The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has ordered the management of MultiChoice to suspend the implementation of its new tariffs hike on different bouquets on its Digital Satellite Television, DSTV.
The NBC Acting-Director General, Mr. Armstrong Idachaba, while briefing members of an Ad- Hoc Committee looking into the hike in tariffs on Tuesday at the National Assembly, said “I want to agree with the Committee and call on DSTV to suspend the hike in tariffs.”
Also, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, announced Federal government’s plan to break the Sporting rights monopoly of DSTV.
Mohammed told the lawmakers that he already signed a code to break the monopoly of MultiChoice in the country, saying “our amendments to the Broadcasting Act, will affect the break in the monopoly of MultiChoice. Amendments to Section 628 of the Broadcasting Act, is in our broad national interest.”
The Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee and other lawmakers who quizzed the Minister of Information and Culture on the new payment template issued by Multichoice for payment of DSTV subscription, decried the high cost of tariffs.
He said the House viewed the increase in the price of subscription of satellite television on the Pay As You Go system as an affront that must be immediately suspended.
