The Senate has asked MultiChoice to reduce the prices of DStv and GOtv subscription packages due to the current economic circumstance of the country after the company increases its prices last week.
Abba Moro, a senator representing Benue South raised the motion on Wednesday.
According to Moro during his resolution, he said MultiChoice Nigeria always increases the rate of its packages “because there is no regulation whatever in the area of fixing rates”.
He explained that without recourse to the economic situation of the country, MultiChoice has again raised the cost of DStv and GOtv packages.
He also said Nigerians are insisting that, instead of paying fixed rates for packages monthly, pay-TV service providers should introduce a subscription model which allows subscribers pay-per-view to enable them to match their TV consumption to subscription as is with the case of electricity metering and mobile telephony.
Supporting the motion, Barau Jibrin, senator representing Kano north, said regulators should deter paying television companies from increasing the prices of their packages incessantly.
“Because of the nature of electricity we have in this country, sometimes someone will pay but lack of light won’t allow the person to enjoy such services yet once the month ends, that money goes,” Jibrin said.
“There should be a system where there will be pay-per-view.
“The regulators should do the needful by not allowing an increase of fees by these entities the way they like. It is not in the interest of our people.
“I thereby support this motion because we need to stand for the interest of our people.”
Thereupon the motion was approved by the upper legislative chamber, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said Multichoice can’t always increase prices in other countries.
“What DStv is doing here, they can’t do it in many countries but here they do it and get away with it,” Lawan said.
“So we need to have a public hearing. Our ad-hoc committee should be given the mandate to do a whole-scale investigation.”
An ad hoc committee was set up to probe the price hike by pay television companies.
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