RUMOURED: MTN TO ACQUIRE DStv, MULTICHOICE

The news making the rounds has it that one of the leading telecommunication giants in Nigeria and Africa MTN might soon acquire DStv, GOtv and indeed MultiChoice services. Although the reality of this gigantic technology-driven acquisition has not been independently verified, rumor has it that talks between Naspers Group and MTN allegedly have not yielded any terms in that regards.

 

The Naspers Group is a global internet and entertainment giant with so many Multinationals as its subsidiaries. One of its subsidiaries in the Satellite TV technology industry is MultiChoice. This company is the privoder of the DStv and the GOtv pay-TV services in Nigeria and entire Africa.

According to some online sources which we could not verify, the Naspers might consider a deal with MTN on the acquisition of DStv, GOtv and MultiChoice. However surprising is this move because with the levels of market penetration and patronage of Nigerians alone, MultiChoice would have been enjoying an impressively robust balance sheet.

Even with the introduction of the Free-TV system via the digitisation policy of the federal government of Nigeria, which I believe may provide some degree of competition with DStv and FOtv, it will take years before the Free TV Set-top box system would favourably compete with MultiChoice  digital satellite and terrestrial pay-TV systems. If this rumor is true I wouldn’t think this time is ripe for such venture.

As much as I thought, the Naspers through their subsidiary MultiChoice have been great with maintaining the unrivalled quality of visual-audio, super-digital and highly entertaining signals from DStv and GOtv. The technology have been second to none although Nigerians have been clamouring to have the pay-as-you-view system.

On this aspect maybe, the coming of MTN will unleash the pay-as-you-view system on DStv and GOtv, just as Nigerians are currently enjoying the per second billing on the MTN mobile phone network.