TheCable

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says the pay-as-you-go billing model cannot be used for pay television (pay TV).

Babatunde Irukera, the DG of FCCPC, told Channels TV on Friday that many pay TV subscribers are confusing the pay-per-view model for the pay-as-you-go model.

TheCable had earlier reported reported that a house of representatives committee had insisted that cable and satellite television service providers in the country must introduce a pay-as-you-go subscription plan for customers.

Lai Mohammed, the minister for information and culture, had also made a case for the PAYG model saying it would grow an untapped low-income subscriber base in Nigeria and would thus be affordable for the poor.

Clarifying the difference between both models on Friday, Irukera said: “The pay-as-you-go model in telecommunications is not necessarily applicable and so we confuse it sometimes with pay-per-view”.

“Pay-per-view is not that you pay for what you view from the point of when you turn your television on.

“It is primarily that there are certain programmes, maybe a boxing match, a soccer match or some movies that are still in the cinemas that some of the pay TV operators have bought and you can literally request instead of going to a stadium or going to a cinema to watch, you can watch it in your home and pay for that view.

“That is pay-per-view, but we confuse it with pay-as-you-go.

“What people are asking for in pay-as-you-go is when you turn on your television and you are watching, you pay. When you turn off your television and you are not watching, you don’t pay.

“It is difficult because the content has been created, what you are paying for is access. How you use the access is entirely discretionary and up to you.”

Nigerians have offered complained about the subscription rates for pay TV with some claiming that DSTV subscription rates were highest in Nigeria.

However, a fact check by TheCable showed that the claims were false.