DSTV Mobile: A promo gone awry

DSTV Mobile: A promo gone awry

By Felix Olukunle Adewumi

When MTN announced that they are coming out with an initiative in partnership with DSTV to bring out mobile edition of cable television, many do not believe it can ever be realistic.

The low cost of the phone with the one year free subscription makes it more suspicious, knowing the way the Nigeria corporate world compete with each other in other to woo more customers.

The fact that super sports 3; the sports channel where most premier league matches are shown is among the channel did not help matters. A lot could not believe that MTN who is notorious for not being able to give out anything free to its consumers since its invention.

In fact many believe that most of the promos of the telecommunication giants in Nigeria is a way of giving to people with one hand and taking it back with the hand.

The eye-catching area of the DSTV Mobile edition was the fact that they made available mouth-watering channels like Super Sports 3, Super Sports 9, Super Sport Blitz, Africa Magic, Magic World, Big Brother Africa, Channel O and CNN among others as part of the 11 channels available in the mobile edition.

After overcoming the initial sceptic about the mobile edition, trust Nigerian, they quickly rush to purchase the phone even as the 2010 World Cup approach but with the prospect of HiTV still having the majority right of the England Premier League, there was no way MTN could market the mobile edition for the premiership.

However, luck shone on the partnership between the duo when HiTV suddenly developed cold feet and decide not to continue its coverage rights thus allowing DSTV to take majority rights of the Premier league.

MTN saw this as an opportunity to sell the mobile edition. Adverts were coming out with great intensity and MTN sales girls travel round in an attempt to put the phone into the heart of Nigeria.

There was also a great improvement when MTN lobbied Nokia into the partnership after its first edition of DSTV mobile (Zedge Phone) was not well received by the people.

With the Triumvirate of DSTV phone, Nokia and MTN, the DSTV Mobile was set to be a major initiative and a hit in the Nigeria telecommunication market.

However,after having gained from the rate at which people rushed the DSTV Mobile phone, MTN threw the first joker when they suddenly remove Super Sports 3 from the mobile edition, All efforts to get them explain the rationale behind the removal prove abortive as all they could offer was to replace it with Super Sports 7, a channel which shows only one premiership match weekly.

Not satisfied with the situation, lots of Nigerians threatened to abandon the phone since most people buy the phone for the lure of watching premiership matches.

Shola Oluferanmi, a student of Unilag who is a die-hard premiership fan could not hide his disappointment at what he described as the deceit being given to unsuspecting Nigerians by the corporate bodies just in an attempt to sell their product, stated that he is waiting for the end of the Big Brother Africa Programme being aired in one of the channels to know what to do to his phone.

Oluferanmi was not then surprise when just a few days later, the Big Brother Africa ended and MTN wasted no time in yanking off the channel from the list and replace it with Sound City.

Many wonder why MTN would go to the length of advertising Super Sports 3 to entice subscribers when it knew that it could not offer it to Nigerians.

Samson Oludare, an engineer who have always been sceptical about the ways of the corporate worlds handle their promos in Nigeria had predicted that MTN had a game plan when they came out with the DSTV Mobile.

“I know MTN, they don’t give something out for free and they are a stingy type of network, when they introduced the Mobile edition, I was not fooled because I know they are up to their trick again, so when they started removing the best channels and people started complaining I just laugh within me. How can you expect MTN to give you something like that for free” he said.

A quick survey shows that lots of people are quickly changing phones and dumping the DSTV mobile phone while others who keep the phone are waiting for the end of the one-year free subscription to dump it for a better phone.

“I do not think I will ever make that mistake of buying any thing MTN is trying to sell, I do not believe them and I am not prepared to believe them for anything, they are treacherous. I wonder why our regulatory body allow such act from them” Moses Ugwu, a business man said.

MTN had even find a way of covering their track in their recent adverts for the DSTV mobile edition where the Super Sports 3 and Big Brother was conspicuously omitted and Super Sports 7 with Sound City being included in the list.

Mrs Deborah Ajetumobi, one of the first persons to buy the DSTV mobile at the onset explained how out of her annoyance at the deceit she gave the phone out to her niece as the sight of the phone makes her angry with MTN all the time.

“Can you imagine me buying the phone and getting to watch NTA, Cartoon Network, TBN, Channel O, and Sound City? All those ones I get them on our daily local channels at home, even AIT show better program so why will I watch the one on the phone? Even the number of channel they put on the phone is too small” she fumed.

All efforts to get MTN to talk on the promo prove abortive as most sales point where they are being sold now has stern looking marketers who are never ready to answer any question on the phone.

One wonders the next move the telecommunication giants is planning and what will later become of their partnership once Nigerians have gotten enough of the gimmick, but until then, MTN, Nokia and DSTV can still bask in the euphoria that they are the only partnership that brings DSTV mobile to Nigeria.