Barely one year after the last subscription fee increase, there are strong indicators that MultiChoice Nigeria will increase the subscription fee across all its DStv and GOtv packages from September, 2021.
A source close to the company revealed that subscription prices may increase by about 10% with premium packages going as high as N21,000; Compact Plus will go above N14,000 and GOtv Max subscription jumping to slightly above N4000, once the new price takes effect.
The 10 – 14% increase across the board from September 2021, is coming exactly one year after the last one.
This is not a lone occurrence for Nigerian subscribers, as MultiChoice has increased the subscription charges in other African countries over the last 6 months. This week, Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania announced a new price regime from September 1.
Although MultiChoice Nigeria is yet to make an official announcement to this, this is the same trend experienced last year before the charges were increased in Nigeria and Nigerians are not happy about what is now seen as an annual price hike.
Recall that MultiChoice’s first subscription fee increase was in September 2009, and the next came in April 2011 (8 to 12% hike). August 2012 had a 10% increase in all its bouquets, and August 2015 brought a 20% increase in all its bouquets.
There has been at least one price hike in subscription fees every year and the result is that most of the packages have almost doubled since then.
Reacting to the last increase in August 2020, commentators had said the DStv price increase would put more pressure on subscribers who were managing to sustain themselves amid the Covid-19 pandemic, causing some of them to downgrade to lower packages.
They said the reaction from MultiChoice Chief Operating Officer, Simon Camerer, that customers should negotiate a ‘long-term contract’ rather than the monthly plans, to save themselves some money, is in itself a pointer that MultiChoice might keep on with this annual price hike in the coming years.
