end. Most of the time, they say they pay for services that are
not delivered. Severally, the management of pay TV
companies has called press briefings and customers' fora to
address some of these biting issues concerning their
operations, particularly, with off time lost signals by
subscribers which lasts for days before signals are restored.
As of today, subscribers are at a loss as to who pays for the
lost days. Chikaodili Igwe, a United Kingdom-based Nigerian
who came back to the country recently, was at a Multichoice
agent office, and said that rendering good services to
Nigerians was far from the official policy of the company in
the country. "You will lose the chances of enjoying what you
paid for while Multi-Choice smiles to Johannesburg, South
Africa, with your cash," he said. Yusuf Kale, who said he has
been a regular customer of DStv since 2004 noted that at the
initial stage, services of Multichoice to Nigerians were
satisfactory, but that as time went on, it appeared to lose
focus, "perhaps as patronage increased."
He said like many of his friends, he has started seeking other
cheaper pay TV providers. He explained that the only thing
that still keeps him with the company is the European League
matches, but confessed that he was prepared to start watching
such games at viewing centres.
"I think DStv is forgetting it is now a competitive market,
although those other pay TV companies are not as big but
Nigerians are beginning to rate them to be more effective.
They even have more entertaining programmes," he stated.
Jide Makanjuola, another DStv subscriber, said the cost of
subscribing to the company was equivalent to financial
suicide. Like Kale, he said Nigerians were becoming more
enlightened and that most young users now prefer viewing
sites to recharging their decoders. "It pays far better to pay a
peanut at the viewing centre and save your money. The man
that owns the viewing centre will make his money but you
that subscribe at home will lose in the end," he said.
A subscriber who identified himself as Alhaji Bello queried
the pay TV for being disconnected before the expiration date.
Others also complained of similar problem but not taking into
cognisance the fact that they did not enjoy the services as they
should due to the fact that weather conditions and several
other factors beyond their control, cut short the times they
enjoyed their subscription.
Other affected subscribers are also complaining that they are
cut off sometimes two to three days before the expiration date
of subscription. "This is an action the company is not even
apologetic about," Simon Irete said. "What is annoying to
many is that they are surcharged for late renewal while lost
time is not paid for by the service provider." A staff at
Multichoice office said that the surcharge is as a result of a
computer programme that the company has put in place
"For example, where a customer fails to pay subscription fee
on or before due date, it takes DSTV hours, if not days, to
come back to transmission, but for StarTimes, it is immediate,
even after two weeks off air," Mr. Obinna Nwokennaya, a
subscriber to both pay TV owners explained.
The activities of DSTV management bring to mind the story
of MTN when they came into Nigeria. They told Nigerians
that per second billing was not achievable until after about 10
years, but when Glo launched the per second billing system,
MTN had to adjust to per second billing, a feat they claimed
was not achievable. Are these South African companies out to
drain Nigerians?" Mrs. Uju Amanjo queried.
Amanjo said that DSTV increases tariff over time. "Having
launched pseudo promo few months ago, they (DSTV) hit
back with a new tariff regime for premium subscribers.
For three years, I have been DSTV subscriber and premium
subscriber. I have to delay my subscription this month to
show my anger. They have only added Telemundo and a few
channels that are not viewer-friendly."
Despite having moved from W4 to W7 as promised at a
forum, subscribers still experience poor picture quality during
and after rainfall, and sometimes still pictures, even when
customer's subscription is still running. For the days wasted,
who compensates and who extends the days lost? All these
complaints DSTV management has not been able to address
despite subscribers' constant complaints at various customer
fora," she said.
Ms. Juliana Nnamdi, who said her husband is a yearly
subscriber, said that the husband is in love with the DSTV
brand, but is disappointed with the way he's been treated by
the brand, while pointing out that sometimes, he is cut off
before the subscription expires.
She said that her husband is considering dropping the idea of
the yearly subscription or rather look for an alternative. "We
have not enjoyed anything from the DSTV brand since we
have been subscribing to their platform. We hear about all
manner of promotions and wonder how the winners emerge.
The promos look like a ruse."
The near monopolistic nature of the pay TV market
spearheaded by DSTV has been a thorn in the flesh of
Nigerians, says Mr. Avuru Adunaka, who said that Nigerians
are being milked every day and nothing is done.
A subscriber who does not want his name in print lost signal
for two weeks, even though apologies were sent, he was not
happy with the situation but queried whether Multichoice will
make refunds for the weeks lost.
Accusing the Pay TV provider of insensitivity to consumer
complaints and unreasonable deduction from subscribers, Olu
Olajuwon explained how he was migrated to a platform he
did not subscribe for and yet was made to pay for the service.
When contacted on subscribers' complaints regarding the
length of the scanning period of the DSTV decoder, Segun
Fayose, Head, Public Relations, Multichoice Nigeria, said that
subscribers have been advised severally to buy an
Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) to support their decoder
so that when there is power outage or fluctuation, the decoder
will pick up immediately, "this is the only way subscribers
will not lose important part of a programme."
On scrambled pictures after or during rain, he said that the
problem is peculiar with the technology used, but that the
company is still working on that.
Speaking about lost days, Fayose advised that the best way to
avoid this situation is for subscribers to make payment before
the expiration date and that subscribers should put on their
decoder before making payment, as this is the only way not to
lose viewership.
He said that some subscribers remove their smartcard when
they want to go and make payment, an idea he frowned at.
He that said when payment is made, instead of calling the
customer care, the subscribers should send an SMS to a code,
he advised.
Complaints trailed GOtv, also owned by Multichoice. The
complaints started pouring some months after it was launched
and before Nigerians hardly enjoyed its services.
In defense of GOtv, the Public Relations Manager for GOtv,
Efe Obioma, agreed that during the mentioned days, the
company had serious challenge with transmission glitch, but
said: "The loss of some channels in Lagos has been as a result
of conflict in signal distribution which was caused by third
party interference. We are urgently working on a technical
solution to remedy this problem. Some GOtv channels are still
available; however, it is dependent on where the subscribers
are located."
Exset, pioneers of TV ecosystems for emerging markets,
revealed that its unique digital broadcast ecosystem – Digital
Monetization System -DMS, will provide the ideal solution to
sub-Saharan Africa 's digital broadcasting growth among
those who cannot afford premium subscription services.
While speaking at the Digital Broadcasting Summit and Expo
in Arusha, Tanzania hosted by the Southern African
Broadcasting Association and BSP Media Group, Andrew
Pons, Exset's Director of Marketing, said the company will
be exploring DMS and the multi-faceted benefits that it brings
to emerging markets.
"Exset understands that pay-TV needs a new monetisation
model for emerging markets in order to succeed. That is why
it created DMS, a unique business and technology model that
makes pay-TV self-financing without spending exclusively on
subscriber fees for revenue," Pons said. According to him,
DMS bridges the gap between technology supply and value-
added service creation, facilitating digital television platforms
that can be monetised where previously virtually impossible.
He went on to say that this allows subscribers to benefit from
new information and entertainment services. "Partnering with
Exset, monetised digital switchover will assist in bringing
about social transformation", he said. By deploying DMS, a
very low subscription model of a few dollars a month can be
charged for the digital television service, with additional
operator income gained through selling the interactive TV
space to governments (for health and education information
dissemination), magazines, local service providers,
teleshopping – the list goes on.
Rahul Nehra, Global Head of Sales and Marketing at Exset,
said, "There's a combination of issues in sub-Saharan Africa
countries that have held up the roll out of digital TV services
to vast swathes of the population. The digital divide is
therefore increasing with governments coming under pressure
from a variety of international bodies to tackle this. The TV
set is the ideal way to allow people to access new, exciting
services at a cost they can afford via digital broadcast
infrastructure that are practical to deploy."
Via: Vanguard
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