Consumer advocacy group to govt: Compel DSTV to rescind price hike

Consumer advocacy group, CUTS International is calling on the Ministry of Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, as well as the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness, and Industry, to intervene in MultiChoice Ghana Limited’s decision to increase service prices.

CUTS International has raised concerns over the short notice given for the price adjustment, which is set to take effect on April 1.

The subscription price adjustment reflects an average increase of 15% across all subscriber packages with Multichoice Ghana indicating that it considered the rate of consumer inflation and current economic pressures facing customers in arriving at the price adjustment.  

However, Consumer advocacy group, CUTS International, has criticized the short no tice given to customers.

West African Regional Director of CUTS, Appiah Kusi Adomako, in an interview, stressed that it was not against the price adjustment as the country operates a deregulated market.

He is thus calling for intervention from relevant sector ministries to reconsider the timing of the adjustment, arguing that consumers should have been given more time to prepare.

In a statement Mr. Appiah Kusi Adomako said that, “DSTV has some kind of dominance when it comes to the satellite TV. They have access to premium content like the EPL and the UEFA channel and this has given them some leverage on the market and other competitors don’t have access to this kind of content. DSTV is trying to abuse it dominant role in the market.

He concluded saying, “If DSTV was not having this dominant role, he was not sure it would have done this. However, he is calling on the Ministry of Communication and Trade to compel DSTV to rescind it on its one week notice and give Ghanaians a minimum of a month notice as per the terms of a good contract”.