By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerians were thrown off-balance on Tuesday after MultiChoice Nigeria announced that from next month, subscribers of its DStv and GOtv bouquets will have to pay more to watch their favourite channels.
This issue generated reactions as always and to quell the furore, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has announced that it is engaging the pay-television company for clarity of the subscription fee increment.
Mr Babatunde Irukera, the Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, explained that the engagement was to check whether the company implemented a change in terms and conditions in line with the commission’s mandated steps.
According to him, the agency’s orders were broad and it will be important that compliance was prioritized.
“Although we cannot, and did not regulate price except in limited circumstances requiring presidential approval and gazetting.
“As such, our order to MultiChoice did not prevent them from pricing their services in a manner acceptable between them and their subscribers.
“We regulate price gouging. The nature of gouging is post-fact, meaning that when a price movement occurs, we can investigate to determine if it is excessive, exploitative, unrestored or manifestly unjust.
“Such is a very intricate investigation and the fact of the existence of any increase is not the entire evidence.
“There is a method to analyse the increase and other circumstances leading to it.
“As in the case of pharmacies, we are prosecuting for inordinate increases of certain products during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For now, the first check with MultiChoice is whether they implement, or intend to, a material change in terms and conditions (of which price is one) without the steps the Commission has mandated as conditions precedent,” he said.
Business Post had reported that MultiChoice on March 22 in a statement, announced the increase in DStv and GOtv subscription rates, blaming it on rising cost of inflation and business operations.
The rates are Xtraview +PVR access fee formally N2,300, now N2,900, Business will now go for N2,669, Padi formally N1,850 will now be N2,150, Yanga formally N2,565 will now be N2,950, Confam formally N4,615 will now be N5,300.
Also, Compact formally N7,900 will now be N9,000, Compact Plus formally N12,400 will now be N14,250, while Premium which was N18,400 will now go for N21,000.
For GOtv, Max formally N3,600 will now be N4,150, Jolli formally N2,460 is now N2,800, Jinja formally N1,640 will now go for N1,900 and Lite formally N800 will now be N900.
The company said the new rates would take effect from April 1.
Prior to that, FCCPC had ordered the company to introduce a price lock option that allowed subscribers to maintain the same subscription fee for a minimum period of one year subject to a contractual agreement that clearly specified the applicable terms and conditions.
The commission also directed the company to have a better value for money proposition for annual prepayment of subscription, including the ability to suspend subscription at least once every quarter of the year.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Business Post Contributor