Nigerians threaten boycott as Multichoice hikes DSTV, GOTV prices

Nigerian subscribers on the platform of broadcasting company Multichoice have threatened to boycott the services cable television service provider.

In what was seen as an extortionist by many of its subscribers, Multichoice reviewed prices in its packages across the board. The new prices will take effect from May 1, 2024.

With the latest price hike, the DStv Premium package increased from N29,500 to N37,000. Similarly, the DStv Compact+ went up from N19,800 to N25,000 while the Compact package increased from N12,500 to N15,700.

The Comfam package moved from N7,400 to N9,300. Yanga package moved up from 4,200 to N5,100 while Padi package increased from N2,950 to N3,600. HDPVR was increased from N4,000 to N5,000, the Access Fees package from N4,000 to N5,000, and XtraView moved from N4,000 to N5,000.

Meanwhile, the Gotv Supa+ package moved from N12,500 to N15,700, Supa package from N7,600 to N9,600, and Max package from N5,700 to N7,200.

While the Jolli package was jacked up from N3,950 to N4,850, the Jinja package moved from N2,700 to N3,300, and Smallie package from N1,300 to N1,575.

However, Nigerians on social media in what looks like an outburst have threatened to withdraw their patronage from Multichoice.

Reacting to the announcement, an X (formerly twitter) user, LuckyGold said, “Dstv and gotv price hike would have been acceptable if they offer value for what their customers are paying. most of the times, they repeat movies and shows. Secondly, Mutichoice needs a competitor, if there is a serious competitor; there will be improvements, they will give their customers the value of their money and there won’t be random price hikes.”

Another X user, Pharaoh (@Ugochukwu_96) stated, “At this rate, the government needs to intervene because this is not fair on Nigerians. They just keep increasing the prices of their subscriptions without any tangible reason for doing so. How many channels are even interesting in DSTV to warrant paying such high amounts? They should just make it Pay as you go, so people don’t have to be paying for unnecessary channels that they don’t watch.

“Netflix should start showing live football matches. I can’t be subscribing this when they’re still showing me old movies. I thought dollar price came down why is this one increasing?” Abazz (@Abazwhyllzz) queried in his tweet.

Advising Nigerians to seek other alternatives, former presidential aide Bashir Ahmad in his tweet said, “There are several alternatives to DSTv in Nigeria. For current affairs, sports and movie lovers, which alternatives are the best?”

“Let’s collectively not pay for the DSTV— explore other options— and you will see how they’ll act right. But I doubt if we have that discipline.” Jiggy Jiggy tweeted.

Multichoice hike of prices across its major platform comes four months after it implemented an upward review of prices in December 2023, days after announcing a $72m loss in its financial statement for the third quarter of the year.

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