Cable Tv Monopoly; For How Long? Nigerians In Dire Need Of A ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ Billing!

We had been anticipating the game days before the D-day. The Super Eagles were to pounce on endearing preys that evening. Expected, the PHCN guys let us down but of course our generator sets were set to serve that evening. Not minding the deafening noise generated from a thousand generators within the small neighbourhood, we were all glued to our TV sets. One would really have thought that because my Pay TV is not an ATM machine or telecom network or power generating company, quality service would not be such an unaffordable luxury for them, but I was mistaken. Shortly after the game started, the unimaginable happened; the licenced cable TV I’ve subscribed to with my hard earned money went blank. Though this popular cable TV had been disappointing for years, but would they let the whole nation down on this vital day? Yes they did and nothing happened! Although this international brand cannot try a bit of what they do here in their home soil, sadly Nigeria has become a haven where they do unimaginably disgusting things and escape the necessary regulatory sanctions. While “Pay-as you-watch” is ideal in South Africa, it is yet to be implemented in the highly profitable market, Nigeria. Years ago, a leading telecom in this country would make us believe that per second billing wasn’t possible. Nigerians were swindled in their home country until an indigenous operator made per second billing a thing of the past. Consumer they say is king but that’s never true of a monopolistic market like the pay TV; producer is the king because he dictates everything in the market, price, class of people that patronize that market, when to sell and when not to sell and so on. This removes the power of choice possessed by every consumer, so you’re either forced to patronise poor service or get a better one from nowhere. For me, monopoly is our worst enemy. Agreed, pay TV market is highly monopolised, the market shouldn’t be a win-lose situation between service provider and consumer. It is apt to quickly remind this cable TV operators that their brand is a promise to the consumer to deliver a particular desired experience most of the time. They need be reminded that Nigerian consumers offer their trust and loyalty with the implicit understanding that the brand will behave in certain satisfying ways through excellent/quality service, appropriate pricing and promotion. More importantly, in our social media crazed world, venting out broken promises made to consumers has instant ramifications to the credibility and trajectory of their brand’s perceived value. If you’re operating ‘pay-as-you-go’ or ‘pay-per-view’ somewhere else and fail to implement such in Nigeria because our interests are not well protected by law, it is cheating and you are stealing from people’s hopes. It is troublingly that as consumers we’ve remained silent for too long. But for how long would our government remain silent over the misdemeanour of this cable TV? Where are the regulatory agencies? For how long would I continue to pay for poor services without compensations? For how long would I continue to pay for TV channel that keep running even when there is no electric power or my decoder is switched off? Its high time pay TV buyers cried out to all who care to listen. Let’s start putting pens to papers. Let’s start making loud noise for every silent dissatisfaction we experience from using this pay TV. One day, somehow and sooner than expected, willing investors would come. Then, we all would rather walk away to a better or best competition and part, never to meet with the ‘suffering and smiling’ situation that cable TV providers subject us to. Jide Ayegbusi is a Marketing Professional Twitter: @jideayegbusi http://perfectbrandsng.com/cable-tv-monopoly-for-how-long-nigerians-in-dire-need-of-a-pay-as-you-go-billing/