Africa-Press – South-Africa. Africa’s largest pay TV operator MultiChoice is shutting down its service in Malawi after a battle with country’s communications regulator over price hikes.
DStv Malawi told subscribers on Tuesday to stop making payments and that all existing subscribers in the country will be cut off within 30 days or less. This follows an ongoing battle over subscription prices in the country, with Malawi’s regulator successfully halting price increases for August.
In January, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) fined the company 10 million Kwacha (about R174 000) for a price hike it implemented in July 2022, ordering it to refund all DStv subscribers over a failure to first get approval.
MultiChoice Malawi then went to court to challenge this, but amid an ongoing judicial review, MACRA obtained a legal injunction against the operator preventing it from modifying its tariffs in late July. This followed an announcement that prices would rise in August, and the court granted temporary stays to allow time to modify the tariff structure until August 7.
MACRA said in a statement that its understanding was that MultiChoice Malawi had argued in court that its principal, Multichoice Africa, is unable to revert to the old DStv tariffs, claiming that reversing the tariffs would cause damage to its business and operations in Malawi and several other countries.
MultiChoice Africa has been battling with high levels of inflation of some of its key markets – and in August, it also announced price hikes for Kenya, having already hiked in April. Malawi’s inflation was at just over 27% in June, and according to reports DStv customers were set to face increases of about a fifth from 1 August.
MultiChoice Malawi said that it had no choice but to increase DStv fees, as it is just a supplier and MultiChoice Africa, which is based in Dubai, decides on prices across the continent.
The company was established in 1996 as a locally owned franchise, with the local operations run by a staff of 94 employees, the media group’s website reads.
MultiChoice Africa confirmed to News24 that MultiChoice is withdrawing “services from Malawi with immediate effect.”
According to Keabetswe Modimoeng, MultiChoice Africa group executive for corporate affairs, “MultiChoice Malawi does not offer the DStv service to the public and therefore cannot set or adjust tariffs for this service, a point repeatedly made to MACRA”.
“As a result, the order handed down to MultiChoice Malawi is incapable of being implemented by them but carries with it grave consequences for the directors and management of MultiChoice Malawi, including imprisonment.”
“MultiChoice Holdings Africa, given the impact on its supplier MultiChoice Malawi and an increasingly adverse regulatory environment is therefore left with no option but to terminate the DStv service indefinitely.”
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