Mr. John Ugbe is the Managing Director of MultiChoice Nigeria. In this interview with ABIOLA ODUTOLA, he identifies the industry’s challenges, and clears the air on some allegations levelled against the company. Excerpts:
Several Nigerian subscribers to your products have called for the adoption of the ‘Pay as you Consume’ model. Some claim that lack of power supply makes it difficult to catch up with live shows. What is your take on this?
This issue has been on for a long time now. From a producer’s perspective, we have to buy the movie in full and we have to buy enough content to fill the channel and put it on air. That’s what the Pay-TV model prescribes anywhere in the world. The challenge is in the model of the business. We don’t know when your decoder is on or off. That makes it impossible to say I want to start billing because this customer has started viewing.
Can’t you borrow a leaf out of the telecommunication industry’s book?
The ‘Pay as you go’ is a mobile network term. The mobile operators have the technical resources to measure what is being used. For Pay-Tv, on the other hand, it is not the same thing. Last August, the Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing match was delayed for close to three hours. The reason was due to technicalities of pay-per-view in the United States. Pay-per-view for a fight like that would be $99 – that is more than your one-month subscription on Premium.
However, we buy the fight and aggregate it for our Premium subscribers, who were able to record it, even when the live event did not happen on schedule. What we encourage our subscribers to do is download ‘DStv Now’, and they can watch all the content on their current subscription on the go. You do not have to be bound by availability of power.
Some of your subscribers allege that your ‘pay for two months and get one month free’ is not true. Some of them complained they were not rewarded as promised. Is this true?
When we received feedback that some customers did not get the free month on schedule, we identified those customers that were affected and we fixed it. We introduced a new process, which helps to identify those who received the offer.
What are you doing to ensure that as soon as the payment drops, the channels come on immediately?
Our payment is automated and we encourage our customers to use our payment platforms such as eazy.dstv.com. This way, the customer can troubleshoot and resolve reconnection issues directly from their mobile phones without having to call into our call centre to be reconnected.
Clarity of signals is still a problem, especially as the rains begin. What are you doing to prevent frequent loss of signal?
Satellite signal from the KU Band is susceptible to weather. I have taken pictures of my TV screen when I was in New York or other parts of the world and I experienced interruption as a result of bad weather. It is not a peculiar problem. Your DSTV will work even with 40 per cent signal. There is the need to boost the signal to have less interruption. We also make available, quality cables to reduce interference. We recommend getting a certified installer to conduct regular checks to verify signal strength. Also, some dishes have not been checked for up to five years. Regular checks ensure that your dish works optimally, thereby reducing rain-fade.
There is an allegation that Multichoice Nigeria invests majorly in the entertainment sector as its Corporate Social Responsibility. Is this true?
We focus on Education, Health, Youth and Economic Empowerment. Our MultiChoice Resource Centre project is our education initiative and we have been active for the past 14 years. We work with the government of each state to select the beneficiary schools. We then provide audio-visual equipment (which include a dish, decoder with educational channels, TV, generating set, tables, chairs, UPS) to bring learning and school’s curriculum to life. The MRCs are present in over 400 schools across 33 states in Nigeria, and tens of thousands of students have benefitted from the centres since inception.
We implement our health responsibility by supporting the Sickle Cell Foundation. The statistics of how Sickle Cell Anaemia affects Nigerians paint a dire picture. The Foundation seeks funds to carry out research, as well as treat and inform sufferers.
Is there a way you can review the location of Big Brother Naija to ensure that it is domiciled in Nigeria?
Big Brother demands a lot of complexities and outfitting a house. For the Big Brother shows, we set up one facility for the Nigerian, Angolan and other editions. It makes sense from a production perspective. It is impractical to replicate sets across our operations in 49 African countries. We choose the best location for each specific production. Big Brother Naija’s production team is made up of 90 per cent Nigerians even though it wasn’t set in Nigeria. Speaking as a Nigerian and an advocate of Nigeria, we keep looking at what it entails to run it locally.
