By Taofeek Bankole

As the cracking round of 16 game between European heavyweights Italy and underdogs Austria set to kick-off on Saturday night, my wife reminded me of episode 14 of The Voice Nigeria, a music reality show we are both huge fans of.

That reminder meant we had to choose between Africa Magic Urban (DStv channel 153) or Euro 2020 HD (DStv channel 204).

She’s not much of a football lover like me, so it was an obviously easy decision for her. For me? It was a sweet dilemma. I love my football, but I’m also a sucker for music and reality shows like Nigerian Idol and The Voice Nigeria offer a rare look into the lives and journeys of upcoming stars.

In the end, we had to toss a card to determine the DStv channel we’d go with for the night. The card flipped in her favour, but we both won. I got to see the wonderful singing talents the judges have finally picked on the episode, and I was lucky that the football game extended to extra-time with most of the actions coming at the latter part.

This headache is not new to us. The array of original and quality content on DStv means that everyday of the week, we make tough decisions to choose a programme to watch among all our favourites. But, for good reasons, The Voice Nigeria and Nigerian Idol are a mainstay. For us, there is absolutely no shortage of entertainment on the Pay TV service that has held sway in Nigeria for nearly three decades.

Many subscribers have raised concerns over the years about the need for MultiChoice to provide a pay per view subscription option, citing challenges such as epileptic power supply, time spent away from their TV at home, and financial/economic strain as reasons. These concerns are valid.

I have had opportunities to be in rooms where top executives at MultiChoice have been asked the difficult questions about the need to provide pay per view subscription option to DStv subscribers, and every time they have done justice to the public queries.

As one of those advocates for a pay per view subscription model, I have at different times gone in search of alternatives to what DStv offers in terms of content, and the reality hit me hard in the balls. Pay Tv isn’t cheap anywhere in the world.

Outside the shores of Nigeria, and in the United States of America in particular, Pay TV goes as high as $80 monthly for the top Cable TV companies, with the cheapest monthly packages being from Xfinity and Cox with $20 and $25 respectively. And while it is dangerous to gauge the prices of services in Nigeria on the same scale as the USA due to different economic realities, these packages will barely rival what DStv offers in terms of pricing.

When compared to other Pay TV services in Nigeria like StarTimes, DStv with the amount of original and quality content it offers, without a doubt provides unmatched packages with value.

To their credit, both DStv and StarTimes have made good attempts to address the call for pay per view subscription model with pocket friendly packages for Nigerians.

The DStv Yanga, Confam, Compact, Compact Plus, Premium packages mean that there’s something for every class of Nigerians, with the content nonetheless of the same quality and originality.

DStv’s Yanga package goes as low as N2,565, while Confam goes for N4,615. The Compact package which I currently subscribe for, goes for N6,975. Then there’s the Compact Plus and Premium packages, which go for N10,925 and N16,200 respectively. The Pay TV service has also done well in providing incentives for subscribers, with options to move a package higher following prompt subscriptions.

Commendably, Nigerian Idol and The Voice Nigeria, both well followed music reality shows by millions of people, are available for viewing on all pocket friendly packages on DStv.

In comparison, StarTimes offers commendable low prices for their packages, offering as low as N100 for their daily sports plan. Their Nova bouquet is N900, while the Basic and Classic bouquets are pegged at N1,700 and N2,500 respectively. However, these packages as well as their Dish Bouquets (StarTimes Super, StarTimes Smart Bouquet, StarTimes Nova), offer limited channels and content in music entertainment. None of these packages offer me the best entertainment in terms of original and premium content, especially for music.

Music channels on DStv like Hip TV (DStv channel 324), Soundcity (DStv channel 327), Trace Naija (DStv channel 325), Afro Music Pop (DStv channel 326), MTV Base Africa (DStv channel 322), Channel O (DStv channel 320) and many more provide the best music entertainment and ensure every music lover like me stay up-to-date with their favourite stars. And for music reality shows, they don’t get better than Nigerian Idol and The Voice Nigeria which are both showing on DStv channels. These shows do not just provide original and quality entertainment content, they also give the viewer an opportunity to share in the success stories of participants.

Considering that the attention on the Nigerian entertainment industry is at an all time high, as it generates over $7 billion for the economy and accounts for 1.4% of GDP according to IMF reports, MultiChoice is making sure Nigerians feel they are a part of every milestone the industry achieves. The lineup of quality music channels and original shows on DStv makes it an important contributor to the music revenue in Nigeria which has been estimated to rise at a 13.4% CAGR to $73 million in 2021.

Needless to say, on providing unrivalled entertainment content at pocket friendly value, MultiChoice Nigeria indeed, gets it. For now, their packages are as best as one can get, until the magic wand of pay per view is finally waved in this part of the world.