Entertainment giant,Multichoice says it is carrying out an upward review of prices of products and services.
The company had informed its customers on August 18, of the implementation of subscription price adjustments on some of its DSTV and GOtv packages.
The adjustment which come into effect on September 1,2020 with 13% increase will only affect the Premium,Compact Plus and Compact packages while Lower priced packages,Confam Yanga and Padi will retain their normal prices.
Multichoice in a message sent to customers said” We periodically review our pricing taking into consideration factors such as inflation and operatioal costs.We acknowledge that the people of Nigeria are living under increased economic pressure and we have made efforts to freeze the subscription prices in the last year,baring any extreme factors such as devaluation of currency and changes to VAT mandated by the government.”
Startimes had also sent a similar message to customers explaining that their price increase is due to increased VAT from 5% to 7.5% as well as the foreign exchange rate which has impacted its cost of operation.
Startime’s Brand Manager,Viki Liu said” Our business is not exempted from the effect of the naira depreciation affecting all businesses in the country.All of our foreign content is bought in dollars and to continually serve our subscribers the best content, the subscription price has to be reviewed upwards.
In March 2020, Nigerian subscribers of the cable television services had demanded for Pay Per View plans.The demand got the attention of the House of Representatives.
In a motion moved by Unyime Idem, representing PDP, Akwa Ibom State, the house unnanously condemned the current prepaid subscription plan accusing Multichoice and others of cheating Nigerians by offering prepaid plan rather than Pay Per View.
On the basis of that, the House set up an Ad-hoc Committee headed by Idem.
Idem told officials of Startimes that the upward review of its subscription prices was obnoxious at a time Nigerians were facing tough economic challenges insisting that the prices fixed by Startimes must be reviewed downwards.
He explained that 30-31 percent increase was not tenable and unacceptable.
,” We will give you sometime to go back to the management and look at the increment as it relates to the 2.5% VAT increment, then come back to the committee.What you have done is between 30 and 31 percent.But for this particular increase,we will not accept it.”
