by Christian Maurice

All over the world, the cost of acquisition and subscription have been going down except on DSTV which has continuously vowed to embark on yearly price reviews

Ever since the English Football Association announced its mega money deal for the Barclays Premier League, I have been waiting in anticipation of announcement from DSTV on their yearly price review. In one of the biggest sport sponsorship deals of all time, the English Premier League on Tuesday, February 10, 2015 secured a three-year television broadcasting deal worth US$7.86-billion (some 70% above the previous sponsorship). This new deal with Sky Sports and BT is exclusive of international broadcast rights and add-on deals such as highlights packages for which the BBC paid $308 million. Once you throw in the overseas rights for the 2016-19 cycle to which Nigeria is included and which will be sold later in the year (currently worth around $3.3 billion and will most certainly rise), you will then begin to appreciate the scale of such a deal. In the deal, Sky Sports, a pay-TV broadcaster which has built its business on soccer coverage, will broadcast 126 games and BT, a telecommunications group that includes TV and broadband offerings, will broadcast 42 games. The deal runs for three seasons starting from 2016 and means that each game will cost around US$15,6-million.

You don’t stay ahead of the competition for nothing and as the experiences from HiTV suggests, all one needs to do is lock in the premier offering, which is the BPL and you can as well charge whatever you please.

Unlike most Nigerians though, I am not raising objections because the proposed increase is targeted at Nigerians. For God’s sake, no. We should be able to rise above these primordial sentiments anytime it raises its head. The price increment is pan Africa and this is to be expected when world record sponsorship deals are lined up for your viewing pleasure. Someone has to pay for it though and that’s you, the subscriber.

The new UK deal has increased the cost per game by 56% from £6.5 million to £10.2 million – or an amazing £113,000 a minute. The percentage growth is a bit lower than the absolute cost, as this deal includes more games per season (up from 154 to 168)

– Swiss Ramble

However, considering the massive market that DSTV serves in Sub Saharan Africa and its current charges versus product offerings, one will be tempted to question why there should be an increase at all. I am on the premium bouquet. I have been subscribed to the service for the past 15 years. While one can acknowledge that there has been noticeable efforts to add to the channels and programs on offer, yet I am aware that the company still lags shockingly behind with contemporaries particularly in the UK who not only offer bundled Pay TV packages but also at a cost that is almost half what I would describe as basic products from DSTV.

In the UK, many pay-TV operators offer  “triple play” packages in which they bundle both telephone and broadband internet services with pay-TV. A couple of others even make it a “quadruple play” with the addition of cellular services with broadband, telephone, and TV. For instance, Sky TV’s unlimited bundle is $48/month and offers you not just the full bouquet of sports and entertainment but also the potpourri of broadband internet and free weekend calls. BT Tv’s vision package is barely $57 and comes with packages similar to Sky TV. For the equivalence of $50, Virgin Media serves you its premium package (The Big Kahuna Bundle) with over 200 channels: including 43 HD channels, Tivo catch up and on-demand services as well as the big one: unlimited fibre optic broadband internet and free weekend calls. Although, you’ll cough out a whopping $128 for the full sports channels.

The point is, nothing of such exists with DSTV yet their premium bouquet at $88 is nearly double what their contemporaries charge in the UK. Before you raise issues, I am aware that there are many other factors that go into pricing but let’s keep it simple for argument sake.

As at the last time I checked, DSTV Premium offers only 147 TV channels, of which at least 17 of those channels aren’t even accessible to Nigerians. So essentially, its only 130 channels with no added benefits of internet and/or telephone calls.

All over the world, the cost of acquisition and subscription have been going down except on DSTV which has continuously vowed to embark on yearly price reviews:

“We review our DStv bouquets prices every year to accommodate the cost of the DStv service. We have revised our prices to be able to continue providing the DStv service and to accommodate our plans to enhance our products and services for the year ahead”

– 2013 DSTV Press Release

The new BPL sponsorship deal merely gives them an opportunity to embark on their routine exploitation of the African markets.Possibly, we should be grateful that the price increase is only 14% and not more than the projected 56% that it currently costs the sponsors per game.

Something has to be said about a company that sees no humility in the success of its enterprise in a region where many have been but failed. It raises the uncomfortable question why companies of the size and scope of DSTV have not ventured substantially into this market to give a semblance of competition to this underwhelming behemoth.

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–  Christian Maurice tweets from @Kritzmoritz

 

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.