Senate asks MultiChoice to reduce prices of GOtv, DStv packages

The Senate has asked MultiChoice to reduce its prices of both GOtv and DStv subscriptions in line with the economic situation of the country.

The Senate also asked the company to introduce a subscription model that will allow Nigerians to pay per view.

It would be recalled that last week, Multichoice increased the prices of DStv and GOtv packages.

But during its plenary on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, Senator Abba Moro, a lawmaker representing Benue south raised a motion on the recent price increase by the company.

The lawmaker argued that “MultiChoice Nigeria willfully and perpetually increases the cost of its bundles because there is no regulation whatsoever in the area of fixing rates”.

He added that “Without recourse to the economic situation of the country, MultiChoice has again raised the cost of DStv and GOtv bundles.

“Nigerians are demanding that, rather than paying fixed rates for packages monthly, pay-TV service providers should introduce a subscription model which allows subscribers pay-per-view to enable them to match their TV consumption to subscription as it is with the case of electricity metering and mobile telephony.”

Commenting on the motion, Barau Jibrin, senator representing Kano north, said regulators should prevent pay television companies from increasing the prices of their packages incessantly.

Jibrin said, “Permit me to commend the mover of this Motion and to say that I support the content in its entirety. The people of this country are being short changed by pay-tv.

“They increase fees whenever they like without considering the service they provide to Nigerians. Their service is poor, they don’t give what Nigerians are supposed to have.

“Because of the nature of electricity we have in this country, sometimes someone will pay but lack of light won’t allow the person enjoy such services yet once the month ends, that money goes. There should be a system where there will be pay-per-view.

“Again, the regulators should do the needful by not allowing increase of fees by these entities the way they like. It is not in the interest of our people. I thereby support this motion because we need to stand for the interest of our people.”

Following the adoption of the motion, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan said Multichoice can’t constantly increase prices in other countries.

The Senate, therefore, directed all pay-tv service providers in Nigeria to immediately review their bouquet prices downwards.

The Senate also the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, and the Nigerian Communications Commission to direct all pay-tv providers to introduce a pay-per-view model of subscription against the month-to-month prepaid model presently in place.