The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has directed MultiChoice Nigeria to maintain its current subscription prices until the ongoing investigation into its proposed price hike is concluded.
According to a statement from the Commission, this directive follows Multichoice Nigeria’s request for an extension regarding its scheduled appearance before the consumer protection watchdog.
Nairametrics earlier reported that the FCCPC had summoned the leadership of Multichoice over its announcement of price increment across its DStv and GOtv packages effective from March 1.
The Chief Executive Officer of MultiChoice Nigeria was to attend an investigative hearing at the FCCPC headquarters on Thursday, February 27, 2025.
Hearing rescheduled
The FCCPC noted that while it has granted the request, the company is now required to attend the rescheduled investigative hearing on March 6, 2025, along with all relevant officers and a comprehensive response.
“Pursuant to this, MultiChoice is expressly instructed to maintain the existing price structure as of February 27, 2025, pending the Commission’s review and final determination on the matter,” the Commission stated.
It added that maintaining the status quo on pricing is essential to prevent any potential consumer harm during this period.
Backstory
- Multichoice Nigeria had on Monday notified its customers of another price increment across its subscription packages on both DStv and GOtv.
- In a notice sent to its customers, the company said the new price regime is to take effect from March 1, 2025.
- According to the company, the latest price review will hike the DStv Compact bouquet from N15,700 to N19,000, representing a 25% increase.
- The Compact Plus package will also increase from N25,000 to N30,000, which is 20% increment.
- For the highest package, DStv Premium, the company said the subscription price will go up from N37,000 to N44,500, which also represents a 20% increment.
- GOtv customers, who currently pay N3,600 for the Jinja package will now pay N3,900, while the tariff on GOtv Jolli will rise from N4,850 to N5,800.
- The GOtv Max package will now cost N8,500 instead of the current N7,200, while GOtv Supa will cost N11,400 from the current N9,600. The GOtv Supa Plus package will now go for N16,800 instead of the current N15,700.
What you should know
The latest price increment came despite the huge loss of subscribers lost by the Pay-TV company last year due to multiple price increments.
- Beyond its usual annual price increment, Multichoice had increased its prices twice in 2023, one in April and another in November of the same year.
- Last year, the company implemented another price increment on May 1, which sparked outrage from customers and was even challenged at the Consumer Protection Tribunal (CPT) by aggrieved subscribers.
- As of September 2024, Multichoice Group reported that its Nigerian operation lost 243,000 subscribers across its DStv and GOtv services in the six months covering April to September.
The company, however, blamed the loss of subscribers on the high inflation in Nigeria at over 30% at that time, driven by the high cost of food, electricity, and fuel.
According to Multichoice, this forced many of its customers to ditch their decoders.
