The Federal Government’s plan to formulate a
policy to checkmate monopoly, anti-competitive behaviour especially among
business practices has been considered as cheery news by Nigerians.
In its draft copy of the National
Competitive and Consumer Protection Policy, the Federal Government saddled the
Competitive and Consumer Protection Authority, an independent body, with the
responsibility for the implementation of the provisions of the proposed
competition and consumer protection legislation.
Speaking at the occasion, Olusegun Aganga,
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment said the new policy would help
address cartel-like organisations, anti-competitive tendencies, protect the
investing public and consumers, and enable consumers to buy the goods and
services they want at the best possible prices.
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| AGANGA |
“Nigeria”, the minister said, ‘is one of the
very few countries that did not have a robust legal and regulatory framework to
govern consumer protection and competition.”
Kehinde Yusuf, 53, is one of the many
Nigerians who have hailed the move. He cited practices of a Pay TV operator as one
which needs urgent attention in that area. “I’m a DStv subscriber, and I have
severally complained about being cut off two, sometimes three days before
expiration of my subscription date”, Yusuf said. “But whenever I make this
complaint nothing is done, so if Government wants to introduce that policy I
think it would do well to address some of these issues”.
Obinna Nwokennaya is a multiple subscriber. Nwokennaya
subscribes to both DStv and Star Times. And in his reaction on the Pay TVs service
delivery, he said “where a customer fails to pay subscription fee on or before
due date, it takes DStv hours, if not days, to come back to transmission, but
for Star Times, it is immediate, even after two weeks off air”.
Following the liberalization of broadcasting
in the Nigerian market in 1992, Multichoice, a South Africa based company and
owners of DStv and GOtv since 2006, has dominated the industry, and engaged in
monopolistic practices especially on the exclusive acquisition of the broadcast
rights to premium programs.
And sport is known as one of the key drivers
of Pay TV subscriptions around the world. In this regard, Multichoice, a South
Africa based company and owners of DStv and GOtv has dominated the scene. Multichoice
airing of the English Premier League, EPL rights exclusive to DStv, while
refusing the rights to other competitors, increased its market share in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Cable television market, according to statistics, is put at two million, out of 29.5 million TV households. The statistics states that, ‘the current total active market is less than 3.1 million subscribers across all players in the Pay TV market in a population of over 160 million inhabitants, 65 percent of whom are under the age of 25, and low penetration of households.’
Put more succinctly, Naspers, owners of
Multichoice stated to have added a record 1.3 million Pay TV subscribers
year-on-year for period ending March 31, 2014. While presenting its annual
results in June 2014, the Pay TV operator said its Pay TV service under DStv
and GOtv brands subscriber base now stands at more than 8 million - roughly 5
million of those in South Africa and the remaining 3 million in Sub Saharan
Africa. The report also stated that GOtv, which offers DTT pay television
services in 11 countries on the African continent, ended March with 817,000
customers, up from 377,000 a year earlier.
Multichoice’s sports content is one of its dominant
factors. “Multichoice essentially decides how African, and indeed Nigerians
consume sports media,” said a communication expert who craves anonymity. “They
control the times of broadcasting, what sports are shown and how the viewers
will even view the event, because they have the control. And the absence of
anti-competitive laws contributes to the dominance”.
Sport has not failed to escape the scrutiny
of competition authorities. In the Western world, through regulatory bodies,
competition is promoted, and interests of consumers are guarded in relation
communication matters. In the United Kingdom, Office of Communications (OFCOM),
an independent regulator and competition authority responsibility covers content
and infrastructure in the country’s communication sector. Under the
Communications Act, 2003, its statutory duties are ‘to further the interests of
citizens in relation to communication matters, and to further the interests of
consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate, by promoting competition’.
In the UK where the sale of the EPL
broadcast rights is regulated to avoid exploitative activities by a single
broadcaster, it would be recalled that in March 2010 OFCOM imposed a ‘wholesale
must-offer’ obligation, under which Sky, one of the country’s foremost Direct
to Home Cable Television Service Provider, was compelled to make its two main
sports channels (Sky Sports 1 and 2) available to other Pay TV retailers at
regulated prices. Not only did OFCOM require the pay broadcaster to whole the
two channels to other operators, but also fixed prices.
Even in Asia same is obtainable. Telecom
Regulatory Authourity of India (TRAI), India’s regulatory body, also prohibits
monopoly and anti-competitive behaviour. TRAI is primarily involved with issues
of carriage and pricing. The Central Government in pursuance of its Cable
Television Network (Regulation Amendment) Bill made it obligatory for every
cable operator to transmit or retransmit the programme or channels of any other
pay channel, thus eliminating the need of multiple set top boxes by any
subscriber.
Coasting home, Nigeria’s National
Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should play the regulatory role here. But the
power to wield the big stick, and to who, is absent in its Act. “Ordinarily,”
said a credible source in NBC “we should play a significant role here as a
regulator. But in the NBC Act and Code as amended, its major regulatory approaches
contained in the Code are licensing, sanctioning, arbitrating, and monitoring.
It lacks the inclusion of sector specific provisions empowering it with the
authority to investigate, regulate, control and prosecute anti-competitive
behaviour”.
No doubt this has called for need of the commission to review its
Code: “in areas of market definition, vertical integration and downstream
foreclosure, access to and exclusivity over premium content, which is potential
for anti-competitive behaviour,” the NBC source added.
Onyekachi Ubani, immediate past Chairman,
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos Chapter does not think the Pay TV has been
fair to Nigerians despite the fact that the Pay TV has exported the country’s
entertainment industry outside the shores of the land.
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| UBANI |
“They are cheating
Nollywood actors with little or nothing they pay in using their works, yet they
defraud Nigerians with astronomical fees for subscription”, the human rights
lawyer said. A Nollywood source, who craved anonymity didn’t mince words,
“Multichoice buys a movie from us for N20,000, and they keep playing it years
on end without giving us anything again”.
Festus Keyamo, human rights lawyer and DStv
subscriber shares self- experience. “They are exploitative in their service
delivery”, said Keyamo, who told our correspondent that he is a subscriber in
three major cities of the country.
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| KEYAMO |
“That is why I continue to say they should
adopt card technology, whereby I can remove my card when I’m not watching and
use in another city, like paying for what I watch”.
But the feasibility of that is not in sight.
John Ugbe, Managing Director, Multichoice Nigeria Limited in a recent interview
in commemoration of Multichoice’s 20 years celebration in the Nigerian market
said, “You have to look at the industry. Not all industries can use card
technology”, he said, giving an analogy.
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| UGBE |
“It is like going into a restaurant
and you say look, let me just starting eating. If I have to leave, whatever I
eat is what I pay. It is in order to serve you, that they create the menu that
you can buy a plate of food at certain amount. Content, unfortunately, is not
paid for in minutes”.
Despite its bouquet of channels, Multichoice
was forced to cut down its price with its introduction of GOtv. Entrant of Star
Times, a Chinese owned pay DTT rivaled Multichoice as a major challenger in
Nigeria.
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| JUSTIN (MIDDLE) |
Star Times General Manager, Justin Zhang, in
December 2013 stated that since it launched in July 2010, the company has
recorded over 1.5 million customers. This statistics significantly proved the
potential of low-cost Pay TV.
It is this desire for robust competitiveness
that created a sigh of relief for consumers in the telecommunication sector. It
would be recalled in years past that MTN charges per call was outrageous, until
the introduction of Globacom, an indigenous telecommunication company came into
the market and introduced per second billing before we understood the
possibility of talking cheap. And it is expected that with the recent
introduction of the Federal Government policy this will address and encourage
competition in the domestic market as well as maximize consumer welfare.
