The 10 per cent increase in the tariff of MultiChoice Africa Digital Satellite Television (DStv) has caused a subscriber distemper, with many of the consumers launching a campaign for regulators to hold the pay-tv platform on the leash.
But apart from a reiteration of its “determination” to do its regulation job, mum has been the word from the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the regulator of the market, despite admittance that it has received a torrent of complaints from MultiChoice’s DStv subscribers. Yet, it is imperative consumers be protected, just to ensure that they get a good deal from DStv and other pay-tv players.
Caroline Oghuma, MultiChoice Nigeria’s public relations manager said the tariff hike was overdue, at least in the Nigerian market. “MultiChoice implements annual subscription price increase in all its operating countries,” she said, “however, a price increase was not implemented in Nigeria last year.”
But that only fuelled a distemper among its subscribers, with many threatening to drop the platform for others. Others launched a social media campaign, rallying subscribers to boycott MultiChoice, until the new rates are rescinded. Yet, others accuse NBC of a lackadaisical approach to consumer protection, in view of MultiChoice’s alleged progressive sharp price practices, bordering on alleged monopoly.
Structurally, MultiChoice’s DStv is not a monopoly. It has other competitors in its premium market; and also throws a market dog, in Gotv, to compete in the low end of the market segment, apparently to protect its premium brand.
Operationally however, it has a towering dominance of its preferred premium segment. Its content niche borders on the monopoly, such that not a few of its subscribers accuse it of arbitrarily hiking tariffs.
Indeed, the only time its tariff came down was when the defunct Hitv, as a market entry strategy, got the English Premiership franchise, a niche in sporting content, which all players in the market covet. But since Hitv’s demise, following MultiChoice’s regain of the English Premiership franchise, the firm has been virtually untouchable. This latest tariff hike, subscribers allege, is the latest indication of its price whims — and even NBC, its customers allege, seems unable to call it to order.
MultiChoice, which has a subscriber base of no less than two million in Nigeria, may well have been hampered by the recent devaluation of the Naira. In fairness to it too, the increased tariffs cut across all its markets, in countries across West, Central, East and Southern Africa. So, a charge of a formal monopoly cannot be proved.
But not so, the charge of an operational monopoly, leveraging heavily on its rich content, made possible by its comparatively huger chest of capital. Take this subscriber family as example. Latching on to MultiChoice campaign for subscribers to pay early to beat the new charges set to take off on April 1, the family paid the old rate on March 31. The MultiChoice agents collected the rate but later sent a text to the payer that since banks closed early because of the elections, and it had not paid the money into the bank account, the payer should come back to make up for the new rate, since the money would enter the MultiChoice account on April 1!
These are the sort of arbitrary behaviours that make consumers complain about MultiChoice and its pay-tv platforms of DStv and Gotv. That is why NBC should take a special interest in these complaints.
At the end of the day, MultiChoice is no charity organisation. It has a right to recoup its investment at a profit. At the same time however, subscribers too have a right to quality at the best price. That is where NBC must come in — and ensure fairness on both sides of the transaction.
