One of Nigeria’s leading pay-TV operators, StarTimes, has announced an upward review of its subscription prices upwards from August 1, 2020.
StarTimes brand and marketing manager,Viki Liu, made this known during a virtual press conference on Friday.
The company said the price increase is due to increased value-added tax (VAT) from 5 percent to 7.5 percent as well as the foreign exchange rate which has impacted its cost of operation.
“Our business is not exempted from the effect of the naira depreciation affecting all businesses in the country,” Liu said.
“All of our foreign content is bought in dollars and to continually serve our subscribers the best content, the subscription price has to be reviewed upwards.”
With the price increase, its basic bouquet now goes for N1,700 from N1,300 monthly which now has close to 80 channels; classic bouquet will be as high as N2,500 from N1,900 monthly with close to 100 channels; while the nova bouquet still remains N900 per month with over 43 channels.
Liu also disclosed that smart bouquet subscribers will pay N2,200 from N1,900 monthly, and super bouquet subscribers will pay N4,200 from N3,800 monthly.
“We hope our customers understand as we are not known for an incessant price increase. Rather, StarTimes’ subscription prices had on different occasions been reduced in order to make digital TV affordable for every Nigerian.”
He also explained that the company has expanded the content available to customers having added 15 new channels in the last six months; expanded its educational programmes for kids with more channels to provide the latest information on COVID-19; and also introduced the pay-as-you-go policy which enables people to subscribe on a daily or weekly basis.
Liu assured subscribers that the StarTimes brand will continue to make it a priority to broaden its content offerings to meet a variety of their interests without compromising affordability.
