Following The Point’s report in October 2016 that the owners of DStv and GOtv, Multichoice Nigeria, would increase the monthly subscription rate of its pay TVs, which it denied, the company has hiked its prices by five per cent. Nigerians across different sectors and status have cried out, describing the hike as a burden introduced to fleece Nigerians. Here are some of their views:
Dr. Akin Osuntusa, Excel Medical Centre
The way Nigeria and her citizens are being treated by foreign companies, especially the ones from South Africa, is terrible and unfair. Increasing rate by 5 per cent few months after it reduced rates in other African nations is inhuman and unjust. I believe they are cheating people. For instance, if you subscribe now and you are not around, your data keeps reading without you using it. I don’t think they should even increase, I think they should rather reduce and rebuild their network.
I think it is rather wrong, coupled with the way they are treating our citizens in their country. The company argues that it increased the rates because the exchange rate of Naira to Dollar is high, but I think that is confusing. How come it did not increase rate when Naira was over N500 to a dollar? My conclusion is that it is a cheat.
Mr. Jide Adebayo, Surveyor
I think since we are facing positive changes in the value of dollar to naira and the economy in general, there should be no reason to increase the subscription rates. I think this is partial on our own side in Nigeria. Even if they are increasing their rate, it shouldn’t have been in our country, because they have many customers here. Many Nigerians subscribe to this network.
Mrs. Olufunke King, civil servant
The development will affect their sales and reduce patronage here in Nigeria. If they cannot consider the fact that Nigerians are encountering recession, then they will lose patronage in this part of Africa. They should look at their customers view before taking any step or else they will be affected. We all know that the last thing an average Nigerian wants to invest in is subscribing to DSTV and others because of financial constraint. If they decide to increase, they should be ready to lose patronage.
Mrs. Folashade Adegbenro, business woman
For me, they are being partial. Even with the present tariff, for us that we do not have electricity in our community, it is unfair. Something we are paying for that we can’t enjoy, not to talk of increasing it. I have three decoders in my house and I can’t recharge one because the money is too much and I’m not enjoying it. I only go for DSTV when I put on our generator. If not for my husband, I’m sorry, I won’t go on DSTV again and the likes, because they are too expensive. To cap it all, even when I’m not using my cable, the tariff reads.
Dr. Sola Ademiluka, senior lecturer, Kogi State University, Akungba
When I heard the news, I made up my mind to stop using DStv. In fact, I have been using DSTV for a long time and set to boycott the service. I want to change to another operator because its prices are too high for me. Multichoice Nigeria and South Africa are not sensitive to what is going on in town because other people are actually reducing their prices.
My family resides in another place, but do not use DSTV. They are using Strong and per month it costs 850-900 Naira, but DSTVs lowest price is N1800 Naira but you can’t even view all channels. For this reason I’m leaving this network.
