Earlyface

Nigerians who subscribe to pay TV are
now at the receiving 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."