Business

Multichoice, Nigerian Senate Differ On Pay-per-view

Published

3 years ago

September 22, 2022

The dominant broadcast service provider, Multichoice Nigeria Thursday disagreed with the proposed plan of the Senate on reduction of the tariffs being paid by viewers.

The Multichoice was the only broadcast service provider to vehemently opposed the proposed pay-per-view out of almost all stakeholders that turned out at a one day public hearing organized by the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on “Pay-TV Hikes And Demand for Pay-per-view subscription model,” headed by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi.

The broadcast service provider in its submission to the Committee defended its stand and cited challenges in the communication industry as reasons there should be price hike, particularly the lack of power and insecurity rocking the nation.

In his oral submission at the Committee, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Multichoice Nigeria, John Ugbe, said the pay-per-view will hurt the economy, insisting that for the past 27 years of their operations, the model being planned by the legislators would not augur well despite Nigeria’s free market economy.

He urged the parliament to allow them to determine what Nigerians pay, noting that Nigeria doesn’t have the.consucove environment, either.

“Pay television services compete with other services for subscribers’ disposable income, including existing broadcasting services (public, commercial free-to-air and other pay television services), and other entertainment services, such as YouTube, Facebook, cinemas, video rental outlets and DVD retailers.

“The demand for pay television services fluctuates and is very sensitive to the price a subscriber has to pay and affordability factors.”

The position of Multichoice was contrary to the of the TSTV, which admitted that they have been operating pay-per-view from inception after they were licensed to operate, stressing that the current model of subscription made viewers to pay for channels they don’t watch.

Ugbe said: “If the subscription fees are either too high or too low, the pay television service will fail. If the subscription fees are too high, the subscribers will unsubscribe, or will not subscribe in the first place, and the business will be unable to gain the critical mass necessary for its survival.”

“In determining subscription fees, MultiChoice takes into account many factors, including inflation, increasing input costs, ever escalating costs of technical upgrades, the impact on subscribers and the exchange rate fluctuations.

The position of TSTV, another broadcast service provider seems to be aligned with the thinking of the Senate, given that citizens have decried the price hike in subscription to Multichoice, a development that brought about the Senate constituting the Ad-hoc Committee to lose into the grievances of citizens.

In the similar vein, Startimes Nigeria posited that the pay-per-view was sustainable in as much as viewers would subscribe and pay for only channel of their choice, instead of the monthly subscription which costs them move.

Chairman of a Committee and the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Abdullahi Sabi and Senator Abba Moro maintained that the Committee would weigh all presentations before taking a decision.

Before the meeting was adjourned ‘sine die’, the Chairman promised to look into other submissions by stakeholders who were unavoidably absent before reverting its report to the Senate for legislative debate.

Business

BREAKING: Nigeria’s GDP Grows By 4.23% In Q2 2025 – NBS

Published

3 hours ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23 per cent (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed in its Q2 2025 GDP Report.

According to the report released on Monday on its website, the figure shows a significant improvement compared to 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024 and the 3.13 per cent recorded in Q1 2025.

The figures signal a strengthening economy, driven by recent rebasing, rebound in oil production and a resilient non-oil sector.

The report said, “Following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates

“This procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series, which is compared to the 2025 second quarter estimates. Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23% (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2025.

“This growth rate is higher than the 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024. During the quarter under review, agriculture grew by 2.82%, an improvement from the 2.60% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024.

According to NBS, “The growth of the industry sector stood at 7.45% from 3.72% recorded in the second quarter of 2024, while the Services sector recorded a growth of 3.94% from 3.83% in the same quarter of 2024.”

The report said in terms of share of the GDP, “the Industry sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the second quarter of 2025 at 17.31% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024 at 16.79%.”

It added, “In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N100,730,501.10 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the second quarter of 2024, which recorded an aggregate GDP of N84,484,878.46 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 19.23%.”

Details later…

Business

Why Nigeria’s Crude Oil Production Dropped To 1.63mbpd In August – NUPRC

Published

24 hours ago

September 21, 2025

Editor

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has explained that unscheduled maintenance at a refinery facility made Nigeria’s crude oil production drop on a month-on-month basis in August.

This comes as Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped to 1.63 million barrels per day month-on-month in August, down from 1.71 million bopd in July.

NUPRC disclosed this in its Crude Oil and Condensate Production for August 2025, released on Saturday.

This means a 4.7 per cent drop in combined crude oil and condensate production from 1.71 million bopd in July.

In the same vein, crude oil production itself declined by 4.8 per cent, down from 1.5 million bopd in July 2025.

“The month-on-month drop was driven by a single-day unscheduled maintenance at an oil facility.

“In the month of August, the lowest and peak combined crude and condensate production were 1.59 million bopd and 1.85 million bopd, respectively,” NUPRC said.

The data showed that while there was a decline month-on-month, the country’s crude oil production rose on a year-on-year basis by 5.5 per cent to 1.63 mbpd in August this year from 1.58 million bopd in the same period last year.

Further analysis indicates that daily condensate production in August stood at 197,229 bpd, reflecting a decline.

Also, Nigeria’s crude oil output in August achieved 96 per cent of its OPEC quota, which is set at 1.5 million bopd.

Accordingly, in the period under review, Forcados Terminal topped the production charts, delivering a total of 8.99 million barrels, including 8.08 million barrels of crude oil and 915.2k barrels of condensates.

Business

Marketers Get Dangote’s Free Fuel Supply

Published

2 days ago

September 20, 2025

Editor

Marketers on Friday confirmed that Dangote Refinery’s compressed natural gas-powered trucks have started delivering fuel to their stations at no cost to them.

The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Shettima, confirmed this to our correspondent in an interview on Friday.

Recall that Dangote Refinery rolled out over 1,000 CNG trucks on Monday, saying the entire 4,000 would be in the country before October.

The direct fuel distribution scheme was initially scheduled to commence on August 15, but was delayed due to logistics challenges in China.

A total of 4,000 CNG trucks were ordered from China for delivery in Lagos. However, the plan was stalled as there were insufficient vessels to transport the trucks.

Speaking with our correspondent, the IPMAN president said independent marketers in the South West have started receiving the trucks in their stations to offload petroleum products.

Shettima said only registered marketers can receive the free delivery from Dangote Refinery.

He said the stopping of fuel sales to unregistered marketers by the refinery is not a big deal, as marketers can register on the Dangote portal anytime they are ready.

“If you don’t register, your name will not appear on the system unless you register through the portal, which the company has been announcing for a long time. But marketers can register at any time, even at night, because it’s not difficult. You will just input all your information and register. So, that one is not an issue at all,” Shettima said.

He told our correspondent that marketers in Lagos, Ogun and Ondo have confirmed the receipt of Dangote’s logistics-free fuel.

“Dangote has started the free delivery. Already, the trucks have started moving. In most parts of the Western Zone, they have already started discharging their products, since it is closer to Lagos. So the plan is moving seriously. And my marketers are very pleased with the development.

“I can confirm to you that my members have started receiving the trucks in Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Ibadan and others,” Shettima stated.

Speaking on the price, the IPMAN boss explained that prices would drop from N865 to N841 the moment petrol gets to the stations under the new arrangement.

“The prices have started coming down; even here now, when you push it to Abuja, you will see the price reduction. Wherever he discharges, all the independent marketers, anywhere he discharges, you will see there will be a price change.

“The MRS filling stations have started reducing prices, they have with independent petroleum marketers. Any marketer who applies for the product and receives it will reduce the price,” he stressed.