COULD THIS BE THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF DSTV?

After being subjected to more than two decades of exploitation and all other forms of unfair treatment by DStv, a new indigenous direct to home (DTH) pay TV operator called Telcom satellite television (TStv) is about to wipe the tears of exploited Nigerian DStv customers and bring smiles to their faces all things being equal notably football and other sport lovers.

It is an incontrovertible fact that football is one of the unifying factors in Nigeria. Regardless of the tribe, region, state, religion, and what have you, when the Nigerian national team is playing; Nigerians put aside their differences and come together to cheer their team to victory. 


Additionally, the love for foreign football by Nigerians cannot be quantified.  The huge fan base of foreign clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, etc, across the length and breadth of the country is a pointer to this fact.


 Over the years, DStv being the main pay TV service provider in Nigeria has been taking undue advantage of the situation to exploit its customers in terms of its subscription packages, plans and prices in Nigeria. 


As an ardent football lover you cannot watch your favorite club play without subscribing to the premium package which goes for as high as #14,700 as other packages have confinement to specific channels while TStv offers a pay as you consume service simply by subscribing with a certain amount to a particular package, #3000 being the highest subscription fee. Doesn’t that sound awesome? You don’t even have to worry about monthly subscription because you can subscribe to any package of your choice anytime you like which is one of the most attractive features of TStv.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DStv AND TStv

TStv	DStv
Pay as you watch or consume	Offers monthly subscription package
Initial access charge is #5,000 with decoder and dish	Initial access charge is between #19,900 to #45,000 inclusive of dish, decoder and installation
Highest subscription fee is #3,000	Highest or premium subscription is #14,700
The decoder comes with 20GB free internet facility	No free data
The decoder has a pause function	No pause function
you can make video call with the decoder	Decoder cannot be used for video call
The decoder  has Wi-Fi option	Wi-Fi  available for only premium subscribers

With all these huge and mouth-watering 
offers for prospective TStv customers after the official launching on October 1(Nigeria Independence Day), it is just a matter of time before DStv starts losing its customer because the differences above means TStv is ready to hijack the slogan of DStv by providing “So Much More” services than the later. This is a welcome development at the perfect time for most Nigerians because of the loads of benefits and features TStv offers.

 1.it will create a good healthy competition between DStv and TStv in a bid to provide quality and affordable services to their customers 
2. Average Nigerians can have access to affordable pay TV services and subscribe at will to any package of their choice.
3. It will create more job opportunity for Nigerians and reduce unemployment rate a bit through the employment of 5,000 unemployed persons. 
4. DStv might be compelled to cut down on the exorbitant prices of its subscription packages. 
5. TStv lives up to its promises and meet up to the huge expectations from Nigerians, it will increase the belief in Nigerian made goods as well as the patronage. 
6. it will eliminate the monopoly pricing created by DStv. 

With some of these benefits and features of TStv, The big question begging for answer here is “could this be the beginning of the end of Dstv?” However, having said this I hope TStv would have learnt from the experiences of other indigenous pay TV service operators who couldn’t survive the storm due to either lack of what I call proper planning, Nigeria factor or some other reasons best known to them. We do not want a one season wonder again like Hitv and the likes did, we want a long- lasting pay TV operator with quality and affordable services as promised by TStv. 

I am also very anxious to know if this TV will truly ease our pains or add salt to our injuries by following the footstep of other pay as you consume service providers like Mtn, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat in terms of its charging rate because its affordability is a measure of  how long each subscription fee for each package lasts. Let’s just be positive and hope for the best from TStv.

LONG LIVE TSTV. LONG LIVE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AND HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION