Following their high tariffs and for allegedly cheating Nigerian subscribers by restricting them to prepaid plans, the House of Representatives has begun an investigation of DStv and some other cable and satellite television service providers in Nigeria.
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The Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, recently, inaugurated an ad hoc committee to investigate the hike of subscription rates by the cable television service providers.
Hon. Unyime Idem, the Chairman of the Committee, at the investigative hearing on Thursday, stated that the National Broadcasting Commission was summoned to explain why the service providers had refused to introduce pay-per-view.
Idem said:
We want to hear from you and your team, how the industry can be properly managed so that beneficiaries who are Nigerians can smile at the end of the day. I am sure you must have been hearing of the yearnings of Nigerians for years now, who are the subscribers to these services, that they are not happy with the current services they are getting from the providers.
They have been crying on a daily basis that they are not satisfied with the services they are getting from the providers in terms of high charges, price hike and, most importantly, considering what is obtainable in other countries of the world, that is pay-as you-view offer that other countries are giving to their subscribers.
The acting NBC Director General, Armstrong Idacha, while responding to questions, revealed that the issue of high subscription rates imposed by Multichoice had been contentious over the years.
The NBC DG explained that the Corporation had amended the Act to prohibit exclusive rights of programmes by a service provider, with a view to reducing the level of monopoly in the creative industry, adding that plans are underway to introduce ‘technological concept’ to ensure that subscribers are not billed when they are not watching.
Idacha stated:
The concept is easy to implement on mobile telephone with the use of data, while it is impossible to do same on the Pay TV service provider who subscribed to broadcasting live programmes at the International market. The challenge at hand was that the contents acquired by Multichoice at the international market was based on projected or assumed subscribers, and the technology will help in building content for signal distribution platform since it’s continuous live broadcast.
