The South-western chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has given MultiChoice Nigeria a seven-day ultimatum to reverse its planned increase of subscription rates for DSTV and GOTV services. In a statement released on Tuesday, NANS’ Coordinator, Adejuwon Olatunji, Deputy Coordinator, Alao John, and Public Relations Officer, Opeoluwa Awoyinfa expressed their opposition to the proposed hike.
According to MultiChoice, the prices for DSTV and GOTV packages will go up by 17% starting from May 1, 2023, due to rising costs of business operations. However, NANS believes that the increase will bring undue hardship to Nigerians and accused MultiChoice of exploiting them without regard to their standard of living. In their statement, the student association urged MultiChoice to reconsider its decision and switch to a “pay as you view” model for charging tariffs.
NANS statement reads, “Today, we are aware that Multi Choice Digital Satellite has increased its tariffs without considering the standard of living of Nigerians. We have also waited for long to see if this same company will dance to the music of Nigerians who have been clamouring for ‘pay-as-you-view’ tariff, but the reverse is the case.
“This is the time to call on National Broadcasting Commission to go back to the Commission’s act to regulate the ownership, activities and operations of Direct Broadcast Satellite Service Providers. DSTV is one of the leading direct-to-home service providers in Nigeria since its inception of operation from as far back as 1995, and has also made a lot of profit with over 25 million subscribers which is the largest market for its operations.
NANS further noted that: “We want the Federal Government to stampede their proposed plan in tariffs increment and also force them to implement the pay-as-you-view system. We are aware that DSTV operates a system of pay-as-you-go tariffs in other countries,”.
According to the statement, Nigeria makes up a significant portion of DSTV’s global market share, with over 45 percent. To address this, the statement called for the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the Minister of Communication to take action against MultiChoice’s monopoly on sports broadcasting in the country. Instead, they should create an alternative service provider so that Nigerians are not exploited on a daily basis.
“We hereby give seven days ultimatum to MultiChoice Digital Satellite Television to reverse the plan of increasing the tariffs and also yield to the call of Nigerians by implementing pay-as-you-view tariffs, or else, we shall be left with no other option but to lock up all offices of DSTV until our demands are met which is the mind of all Nigerians.” NANS emphasized.
