Multichoice MD Reveals Why They Won't Slash Their Tariff

Mr John Ugbe, the Managing Director of Multichoice in Nigeria, has explained why the pay-media company which offers the DStv service in Nigeria will not be able to meet the demand of those clamouring for a slash of their tariffs.

According to Ugbe, Multichoice has played its part in developing local con­tents in Nigeria and they are not going to send their prices down to where the business will no longer be viable and the business folds up.

He said: “I believe the pricing of the product is proportional to the size of the market. So as a business, we are always looking into how more efficiently we can serve the market, the best price we can sell the product because we want to grow.

“If you look at the competition in the business over the last 20 to 21 years, you will see where the business is coming from: when there is only one subscription, right down to today when at N1,500, you have access to over 40 channels.


“Even with GoTV product, that is even lower than that. With N1,000, you have access to many chan­nels. So, we have continuously reduced our price over time and it is something the business will come to do; to look at every way to do that.

“However, we are a responsible business, we have shareholders, different stakehold­ers.Even the communities around us are some of our stakeholders. So, we have responsibility to our shareholders too.

“We are not going to send our prices down to where the business will no longer be viable, and the business folds up because, at the end of the day, our shareholders expect some form of profitability. Don’t forget, if we take our prices to a point where the business goes out of existence, we will defi­nitely send over 20,000 Nigerian families into the streets.


NAIJ.COM