MultiChoice Nigeria has reacted to declining subscriptions by lowering the prices of DSTV decoders and giving subscription upgrade to customers.
The company has experienced 243, 000 subscriber losses in the six months to September 2024 due to inflation of more than 30% and devaluation of the currency which the firm cites as the main reasons.
This would be the trend even in the early 2025 after increasing the prices of DSTV Compact and other packages by 21-25%.
To overcome the loss MultiChoice came up with the Price Lock and the Step-Up offers.
They allow the subscribers to upgrade packages or retain the current rates upon renewal, which helps in cost management in the face of economic pressure.
Decoders were made cheaper as well and subscription packages coupled with some extras.
According to the company, this dual strategy targets to reduce churn and increase the appeal of packages.
Yet critics note that it could be too late to make such moves.
The House of Representatives in Nigeria and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission have sounded alarm.
They have claimed MultiChoice is engaged in insensitive pricing and have asked the hikes to be suspended, and have requested regulatory investigations.
With intense competition with streaming platforms such as Netflix and Showmax, which increased by half last year, MultiChoice faces a long-term decline.
Its strategy has now integrated price reduction, customer incentives and lobbying to get regulatory endorsement.
However, it is yet to be known whether these steps will be able to end the process of subscriber erosion and rebuild consumer confidence in the Nigerian unstable economy.
