It is true that virtually no year passes without MultiChoice either reviewing the prices of its DStv or GOtv brands. Nigerians have seen DStv and GOtv subscription tariffs go up without any justification for such increment nor a relationship with the market forces or trend. However, this 2015 has witnessed a remarkable adjustment in the prices of DStv and GOtv decoder systems simultaneously and reading down this post, you will come to realize how the Nigerian market forces influenced the changes in the prices of the MultiChoice Nigeria brands – DStv and GOtv.
Before this last quarter of 2015, the GOtv decoder and antenna with one month subscription was sold at 4,500 NGN while the DStv system could be bought at 18,500 NGN but without any embedded one month subscriptions. It is no news saying that the DStv brand from MultiChoice had already penetrated and captured the Nigerian digital satellite TV home entertainment market. Infact, Nigeria has remained the biggest market for DStv in the whole of Africa – this is according to confirmed sources.
But with the emergence of GOtv and its unexpected low cost as against the very high cost of DStv, the Nigerian market saw a sharp twist in the purchasing and subscription trends from DStv to GOtv. Most Nigerian subscribers who has DStv would pack up their satellite decoder systems to embrace the low-cost digital terrestrial GOtv system. I am sure that at some point, MultiChoice would have started experiencing a larger daily subscriber turnover on GOtv than on DStv.
This change in purchase trend simply implies that Nigerians gradually became tired of paying through their nose just to watch DStv. Coupled with the present –day economic crunch in the country; it became simply impossible for most Nigerians to maintain the huge monthly expences that accrues from subscribing to the DStv programs and channels. Alternatively, GOtv became a welcome change.
Sincerely, there is no confusion saying that DStv remains the best in the technology of super digital satellite pay-TV service in Nigeria and indeed Africa, but its unfriendly price and tariff before this last month of December 2015 proved counter-productive in maintaining that status-quo.
The New Cheap Prices of DStv and GOtv (Plus Free Channel Bouquet Upgrade)
Now and as if in a suiting response to the ugly market trend in Nigeria, MultiChoice has announced a new reduced price for its DStv brand as well as its GOtv. The price of DStv now is 15,000 NGN with free channels upgrade from the Family bouquet (3,600 NGN) to Compact Bouquet (6,000 NGN). This is against the former 18,000 NGN which didn’t have any bouquet in it. In the same vein, the price of GOtv has also been hiked from 4,500 NGN to 6,900 NGN. I believe this is conscious move by MultiChoice to strike and maintain economic profit balance between these two best brands in the digital satellite TV DStv and its GOtv digital terrestrial TV brands in Nigeria.
However, only subscribers would have the final say in these whole developments. But one thing is sure; no one would like to spend this Christmas season without a digital TV entertainment in his or her home.