DSTv introduces Access bouquet, adjusts subscription

Digital Satellite Television (DStv) service provider, MultiChoice Nigeria, has introduced a new bouquet on its platform, called DTSV Access, just as it adjusted fees of its compact and premium bouquets upwards, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. Joseph Hundah said, the new bouquet was in response to the yearnings of aspiring DStv lovers to have access to high quality content at a subscription fee of N1,500 monthly.

Access, he said, would contain 27 world-class channels at inception and the number would be increased to 34 before December this year, stressing that the bouquet offer cuts across the major entertainment genres.

“The bouquet line up will cut across entertainment and movies, lifestyle, sports, documentary, children, music, religion, news and current affairs, among others,” he said, noting that the DStv Access is in keeping with the company’s consumer-centric philosophy to make available to a greater number of people in the country.

“We carried out extensive research and focus group discussions and discovered that a good number of Nigerians wish to have access to world-class information and television programming but these potential subscribers are hindered by their purchasing power. We decided to meet the consumers’ aspiration by creating yet another bouquet to further lower the entry barrier without taking away the value-added advantage that DStv is synonymous with,” Hundah said.

On the adjustment in its fees, Hundah said new subscription fees for DStv compact and premium, from September 1, 2009, take effect, even as DStv family remains at N2,500 monthly.

Explaining further, he said, the prevailing operating environment in country with attendant rising cost of providing service necessitated the adjustment in subscription fees.

“In the last four years, we have had to contend with the impact of fluctuation in the exchange rate, double digit inflation and rising cost of overheads. Within the same period, we have increased the number of channels on our bouquets by at least 10 without an accompanying increase in subscription fees. We have also discounted the cost of hardware considerably to meet the needs of many new subscribers,” he said.

Hundah also said with the impending launch of its High Definition Personal Video Recorder (PVR) decoder and system upgrade in the last quarter of the year, hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, will begin to enjoy high quality, entertainment as well as educative programmes.

“We are also looking at ways of reducing the cost of these programmes. The benefits of these measures we are taking will always be passed on to our subscribers,” he said.


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