Nigerians have described the recent increase by Multi-Choice, owners of DSTV of its subscription fees as uncalled for and demanded its immediate reversal.
A group of Abuja residents who gathered outside the DSTV office at Maitama District said there was no justification for the hike by the organisation and majority of the people would find it difficult to meet up their monthly obligation if the increase was sustained.
One of the residents, Matthew Uchenna, who said he used to pay N7,850 monthly for his bouquet just to keep his customers entertained with football matches on the Premiere League, pointed out that the amount had been hiked to N9,420 and wondered how he would be able to cope with the additional fund.
“This new price of DSTV is too much and if you pay N6000, you are not given sports station like Super Sport 3 or 7, only Select and Select 2 where current Premiership and Champions Leagues football matches are hardly shown. The worst thing is that even if you pay N10,000 for subscription, whenever your subscription expires they will scramble all the stations without a day of grace.
“What is the benefit of paying such amount of money if the customers are not satisfied? This satellite company is really being unfair to Nigerians. I am aware that last week, a court gave an injunction for DSTV not to implement the increase, but they have implemented it and started collecting the new rate from customers,” he said.
Another resident, Helen Danladi said the new rate would only scare DSTV customers away, “because we have economic challenges in the country and many people are not comfortable with the new subscription fees” and urged DSTV to revert to the old rates.
“The new price came as a shock to me, because, I used to subscribe N5,000, but when I wanted to pay the N5,000, I was told that the new price is now N6,000. I had no choice but to leave without paying, because I did not have more than N5,500 on me. I am thinking of going back to other cheaper satellite TV, because DSTV is not fair to Nigerians at all,” she said.
A DSTV official, who preferred anonymity explained that the increase was necessitated by additional stations added to the bouquet and pleaded for the understanding of the company’s customers. Courtesy: Leadership.