There was outrage on social media at the weekend over what users describe as the serial repetition of shows on Multichoice Cable TV popularly known as DSTV. The issue was ignited when a Twitter user lamented about repeatedly seeing the movie, Rush Hour for a month.
“DSTV has been repeating Rush Hour for like 1 month now. Even Natgeo wild I love watching is just repeating the same documentaries. In fact, I know all the Lions in Kenya,” Twitter user, Osca Ranking said.
This tweet set off a chain reaction from other Twitter users who have probably been looking for a way to air their dissatisfaction about the cable Tv.
A Twitter user, Abisola said, “Dstv, bring your USB cord, let me copy movies for you.” Another user simply identified as Broztitute wondered how DSTV could have more than 100 channels and still manage to be boring. Yet another Tweep, Panda Footies said, “DSTV be repeating movies every time, I knew I shouldn’t have thrown my DVD away.”
Nigerians have long since run out of patience for DSTV which, though has some of the highest rates in the country, fail to match its high bills with quality content. Many football lovers have indeed expressed that aside from live football games, DSTV offers nothing extraordinary.
So, why does DSTV repeat shows?
Why DSTV repeats shows
Complaints about repeated shows are not new and it seems to be an integral part of DSTV’s programming strategy. Back in 2015, while defending accusations of repetition, MultiChoice Chief Content Officer, David Booth said a repeat is not a repeat if you haven’t seen it.
“Repeats are a part of the eco-system of multichannel television. It’s about giving audiences another opportunity to see programming – the chances of coming to something first time round is getting smaller by the day because of the increasingly fragmented viewing environment,” Mr Booths said.
“We’re seeing repeats and archive programming having more life. Having exclusively live content available costs billions and no broadcaster in the world has that kind of offering, the challenge for us is balancing fresh hours of content and archive programming, which is a fine balancing act.” said David Booth.
Tim Jacobs who explained how EPL rights impacted DStv subscription fees, said EPL rights went up 70%. “In order to absorb that in our cost structure we had to rebalance content.”
While all of this makes a lot of economic sense from the business perspective, for viewers back in Nigeria, it sounds like a load of higi-haga. So what alternatives are there to DSTV? Check out a number of them below.
Other Alternatives to DSTV
It is old news at this point that Nigerians aren’t too pleased with Dstv. Asides from its apparent boringness, there also appears to be the problem of cost and the company’s penchant for arbitrarily increasing its prices as it feels.
Recently, there has been an emergence of other Pay-TV enterprises all coming in with promises of good entertaining content at cheaper rates. Check out some of them:
1. Startimes
The company was founded in 1988 and based in China. It is a major player in the Asian country’s Pay-TV market, according to its official website, with over 7 million users. Its operations have expanded to ten African countries, including Nigeria and Kenya.
Startimes has channels that include news, music, movie channels like Iroko Plus, local Nigerian channels like Wazobia TV, kiddies TV like Nickelodeon and of course, football including exclusive rights to some football content like the Europa League and the German Football League.
Startimes uses high towered signal transmission masts to propagate their signals within a defined geographical area. All you require to capture this signal is a special Ariel antenna connected to a digital signal decoder which is set at same frequency parameters with the frequency of the propagated signal.
Packages:
| Name of Bouquet | Nova Bouquet | Basic Bouquet | Classic Bouquet | Unique Bouquet |
| Cost per month | N600 | N1,200 | N2,400 | N3,600 |
| No. of channels | 26+ | 40+ | 60+ | 80+ |
2. Netflix
Netflix is a leader in global video streaming, making it possible to stream movies and TV shows on your smart TV, game console, PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet, and more. It offers an excellent range of content – including critically-acclaimed original shows – in HD and UHD, and its apps are available on most popular devices.
Each Netflix subscription plan in Nigeria has different prices. The Basic plan costs $7.99 (₦2900), the Standard plan costs $9.99 (₦3600.00), while the Premium plan costs $11.99 (₦4400.00).
To Set up your Netflix
- Go to Netflix website and sign up or Download Netflix app from Google Play Store or Apple App Store and signup.
- Choose the “Start Your Free Month”
- Select a plan of your choice.
3. Android TV Box
An Android TV box is a streaming device that you can plug into your TV to access streaming services such as Netflix, which are typically only available on portable devices such as laptops, tablets and phones, or on smart TVs.
Setup: An Android TV box connects to a TV through the HDMI connection on the back. Various streaming services and apps may then be viewed on your TV rather than on a tablet or laptop after the box is set up, and no casting is required.
It costs between 13,500 Naira to 18,000 Naira depending on the capabilities.
4. FireStick
FireStick is an Android-based device. However, unlike most Android devices, FireStick does not support Google Play Services. It uses the modified Android OS and supports Amazon Store. With FireStick, you can stream movies, shows, live TV, and just about anything you can think of.
There is no monthly fee to use the Fire TV Stick itself but keep in mind that being a Prime member greatly increases its value. Services like Hulu Plus, Netflix, HBO (required for HBO GO), etc all have their own associated subscription costs.
You can buy a FireStick between 12,000 Naira to 45,000 Naira depending on your pocket rate.
Conclusion
The other alternatives to Dstv are on the different packages depending on what you can afford and almost all are easy to set up yourself. This doesn’t mean Dstv is fully out of favour as a lot of households still prefer it as their source of entertainment.
But if you’re bored of the usual and want to see something different, you can try the other alternatives.
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