Satellite television company, Multichoice has debunked reports circulating online that the company has reduced the subscription prices for users in Nigeria. Major Twitter accounts on X, yesterday, shared unconfirmed announcements of reduction in prices, led by @Maritemise_AD.
According to a source who spoke to Businessday, the entertainment company only reduced the prices of decoders.
“We only reduced our decoder prices and not subscription prices. The DStv Zapper was slashed from N65,000 to N22,900 while the Zapper and the dishkit were slashed from N100,000 to N57,900. For GOtv, the Pizza Box was slashed from N56,000 to N19,900 and all of these took effect from the 1st of June 2024”, the source said.
MultiChoice Nigeria is in the midst of a legal battle following a ruling by the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) that fined Multichoice Nigeria the total sum of N150 million for challenging the court’s jurisdiction and ordered the company to provide a one-month free DStv and GOtv subscription to users in the country.
The judgement was delivered two weeks ago by a bench of three judges, led by Justice Thomas Okosu.
A source informed Nairametrics today that Multichoice Nigeria has filed an appeal against the ruling.
Recall that Multichoice announced a price adjustment for DStv and GOtv packages on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
Following a suit filed by Barrister Festus Onifade, the Tribunal issued an interim stay order that restrained MultiChoice from increasing its subscription rates pending the hearing and determination of a motion. Onifade sued Multi-Choice Nigeria Ltd and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for unjustly increasing subscription fees without serving a statutory one-month notice to customers.
Subsequently, Multichoice Nigeria challenged the jurisdiction of the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) to restrain it from increasing the prices of its DStv and GOtv packages.
Multichoice’s lawyer, M.J. Onibanjo (SAN) told the CCPT via his application on Tuesday that it should decline jurisdiction on the suit filed by Festus Onifade because such a price dispute case had been decided before in favour of his client.
The lawyer also maintained that the planned increase announced by Multichoice on 24th April 2024 is a completed act because all its systems have been so configured.
On the 1st of May, Multichoice proceeded with the upward adjustment of its prices for DStv and GOtv subscribers by 25%, despite the court ruling ordering a stay of action. The company announced that the new price regime would take effect on the 15th of May.
For DStv Premium subscribers, the price has moved from N29,500 to N37,000. Also, the price for Compact Plus has soared from 19,800 to 25,000. The Compact bouquet rate has moved from N12,500 to 15,700 while Confam and Yanga subscribers will now pay N9,300 and N5,100 respectively from their previous rates of N7,400 and N4,200.
Following the price increase, Barrister Onifade in a fresh motion, asked the Tribunal to order Multi-choice Nigeria Limited to pay the sum of N1,000,000,000.00 (One Billion Naira only) or any amount the Tribunal deem may fit appropriate in this circumstance for “deliberately disobeying, contravening, and failure to comply with the Interim Order of this Honourable Tribunal granted on the 29th April 2024.”
At a sitting to determine the motion, the Tribunal noted that Multichoice has already disobeyed its interim orders, adding that hiking DSTV and GOTV prices is condemnable and must not be condoned. The tribunal dismissed Multichoice’s preliminary objection for disobeying its interim orders.
As a result, the Tribunal imposed an administrative penalty on Multichoice for failing to comply with an order of the tribunal: “The first defendant is hereby mandated to pay N150 million penalty“. It also added that the satellite pay-tv company should compensate users with internet subscriptions: “Multichoice is hereby ordered to give Nigerians one month free subscription.”
