I don’t watch a lot of TV in recent times. In fact I stopped paying for the DSTv connection in my house for close to 6months. Reason: I was hardly home to watch it. So when my brother sent me this write up, I initially didn’t make much out of it until I searched online and read some unprintable tweets about the treachery called DSTv.
Honestly, something needs to be done about this sky rocketing DSTv tariff. No water, No light, No good roads and then hiked DSTv tariff. Haba!!!! Sai Buhari better do something about this. Lol. Enjoy the write up.
I need not begin to introduce to the readers that the biggest singular cable-service provider in Nigeria is the MultiChoice DSTv. I would also not need to remind the readers that MultiChoice DSTv have increased tariffs arbitrarily in the past without consideration to the rest of us and they have in fact made tariff increment a yearly affair.
I do not need to remind us that the even the service delivered to us under the current arrangement is below par (when compared to the service enjoyed in the outside world) despite the acrimoniously heavy tariffs – please share with me what happens to your service at the slightest indication of a rainfall. Share with me how many minutes you have to wait for the decoder/service to come back up when there is rain downpour.
My job today is to throw open to us the exploitative nature of the billing system adopted by MultiChoice DSTv in Nigeria and deception sold to the rest of us overtime. Same MultiChoice DSTv is a South African company and they run pay-as-you-watch (which I will henceforth refer to as PAYW in this write-up) over there in South Africa. I am aware that's the system run in Europe as well, to a larger extent.
The question that bothers the mind is why the same billing system can’t be implemented here in Nigeria. Why is this so difficult? The current system being implemented is a complete a rip-off and smirks of cooperate cheating.
Look at it this way. I am here in my office at the moment typing this. Nobody is in my house right now because my wife is also at work and my kids have gone to school, hence my house is currently devoid of a living soul and so the Tv is not on. Yet my DSTv bill is running. This is completely outrageous.
MultiChoice DSTv is taking serious advantage of the Nigerian situation. It becomes more appalling and nerve-wrecking when you realize that our leaders, policy-makers and industry regulators make no concerted effort to correct this imbalance, despite their claims to being well-travelled.
When GSM came into Nigeria, there is no manner of argument that MTN (another South African company) did not put forward to say per-second billing is not possible nor realizable. Then enter Globacom and the rest is history. Today, we are all living witnesses to the situation on our telephone billing. This exactly is what we are demanding MultiChoice DSTv to adopt….a PAYW billing mode, just like it happens in other places.
Some people have attempted to throw up an argument of the content providers in defense of the service providers. And my position is simple. Give me the choice of the content that provides PAYW and the ones that stipulates a flat rate, and then let me choose. Let it be my choice these are the contents I want to use my subscription to watch, and then charge me on PAYW.
There are currently about 6 different bouquets on the DSTv, each with different fixed prices (flat rate). The lowest bouquet has about 14 channels or so, with an obvious exclusion of the choice sports, movies and news channels. Whilst the premium bouquet has the over 100 channels including the ones we never watch. And then the 30 days subscription expires, whether or not the subscriber tunes to all these channels or not.
I need just a few channels that show what I need to watch and what catches my fancy, and that's what I want to pay for. Let me pay for that. I should not be in the office and my bill is running when no human being is in my house. I should not be away from the country and my bill is running. It's a complete rip-off. It needs to stop.
But then again, this is Nigeria where anything goes. Where all manners of anomaly are permissible. Where people are allowed to get away with all manners of impunity. It is sad and frustrating.
Now what is the option available to MultiChoice DSTv as it will amount to a pure academic exercise to criticize without offering a solution?
I think MultiChoice DSTv should consider implementing something called fixed service charge per month to cover their fixed costs. The concept of fixed service charge is understandable, acceptable and fair. The fixed service charge plus the PAYW would be the billing to the user and not just a monthly flat rate as it is currently operational.
The concept of the fixed charge is what is being used by PHCN in Nigeria as of today. It’s an absolutely fantastic idea. You can charge me fixed service charge on a monthly basis and then let me choose the content I pay for (which is now the PAYW part of the bill, on per usage basis). Let me choose how I use my subscription.
Let me determine how I use up my N14,000 subscription. Let it be my choice to determine how long it takes me to do another recharge. This is all we are asking should be operational. It makes valid sense and makes things easy for all parties as nobody feels cheated.
I am of utmost believe that this approach will make everybody happy….and it is a win/win situation for MultiChoice DSTv and the rest of us.
Adetomiwa
Twitter - @TitoBankz
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