ,Oil and Gas which have all witnessed major increases. Have we gone to the National assembly to complain/protest? We should face the reality and fight for the future not the distractions. Well done, 9jarealist. Nigeria needs to wake up!
Nice one. My problem is the guv are not supposed to tell them when to increase or not increase price, it send wrong signals. We should sponsor a Nigerian own TV to divide the market with them
We should NOT be “sponsoring” any Nigerian owned TV channel – any more than we should be “sponsoring” ranches for cattle herders. It’s a PRIVATE business, and anyone who feels they can do better, or successfully charge less than Multichoice for the same bouquet and still make profits, should risk their own money – not taxpayers!
Btw, there has already been Nigerian competitors to Multichoice, such as Hi-TV (and there are others with operating licenses), but after taking huge bank loans and successfully bidding for the EPL, they merely burdened Nigerians with poor quality, crap programming and saddled Nigerian taxpayers with huge AMCON liabilities.
Tstv ti take over,I use it and I enjoy it
This Annalise I totally not agree with you. Number one how many people are using this gotv DStv in those countries compere to Nigeria. Thanks
When is the last time this company buy new movie they don’t buy new movie all they keep doing is repeating same movie’s all Nigerians are not foolish
Then, use your POWER as a consumer and quit subscribing and go watch NTA for free! Instead of the National Assembly to be bothered by the cost of education, they are fixated on the cost of DSTV. What a joke!
I how you know movie rights are not always available breeches someone else has bought them. Possible Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Besides new movies always have some months delay before they hit services like dstv. In some cases up to 6 months. And dstv may choose to wait longer till its cheaper before buying it to let the tariffs lower.
There are so many things people don’t know about how the industry works and how prices are set (including myself), but all we want is for prices to go down.
I wonder how many people here operating a business have not increased prices in the last 12 months!
Why using exchange rate of 415 Naira, when you know in the real sense Nigerians are getting usd at 500 NGN above for bank rate and 570 NGN at black market. Nigerians are paying more baba
Are Nigerians getting dollars to pay for DSTV? In fact, using the black market rate makes the Nigerian rates even CHEAPER. Meanwhile, DSTV is acquiring programming and equipment in dollars.