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Nigeria Strikes The Perceived Choiceless MultiChoice (DStv, GOTv)

Nigeria Strikes The Perceived Choiceless MultiChoice (DStv, GOTv)

PayTV players like DSTV and GOtv are now banned from having exclusive sporting content in Nigeria. Upon paying pounds, euro and dollars, the companies are required to share content with local players like NTA. More so, if they pay for La Liga Spanish football league, they are required to spend at least 30% of the amount on the Nigerian league.

People, Nigeria is now run like an activist organization. I am not a fan of DStv, GOTv or whatever, but we must be bold to tell our government that it is not helping power, education, logistics, banking, retail, etc sectors on foreign investments when they make policies designed to cripple one company. There is no inherent fairness in this code. It has been structured to destroy DStv. 

PayTV is a luxury product in Nigeria. Our government should invest efforts to fight for clean water, electricity, etc and not waste our trust banks on Zee World, Messi and Ronaldo.

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This is this business as I have noted in the past. I expect DStv to begin disengagement from Nigeria as there is simply no protocol for it to remain. As it returns back to South Africa, exiting Shoprite may be a flight mate. And as that happens, NTA will call Europe to wire Naira and Kobo to watch Messi and Ronaldo on its own terms.

Once NTA makes it tender to Europeans, it will notice one thing: the cost of this product has been rising: “The cost of English Premier League broadcast rights has risen almost 8% to 9.2 billion pounds ($12 billion) for the next three seasons”. If you make it a direct correlation, it simply means that DStv should be increasing costs by 8% over the next few years. But in Nigeria, even though naira is losing value to the euro or pounds sterling, DStv is expected to freeze its rates. That does not make sense!

Technically, unless MutiChoice has changed its business charter to non-profit, it has no business in Nigeria. When you add the new muted plan to force it to license its expensive London luxury product to local players, at Umuahia rate, you will understand the outcome. Yes, MultiChoice will abandon Nigeria and will not renew its EPL rights unless Nigeria allows it to increase rates, to compensate for increasing cost of the raw material and naira deterioration.

Hello Kano Pillars & Enyimba! Yes, local sports teams are still there.

The statistic depicts the revenue from the Premier League television broadcasting rights from 1992 to 2019. From 2013 to 2016 the Premier League generated over 3 billion pounds in revenue from its marketing of TV broadcasting rights per year. (source: statista)

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No one is saying you do not need to protect Nigeria. But our model of changing the rules during the game needs to stop. When govt sold electricity properties with a good rate, many came and invested. After they shipped their monies into Lagos, we changed the rates. Now, power is not working for years because no one trusts Nigeria to invest. China is consistent on this. Brazil is consistent on this.

Our problem is that Nigeria is not consistent and that is the problem. If you want to fight, as a dev. nation, who watches football is not a good place to waste our reputation as a nation. This is a luxury product and should be left to those who can afford. We have more urgent needs in Nigeria we need help.

Abiola. SB. I do not write to please anyone. This is my personal opinion. To be reading me, you have to deal with it. It is irrelevant what Ghanaians think of their govt.


Good points. You do not develop your products. Someone buys a working product for $100. And you make a law for him to sell it at below market price. Yet, people are hailing government because we are Nigerians. As I noted in the piece, price increase of DStv has tracked or even lagged EPL tv rights increment. This means, the cost of raw materials has increased because this is an imported product, and customers need to pay more. NTA wants to pay $10 for a $100 product.

Understand that this product is auctioned which means anyone can challenge DSTV parent and win the rights. But NO, you wait for it to bring it home and then you use laws to cripple it.

 


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110 THOUGHTS ON Nigeria Strikes The Perceived Choiceless MultiChoice (DStv, GOTv)

  1. When you elect and appoint tribal champions as national leaders, this is what you get. These folks never left anyone in doubt that they are angry people, right from when they came together to form their directionless political party. Their sole intent was to capture power, not for the good of Nigerians, but simply to be drunk with power. Yesterday the one that calls himself presidential spokesman derided legitimate protesters as ‘irritants’ and their protests a ‘child’s play’. It tells you the sort of creatures people expect to move Nigeria forward.

    If the intent of this Code is to send DSTv out of Nigeria, the purveyors would soon realise that the misgovernance that is palpable across the land isn’t caused by DSTv and its sports rights. Those who come with this sort of depraved ideas obviously never done anything innovative or creative in their ridiculous lives, they largely fed fat from public purses. Throwing forced support to the local league is disingenuous, because they haven’t defined the product these companies would be purchasing from the local league, it then becomes another way of paying people for doing nothing, same way we send money to idle or underperforming government agencies.

    Again, when the clueless people up there put up this kind of posturing, do they ever wish or think that Nigerian firms would someday expand to other countries? Life doesn’t begin and in Nigeria, we are already poor, so we need to be careful with the kind of signal we send to people who are not Nigerians; nobody wants to associate with vile and unwelcome people.

    Leaving old men to destroy this country would amount to collective indictment on all of us, everything they touch is on its way to collapse or extinction. Enough damage has already been inflicted on the country because of their thoughtless actions and policies, 2023 may even be too far, before they destroy themselves and everyone.

    • These SA thieves have stolen enough from us…and killed your brothers in their country and you are foolishly supporting them.
      You are the kinds of unpatriotic people that never allow this country to grow.
      Shame on you

      • Ab? you are a bastard. No body should allow any Northerner in Power anymore. They have crippled our Economy and made our country useless. Northers don’t have What it takes to be leaders. They are just tribal and religious bigots with clanish mentality. These are criminals in power. God punish you all.

        • Just like the northern governor’s of Abia and NDDC officials right?
          Go to the north and see our representatives and governor’s are working, while yours are bussy stealing your own money. Take it or leave it DSTV must be demonopolise.

          • What are we quarrelling about here, DStv has increased their products already, because we have a clueless govt, that don’t have the interest if other region but the northern part, who will exit of DStv affects most, the south and east. Let me ask all of you, must we stay together as a country?

          • The critical aspect of DSTV operations in Nigeria is the absence of Pay As You Go in a country that hardly have power!

        • Have you researched and compared what DSTV offers in Ghana and in their home country SA to that of Nigeria before blaming what the Nigerian Leaders are doing at the moment?
          If they have a much better and flexible tariff somewhere else, is it bad if we demand such?
          Why should be so quick in castigating everything another Nigerian is doing?

          • My brother, the charges are more in both SOUTH AFRICA and GHANA, do your research again and will see for yourself. I lived in Ghana for 5 years and I know what it is. Compare prices and exchange rates. Sports rights are very expensive, why did HiTV go bankrupt after just 2-3 years? Ask yourself that question. And you will see answers when you research. DSTV or Multichoice is actually helping Nigerians, if these sports rights are put on Pay Per View basis as they are done in developed countries, they will make more money, we should research very well before saying things we do not know just because some other person is saying same. Mind you, DSTV or GOTV isn’t a South African company as most Nigerians say, it’s corporate head quarters is in South Africa and was actually supposed to be in Nigeria but the late Gen Abacha opposed it and they switched. If you know the major share holders of Multichoice, you will be shocked. Please get facts right.

          • I don’t know why this people from the South East are so unpatriotic. They are so self centred and myopic yet they want to rule Nigeria. How do I trust my future with some sets of people that never see national development beyond the level of “what is in it for me”? Always have nothing positive to contribute if there is no pecuniary immediate interest to gain. Nigeria is bigger than any tribe or race .We brought television into Africa no nation should see us as milking cow if DSTV cannot survive in a competitive digital world and now want to cash on unscrupulous elements in Nigeria to turn our disunity to extortion to their tent Oh DSTV. They will be shocked within 6 months that Nigerians will be watching their so called exclusive content on pay as you go basis. MTN tried that nonsense with the then gsm I believe they are wiser now and for you that cannot get over tribal and religious sentiments and you are now using left hand to point to your father homestead shame on you PS just discovered DSTV removed Channels TV from one of its bouquets let e ask the sabi dem people how much euros were paid to rebroadcasts Channels TV signals?

          • My brother those ppl u mentioned have favourably operating conditions. Read the write up carefully and you will discover that the problem is with the dwindling value of the naira which has made it impossible for them to freeze prices. Is business not for making profit anymore?

          • Have you actually done any research yourself because I don’t understand this your stupid submission. Other african nations pay more for Paytv than we do in Nigeria. You people just open your mouth and talk anyhow. The effect of this stupid action from our government will make many Nigerian fanilies lose their jobs if dstv returns to SA. As it is DSTV has done for Nigerian economy much more than tour government has done for you. Of all the problems thatbwe have it is a luxurious product like dstv that people have a right to subscribe or not to, if they can’t afford, that our government is busy pokenosing.

            If you are a business man would youbm buy anything for 100 naira and sell for 10naira because customers are complaining? Why are Nigerians always feelibg so entitled? Why are the people so dull? Why not demand of your government to invest heavily like SABC in SA? SABC is a far bigger media outfit in SA than DSTV. Why do we prefer that our politicians steal money then make excuse for them to attack other legitimate businesses making lives of Nigerians better? We would rather see Nigerians lose job because our politicians cannot think and invest our money correctly, we woyld rather support them to kill dstv rather than ask them to stop looting and use the money to compete with dstv by floating a bigger paytv that can compete and even provide more jobs for Nigerians. WHY? It beats me honestly.

          • You should be the person asking your self that question, have you? And if yes kindly share with us your result. From where am standing you know notting about this issue.

          • #debola yeah u really really know what u are talking about, I lived in SA for 15years, there are only 2 public stations in SA in which 1 is divided into 3 (sabc1, 2,3,) and all in HD then there is etv also in HD, dstv premium in SA as at last year was R799, N18000 or more, if u not using xlora, if u are using xplora it ll R880 still under N20k but its N15000 so who pays more, as at dis moment Nta is still std.

      • Let government run their country and businesses run their investment. If you have crooked businesses exploiting Africans, they should be exposed. Wrong government policies must also be dissected and corrected. Nobody cares about your role, just do it right for people to benefit or they will start caring about your role when you mess.

      • You are the worst fool cos HE is right. Since 1960 what have they created? Every good companies have left Nigeria and we are left with unemployment and dealing with fake unadulterated items. These companies brings standards that even most local companies follow. Nigeria drives so many cars but not even a single car manufacturer is here, the ones that are here left. Every good countries needs investors and companies to create jobs for their people. We are pushing away the little ones we have. Take a look at NTA broadcast is a bad as hell even in this modern time. I believe u have never left Nigeria and most of u youth in Nigeria are lue into hatred and thugrey. This is what happens when young men and women leave heartless old men and criminals to rule them instead of taking charge. Business is now as usual. Shame on U

      • Question:-
        Do you have to call names? Just argue your point and stay with the issue at hand. You are akin to a spouse beater – beats the spouse because of lack of ability to express innermost thoughts.

      • They didnt steal from you ‘stop talking in the nonsense’.
        If your stupid and irritating policy makers want to get in the business. They should buy the right and resell at cheaper rates.
        And you of all persons can also stop subscribing to them, it just shows your level of being uneducated (and dont get me wrong, you went to school, just not educated).

        Criminals running the affairs of Nigeria. No single sense of business. All they do is personally have access to the internet. If possible they could send all mobile operators away just to monopolize the populace.

        Shame. .. i shame. U r not doing well

        • Nobody is asking dstv to share… Let there be other investors in the business. The company should exclude Nigeria from sole right they have for Africa. Mr Shoprite and Dstv biz analyst, kindly go thru the showing right deal of dstv with EPL for the rest of Africa. Nigeria Govt. can’t do anything right in ur view. If the country is not good enuf for them to do biz let them move please

      • They didnt steal from you ‘stop talking in the nonsense’.
        If your stupid and irritating policy makers want to get in the business. They should buy the right and resell at cheaper rates.
        And you of all persons can also stop subscribing to them, it just shows your level of being uneducated (and dont get me wrong, you went to school, just not educated).

        Criminals running the affairs of Nigeria. No single sense of business. All they do is personally have access to the internet. If possible they could send all mobile operators away just to monopolize the populace.

        Shame. .. i say shame. U r not doing well

      • It is your northern elites with their thievery that have, more than keeping Nigeria from growing, have in fact being killing it. Trillions of dollars stashed away by Abacha, Babangida, Abdulsalami, Buhari, Mallami, Kyari, etc. A progressive country doesn’t need your type.

      • What MULTICHOICE thinking to associate itself with Nigeria. Nigeria is not well organized country it’s more like a juggle. This what you get when dealing with natural born crooks. I am South African by the way.

      • Patriotism should not be synonymous with blindness and irrationality. The guy has made a very convincing argument based on facts. I’m a DSTV Premium bouquet subscriber and I do grumble about the cost but at the same time I know that I have to overcome my addiction to EPL or pay the cost. What NBC should insist on is a pay-as-you-go policy. Also, if Multichoice is to be compelled to share rights it has already acquired, then the terms have to be mutually agreed to by it and the Nigerian organisations who wish to do so; the terms should not be imposed – at least it should not be arbitrarily dictated. A policy such as has been enunciated by the NBC should have no place in a democratic dispensation. This kind of indirect price control which does not take into consideration the cost of the externally-sourced commodity or service is clearly punitive and in the end it will deny Nigerian viewers access to EPL and UCL matches.
        Apparently this situation has arisen because the code has been dictated by the Minister of Information based on purely political considerations and with a view to favouring some specific local business interests. As Tonnie Iredia pointed out in an interview on Channels last week, the NBC, as a body of technocrats, ought to decide on matters like this without interference by the Minister (or the Ministry) in the interest of both the service providers and the clients or viewers.
        As for improving the standard of football on the local scene, Multichoice already covers matches of the Nigerian league. What remains is for investors in the sector to do more in terms of improvement of facilities and enhancements of conditions of service of both staff and players. Hopefully the Nigerian Football Federation has to do a lot better in planning and coordinating the Nigerian league.

      • Good point Abu. I agree on most points you raised: Multi choice has stolen enough from us, DStv & GOtv should be pay as go/watch as in other climes, killing of foreigners (particularly Nigerians) should stop in SA.

        However, our government is clueless, unserious and direction less. Until we do away with this nonsensical government, it’ll just be like moving from fry pan to fire.

        It is high time we did restructuring of the nation and allow true federalism to take root. Howbeit, a crashing down is looming.

        The word is enough for the wise.

    • You are on point Bro. When you give to monkeys the job of human to do expect nothing more but a monkey job. As we are all seeing everything they lay their hands on is all monkey job result.

    • I can see you are DStv apologist, so biased in your write-up pls we don’t need your lopsided analysis. Don’t we Nigerians deserve better fare? Why is pay per view good for only SAs but not Nigerians? They should pack and go. Others who are reasonable in their market strategy will stay.

      • You are damn wrong, Adewale. With a little knowledge of Economics, you will appreciate what this gentleman has written. Free markets encourage economic growth. Economic growth leads to wealth creation and prosperity. You can not prosper by killing business, and businesses must make profit to thrive. Government has no business fixing prices – we all need to be price takers in a free market. Nigeria is a market economy. So if you want to keep the price of paid TV low, you don’t do it through legislation. You do it by encouraging competition. Empower Nigerians to enter the pay TV business, not legislating the price of pay TV. If Multichoice leaves, even the government will suffer in terms of lost taxes, that will make Nigeria even poorer, so it doesn’t help anyone in the long run. Let’s be objective. Nothing is for free, even the air you breathe.

        • U dont know what Dstv has done to us in this country. Dstv has push other Companies out of the country. But they dont want any other to come in. The issue with Dstv and the Government is DStv don’t want other digital TV to come and if they must come they should buy the right from them to show some sports. Like what is happening to Star time. If u will recall Italian league was viewed on star time immediately Ronaldo signed for Juventus they collected it back from star time and begin to show it. Is this good for Nigerians. When they go others will come. They want to be the God of sport and other should come in and be subjected to them. That is where the issue is? Forget all this economic story.

      • You basteads got Freedom in the sixties but what’s nothing to show, no infrastructure, no healthy system, nothing other exporting drag dealers all over the world. Now you are biting the hand that’s trying to feed you.

    • It’s unfortunate that every issue will be turned into tribal and political bashing! Unfortunately for you the law makers are from all over the country. Make educated and enlightened comments without resorting to this primitive sentiments.

  2. This is a rather jaundiced, myopic and parochial view.
    Content is data, and data is just as tangible an asset as infrastructure.

    If monopolies restrict access to it to the extent that the growth of competitors and of the wider industry is threatened then the role of any diligent regulator should be to decentralise that access.

    If DSTV opts to retreat from Nigeria one can only expect that they be heading to a very enjoyable retirement having made ten times more money in Nigeria than they would have made anywhere else in Africa unchallenged for the past 25 years.

    Exponential growth in any industry does not come through monopolising the key assets and profiteering from exorbitant access fees.

    Rather it comes from opening up access to participants and creating more players in each market layer.

    • DStv content is raw material which anyone can compete for. NTA can go to London and outbid it. It is unethical to sit down, get someone take that risk and the regulate how that person sells it. DSTv does not produce this “data” but is a distributor for European football. As you can see, price of this data has been going up. It is paid in hard currency when naira is falling. That Nigerians are worked up thinking price should not increase is unfortunate because every imported product has experienced price increase.

        • I have no interest and have never paid for whatever they produce there. My point remains that a largely luxury product for the rich should not be a place Nigeria should waste it trust banks when we have food, water, electricity issues. Why should if rich Nigerians get to watch Messi and Ronald a national matter? There are smarter ways of doing this: you band together, bring in Netflix and Amazon and ask them to bid for streaming if the local players are not strong. But it is immoral and unethical to see someone raise money from banks and then in the middle you change the rule. We did that in the electricity sector and we are doing it here. I believe in fairness. I have criticized the fact that people invested in our electricity sector hoping for rate of electricity to be as agreed. Then, after they did, a judge struck down the rate. Today, only a fool will raise money to give us electricity because that is seen as a pattern.

        • The perfect monopoly of this country by criminal companies must change. DSTV has been a pain in the ass for so long. Let them go to South Africa and play this same game and see what happens to them.

          • DSTV does exactly that here in South Africa as well and complain when Netflix etc emerge on the scene.
            I applaud your government for taking a stance against their monopolistic practises.

        • He has no interest, just educating you.

          Might i ask, what interest do you not have in making Naija League your interest.

          Oh NTA will always interrupt your matches with no signals.

          Haha.

          Get your shitty naija things right.

          Policies Makers do the needful.

          Let naija go it separate ways. Let the real providers of light do its job.

          Not focus on other countries’ football.

          Nonsense and concobility

      • My brother, the problem with the exclusive-rights model is that once DSTV has won the bid if any other player is able to raise money the next month and is willing to invest in the same industry they are completely barred from entry. Everybody is put at the mercy of DSTV. Either you pay what they ask or you go home, even if you have a completely different business model or are targetting a different segment of the market than they are.

        Just because you have made the initial investment in the asset does not mean other players must be restricted from access to use that asset. This is parochial thinking.

        When regulators break up monopolies the industry and the wider economy is usually better off. Look around you and around the world. It has been proven over the past 30years.

        Content is data, and data ought to be shared. That is the type of economy that we need in Nigeria today.

          • You are a dstv staff or sometin .all you are saying is defending dstv .we don’t want any monopoly .they can’t come and say they are not gaining

          • What’s even your own about this dstv thing… If they think they’re not being parochial, dstv should kill this monopoly thing and open up the market (access) to other intending players.
            You are just being one-sided because you work with them and will be jobless hence this meaningless write up.
            Abeg Park Well Mr. Ndubuisi.

        • Ndubuisi why are u defending DSTV, I am watching ESPN 1 and 2 on Startime with #3,600. Per months. DSTV decided to get it to fight Startime. But they place the ESPN 2 which show major Netherland league, Belgium etc. in compact, which is #7,000. per month. What are u talking about. I can remember when Gov. told MTN to adopt pay per second, they said it is not viable business model, as your claiming now. But when GLO lunch pay per second MTN have no choice but to queue in or they will run out of business. Look at Telecom industry they are begging customers to buy their sim card. Ndubuisi. What is your interest in DSTV? Look at what they did to HI TV and TSTV etc.

          • Honestly I am not pleased with the outright Monopoly and grounding of HiTV and TSTV when this two pay tv came onboard there was a ray of hope that atleast we could have choice of viewing a relatively close contents as DSTV but it did not see the light of day. It is high time our billionaires invest in this money venture interest. South Africans don’t have two heads. Yes we can. Our leaders also improve on basic amenities that would make business tribe in Nigeria, Power is one of them, good road is one of them. God bless Nigeria.

          • Nicholas you have a point in what you are saying, until the monopoly is broken, you will always think it is a luxury. Before glo came into the telecom, mtn made us feel it is a luxury…

          • Hmmmm, It is the duty of Govt to regulate which is OK. However we are quick to forget what happened to HITV, they had English PL but every other content they had was rubbish, soon they lost out in the game. Same thing with NTA showing UEFA Euro 2004 after their 9pm News, while presenting it to is as live match. They forced other stations like AIT, SILVERBIRD that paid them to show it at a late time “A Live Match”. SILVERBIRD determined not to make same mistake, got their own right to show Athens 2004 OLYMPICS from SUPERSPORT but NTA fought them as NBC & threw sanctions at them and forced them to tune in to NTA to show the OLYMPICS, as usual they determine when/what to show. GOVT definitely has a role in regulating by either bringing in more players in the industry or creating enabling environment/policies for business to thrive, law of demand & supply will do the job. For GLO to break into a new market in which MTN is already a leader, had to be innovative by bringing in per second billing and others had to queue on it. That is the way to go.

          • Bros stick NTA. It is free why are wasting your money on Statimes.

            You just don’t get what business is.
            Myopic arguments without business background.

            Do you know what is called running costs?
            Eg running diesel from morning till night?

            Of cos u don’t.

            Bidding thar ur NTA cannot bid.

            Shebi ona get satellites in space.

            Fraudulent country nonsense and shitty

          • Good point.

            Why has this matter not been investigated and adjudicated upon by the Monopolies Commission within the aggrieved markets ??????

        • ‘CONTENT’ can not be classed as just any other old stream of data.

          The originating source of the ‘CONTENT’ is the owner of that piece of ‘INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY’, and is entitled to set a price for access.

          The football clubs are the first movers in the line of determining the price to view a football match.

          Now, consider the HUGE salaries enjoyed by the footballers; and the billionaires who own the football clubs.

          People’s passion for watching football has become a source of price exploitation.

          DSTV, in Nigeria, are of course, indulging in monopolistic extortion.

        • ‘CONTENT’ and ‘DATA’ are not necessarily the same thing.

          DATA is often and usually in the ‘PUBLIC’ domain, with nobody owning any rights to it.

          CONTENT, by contrast, is often what is termed ‘INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY,’ where someone or some organisation owns the ‘INTELLECTUAL RIGHTS’ to that particular and specific content – usually as an outcome of negotiation, tender, and contract and payment.

          The following article might well give further insight.

          From USA Today news organization.

          English Premier League broadcast rights rise to $12 billion
          AP

          LONDON (AP) — The cost of English Premier League broadcast rights has risen almost 8% to 9.2 billion pounds ($12 billion) for the next three seasons.

          Despite a drop in the value of domestic rights, interim chief executive Richard Masters says foreign broadcasters are paying about 30% more for games.

          Masters says overseas companies who can show all 380 games live each season are paying 4.2 billion pounds in the 2019-2022 cycle, up from 3.1 billion pounds.

          Masters told the FT Business of Football Summit that domestic broadcast rights have dropped in value from 5.4 billion pounds to 5 billion pounds despite 200 games being sold rather than 168 in the 2016-19 cycle. Comcast-owned Sky will show the most matches in Britain, followed by BT Sport, while Amazon became the first internet streaming service to gain rights.

          More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/apf-Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsEnglish Premier League broadcast rights rise to $12 billion
          AP

          LONDON (AP) — The cost of English Premier League broadcast rights has risen almost 8% to 9.2 billion pounds ($12 billion) for the next three seasons.

          Despite a drop in the value of domestic rights, interim chief executive Richard Masters says foreign broadcasters are paying about 30% more for games.

          Masters says overseas companies who can show all 380 games live each season are paying 4.2 billion pounds in the 2019-2022 cycle, up from 3.1 billion pounds.

          Masters told the FT Business of Football Summit that domestic broadcast rights have dropped in value from 5.4 billion pounds to 5 billion pounds despite 200 games being sold rather than 168 in the 2016-19 cycle. Comcast-owned Sky will show the most matches in Britain, followed by BT Sport, while Amazon became the first internet streaming service to gain rights.

          More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/apf-Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

    • Lavard, suppose you are right that DSTv is a monopoly, do you deal with it by fixing prices or by encouraging competition? Forcing DSTv to share its content with others is not encouraging competition, but infringement. That is not encouraging fair trade when government uses its powers in favour of one business competitor against another. I also don’t agree with you that DSTv are profiteering. Check how much they really acquire content and how much they sell it to the Nigerian public. Compare with the price of the same content elsewhere and the concession DSTv makes to Nigerians. What killed HiTv, for example – a pay TV owned by a Nigerian? Greed. Because he insisted on charging show centres differently from private consumers, forcing Nigerians to stop patronizing it. Now that’s one thing DSTv doesn’t do.

  3. Why has DSTV/GOTV refused to operate pay as you go. Nigerians should thank their government for breaking DSYV/U OTV monopoly .please remember d DSTV blocked tstv from going into the same market

      • ‘PAYG’ – Pay As You Go, or Pay To View, is already in operation in many developed countries where the market is more mature; eg UK, USA, Europe.

        Highly desirable, sought-after viewing content, such as football matches or newly-released high-grossing feature films, is offered to the public at a PREMIUM PRICE. Anyone wishing to view any such premium content is required to make a one-off special payment to the streaming company.

        This one-off payment is in addition to the normal standard monthly charges for connection to the streaming service.

        You pays your money, you makes your choice.

  4. Honestly I am not pleased with the outright Monopoly and grounding of HiTV and TSTV when this two pay tv came onboard there was a ray of hope that atleast we could have choice of viewing a relatively close contents as DSTV but it did not see the light of day. It is high time our billionaires invest in this money venture interest. South Africans don’t have two heads. Yes we can. Our leaders also improve on basic amenities that would make business trive in Nigeria, Power is one of them, good road is one of them. God bless Nigeria. Also the issue of paying per view is also sacrosanct, why should we pay monthly wether we vie DSTV or not, this is not obtainable in other clime. What DSTV needs is competition and they will calm down.

  5. Nobody killed Nigerians in South Africa, Nigerians are South African bosses, they can even fight the cops. On top of that they are destroying the youth. Ask your brothers what are they doing in South Africa, if you are a parent you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Most of them are drug dealers

    • What has that got to do with the fact that DsTv criminal exploit their subscribers? These people jerked up their subscription in the height of the pandemic, how more insensitive and criminal can a company be?

    • What has that got to do with the fact that DsTv criminally exploit their subscribers? These people jerked up their subscription in the height of the pandemic, how more insensitive and criminal can a company be?

      • I don’t think they jerked up their price list. I think our government did that. The Nigerian government forced 7.5% VAT on everyone including you instead of the 5%. This is 2.5% increment and that was the amount the DStv increased their price with. That blame is to our government and that was why the government couldn’t do anything when the National Assembly mentioned it.
        Just like the Prof, basically watching such contents from DStv are luxuries which if you can afford you go on else forget it. Government should be more attracted to such things like agriculture, electricity, water, Security and its reformation:
        See our national theatre, has the government not failed on it? What is government doing with NTA that is only interested in marketing government not working policies? Is the Nigerian government not increasing the prices of petroleum products the way they want? Forget DStv, let’s face the government.

        • It’s really laughable seeing Nigerians say cable TV is luxury. That’s how bad poverty has affected the thinking of Nigerians over the years. Cable TV, just like mobile telephony isn’t luxury, both are not supposed to be out of the reach of common citizens. Poverty and the battered minds of Nigerians have made certain services enjoyed by every Tom, Dck, and Harry in right thinking societies a luxury here. Much as I don’t support government’s overbearing influence on private investors, the pertinent question to ask is, has multichoice been operating in Nigeria in all fairness? I’d say not so well. By securing exclusive right to a product, it simply means multichoice has overpaid and no other player in the industry can attempt to have the item shown to viewers, and the only way to for competitors to secure the right will be to simply outbid multichoice, which inevitably will drive the price higher than normal. This will certainly kill local investors and stall growth in that sector. It’s even a travesty when the company involved is a foreign player which will repatriate funds to their country of origin. It’s an unfair game when one player is allowed too much power in an economy. We all have seen the effect that has had in the sugar and cement industries. It’s unhealthy and inimical to economic growth. The best thing to do is create a level playing field, as is witnessed in the telecoms industry, where some had said it wasn’t possible to do per seconds billing, until Glo came along. Now, every player’s competitive edge is determined by their coverage, clarity and cost of service, not by securing exclusive rights to calls and data.

        • What is the annual profit turn over of DSTV Nigeria?
          What positive impact has the company made in the Lives of Nigerians?
          What is the profit turn over in Nigeria compare to what it makes to other African countries?

          Those are the are the questions you should ask DSTV before defending the company.

          Regards.

          • You made a good point. It would be interesting to know and compare how much Multi choice contributes to the GDP of South Africa vis a vis their contribution to the Nigerian economy

  6. Obviously you don’t understand the issue being discussed. You are the type that believe that telling the truth is hate speech. Let NTA go to the auction and bid to win and not to wait for some other Company to bring the product home and the authorities will force the winner to give it to them at below cost price.
    Is watching Laliga and Ronaldo the Countries Problems.

    • What has that got to do with the fact that DsTv criminally exploit their subscribers? These people jerked up their subscription in the height of the pandemic, how more insensitive and criminal can a company be?

    • If everyone is blaming DStv for monopolizing it, who started it. Is it not Hitv when they got the exclusive rights and they don’t want to share with anyone. I understand it should be pay as view but honestly speaking do you expect NTA to run a profitable business instead of fighting on foreign content why can’t you invest such monies on your local league to attract foreign investment. We need visionary on this not gullible corrupt government officials running the affairs of sport

  7. Just because you are in the market, you don’t want another person to sell what you are selling, this is the evil that has been killing this country. I call it slave trade.

  8. I just read a news item that says Startimes is to telecast La Liga for the next 3 years. DSTV currently telecast this. Does it mean any other group can also win the right to broadcast Premier league?

  9. Am very Happy with Nigeria government decision to fight multi choice to stand still ,am surprise that some Nigerian has supporting multi choice ,go to other Africa country dstv cant
    try what their doing doing in Nigeria ,kudos to Nigeria government for this bold step,if Nigeria is not okay for their biss they should go to their country

  10. One of Our problem in Nigeria is ,if u are OK you won’t tink that their still some people that are still managing ,dstv ,didn’t allow another pay TV stand in Nigeria ,Kudos to Nigeria govt for this bold step against dstv ,am using this medium to beg our leaders to invest in pay TV company ,dangote and otedola can do it, dstv need competition

  11. to hell with DSTV be ready to to comply with Nigeria’s Sovereignty or ship yourself away from Nigerian Market ;like MTN like DSTV

  12. Beautiful writeup.

    The most terrible policy makers are here in this country.

    Constantly Running after present irrelevant stuff.

    No road, no water, no light, no housing… Lasslass no infrastructure.

    Now u go after DSTV. Have you resolved the NTA DG stealing billions?

    Of cause, naija comment people no sabi. Na SA and DSTV be ona problem.

    Must you watch EPL, LA LIGA and likes.?

    Demand and supply is key in decision.

    Is EPL the major problem in our country?

    Your Govt looking for free EPL, laliga, etc.

    Very stupid and unbelievable policy makers.

    In fact, May Coronavirus strike any terrible and directionless policy maker.

    Mtcwwww

  13. Interesting discus….we are fighting on an omd technology which l expect most commentators to be aware of. How ? Go out of Nigeria today.. all your smart TV ..with a connection on your phone to any network you will watch not only sky sports, fox sport even south African channels… but Lagos TV, calabar tv in Maiduguri .Nobody watches dstv channels as we do around the world again.
    Our government should reengineer FreeTv to face the new world…cheaper and faster use what we have…Nicomsat reach all Nigerians once and allow all the lincensed satellite distribution companies in Nigera to function.
    Any foreign company will do what DSTV is doing in Nigeria….
    .what’s the difference between DSTV and GOTV….one is south afrcan based and the other is Chinese.
    THE NEW CODE IS THE RIGHT PATH, I PRSY THE GOVT WILL FOLLOW THROUGH and not go from one frying pan to another changing the colors….

  14. I’m south African, I hear what you guys are saying about south African companies rightly or wrongly, I would suggest that Nigerian companies in Telcom industry should build credible companies to bid for businesses abroad, in that way there will never complain about other countries entering in their own space.
    Commenting on Nigerians being ill treated in South Africa. Nigerians themselves have to be blamed: Most of Nigerians in SA, are polluting our society with drugs that’s a fact. Moreover, they show some element of arrogance in doing it. They feel no shame in doing it!! They are also conducting human trafficking business in some Brothels in inner cities of SA , namely Jo’burg.Durban, Cape Town, PE, Pretoria, Polokwane , Mbomela, Rustenburg, Kimberly, East London & Bloemfontein. Surely, you should be ashamed of country men doing this to other countries. Concluding my conversation. It is a shame of us Africans that we discourage investment among ourselves. MNT, Woolworths SA,Shoprite SA are gone in your shores, now, Multichoice is contemplating to Nigeria. God bless Africa!!

    • You can make your point without insult. Nigeria and South Africa need to work together. We need to respect each other. The drug part is not necessary. There are many Nigerian professors in South African universities. The issue here is treating an African company fairly. Let us not deviate from it.

      • Mine is that DSTV/MULTICHOICE is not fair to Nigeria’s consumers. I just paid my monthly subscription, #6,900, and I can’t even watch any Champions league, imagine. Not even one. So, you must subscribe with #10,000 before you can enjoy anything.
        If they can’t play by Nigeria’s rule, they should step aside. Nigeria has the largest market in Africa, and another company will take over.

        • Are you in the industry?
          Did you watch Mexico 86 from dstv?
          Italian 90 from dstv?
          Atalanta 96 from dstv?
          What happened to Hi tv,tstv,kewese?
          Hmmmm,figure it out your self….
          There’s more to what most of us know….
          Allow those in authority figure it out..

    • Some comments could trigger or send the wrong signal, you totally crossed the red line,and you sounded like a racist…..do you guys do exclusive rights in south Africa…?
      Do you pay even when you don’t watch, we are looking at issues and talking about how to find solutions and you just woke up and started insulting Nigerians, pls you could make your view without insulting my country….I love south Africans they are nice people so we are….

  15. Is the writer sure that he is not on DSTV’S payroll and all the cronies that are supporting this funny idea you are pushing. You can pick holes in the policy but don’t come here preaching DSTV as a saint. Have you been in some other part of the world apart from Nigeria. In my opinion, you shd be ashamed of the unveiled sarcasm about Nigerian clubs in the write up.

  16. Are you in the industry?
    Did you watch Mexico 86 from dstv?
    Italian 90 from dstv?
    Atalanta 96 from dstv?
    What happened to Hi tv,tstv,kewese?
    Hmmmm,figure it out your self….
    There’s more to what most of us know….
    Allow those in authority figure it out..

  17. Anybody advocating for dstv must be sick upstairs, where in the world do you have exclusive rights to major sporting events? What the NBC is saying is very simple buy and allow others also buy, where you so desire to buy exclusive rights, then sell to others, imagine where a man has the air we breath to himself alone,he dictates the price for it’s product, if indomine noodles becomes to expensive, i could as well try yummy yummy noodles …
    People jump into conclusion with out having any business in the subject matter, have you wondered why no other Nigeria pay tv stations has succeeded, because they got attacked by dstv, ask your self, what happened to Hi tv, even our tstv died on arrival, let’s open our mind…NTA gave a level playing ground for dstv,we didn’t watch US94 from dstv, …NTA could also have said you know what do all your stuff but no sports ifrom you guys,our sporting right is exclusive to NTA , let’s say no to this please enough is enough.. ..I really want to say thank you to prof Armstrong and the honourable minister for information…you have fought for the ordinary man

  18. U dont know what Dstv has done to us in this country reason u talk this way. Dstv has push other Companies out of the country. They dont want any other to come in. The issue with Dstv and the Government is simply this DStv don’t want other digital TV to come in and if they must come they should buy the right from them to show some sports. Like what is happening to Star time. If u will recall Italian league was viewed on star time immediately Ronaldo signed for Juventus they collected it back from star time and begin to show it. Is this good for Nigerians. When they go others will come. They want to be the God of sport and other should come in and be subjected to them. That is where the issue is? Forget all this economic story.

  19. Interesting debate for sure. South african companies are disinvesting from Nigeria due to Government intervention, surely not a good thing. Business is what creates jobs and wealth, not Governments. Give the Capitalists room to be creative and you will see a flourishing economy. Create a situation in your country where investors feel intimidated at your peril. Look over at Zimbabwe to see what an autocratic Government created for its subjects. Let Government worry about infrastructure and let businessmen worry about business.

    • Bheki Mzileni:

      I couldn’t agree with you more, you ( Anonymous ) have just nailed it. I personally, support constructive debate I would like to share few of my humble opinion or views, just two only:

      Number No.1: About Donald Trump & Chinese

      Donald Trump doesn’t like Chinese for one simple reason. Chinese, over the past half century, they have managed to build capacity in terms of infrastructure, technology, science & other aspects of life for its people. Remember China was relatively poor country, where millions were dying of poverty, but the communist China managed to build capacity quietly & silently to compete with US pounds for pounds. This is what Africa should be doing under the auspices of African Union just like EU. We start building strong organizations within AU,for example, security council, banking, common currency etc If we start doing that well, other nations will begin to respect Africa. Coming back to Donald Trump with his constant insult on China, that China is stealing US’ intellectual property. Remember that, the modern US you see today was built with assistance of German Scientists after second world war, therefore no country can claim to have absolute capacity we all inter dependent.

      Number No.2: Zuma Administration & Systemic corruption

      In SA, our newly found democracy was doing well under both administrations of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki respectively until we had Jacob Zuma as our fourth president. Under Zuma Administration, South Africa was taken to dogs, the Executive arm of government was totally corrupted headed by the President himself. That corruption was not limited to the executive level, it went through to entire levels government. All our government agencies were corrupted to the core. The sad part of all that, was the president would always plead innocent & dismissed all as allegations. The rest is history now.
      Corruption steals our next generation’s future. Money stolen today make our country’s future bleak everyday. Corruption destroys! In SA, we still live the aftermath of corruption. This has prevented service delivery of essential services in our municipal areas.
      Let us thrive as Africans to become ethical leaders, and start to be honest and build our economies for our next generation!

      God bless Africa!

  20. Whoever that must have written that article was paid to do so, and if not it then means that those ideas must have come from his head and not his brain.
    Unfortunately, he did not research very before before coming out to make a fool of himself.

  21. Dstv should have introduced pay-as-you-go tariff like it is done in SA to make it more flexible..see what is happening in the power sector with the introduction of prepaid meter

  22. You can bla bla for all I care. Who killed hitv?, is it not dstv?. Even if this government isn’t doing well at least this very policy is up there. I support he government 100% on this.

  23. DSTV AND GO TV ARE VERY EXPENSIVE IN GHANA OOO…. THEY HAVE JUST INCREASED IT AGAIN FROM (GH¢210 – GH¢250 )
    JUST FOR COMPACT PLUS.
    you Nigerians cry about everything … You guys are really luck

  24. Why not tell dstv to pack their load if they will. They will not because Nigeria has been an unregulated market where they have been exploiting us at will. Check their charges in other countries.

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