Nigeria Content Online

Cable television
networks will soon operate pay-as-you-go. Eddy Aina, a director at the
office of the Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission,
NBC, said the organisation is working on and will soon establish a
policy that will compel cable television networks in Nigeria to charge
as the consumers use their services.

Mr. Aina was
responding to concerns raised at the Consumer Forum organised by the
Consumer Advocacy Forum of Nigeria (CAFON) at the Lagos Television,
Agidingbi, Ikeja on Tuesday. Many consumers, including Shola Salako,
president, CAFON, and the convener of the forum complained that the
major cable networks in the country, DSTV and HiTV, are ripping
consumers off by charging for services that are sometimes not provided
or they cannot access due to poor power supply. “In the next few
months, NBC is going to come up with a pay-as-you go policy for the
cable TV networks,” said Mr Aina. “As for tariff, it is an industry
thing. They set up the tariff and if you ask why it is so high in
Nigeria they will tell you the poor infrastructure like poor power
supply made it so. But when government is able to settle the issue of
electricity then we can ask them to reduce the tariff.”

At this edition of
the monthly consumer forum which focused on getting better services
from cable TV networks, officials and members of the Sports Viewing
Centres Association of Nigeria voiced their grievances, particularly as
it relates to their on-going tussle with HiTV.

‘It’s a rip off’

The president of
the association, Seye Aluko, said they are insisting on not paying the
N15,000 monthly subscription fee that HiTV is charging for viewing
centres as against N6,000 for home use. “HiTV started well by telling
us to buy decoder with subscription for N2,500; that time it was only
La Liga they were showing. The next season they got English Premier
League and they increased to N3,000. From that to N4,000; from N4,000
to N6,000; from N6000 to N15,000, haba! HiTV,” said Deolu Ogubanjo,
president of the National Association of Telecom Subscribers of Nigeria.

Mrs. Salako advised the proprietors of the viewing centres to
register with the NBC and the Lagos State Consumer Protection Committee
so that their case can be settled through those authorities. She also
raised questions of consumers who had contacted her before the
programme, including why the cable network goes off when it is raining,
considering that the consumer’s money is still reading whether there is
rain or not? The representatives of DSTV, Segun Fayose and that of
HiTV, Vivian Chigboh, attempted to answer all the questions.