Inside quiet subscriber exodus rocking pay-TV giants

Amid rising subscription costs, worsening electricity challenges and expanding internet access, many households are gradually shifting away from traditional pay-TV services. Decoders that once dominated living rooms are increasingly being sidelined as viewers embrace smart TVs and streaming platforms that offer greater flexibility and on-demand content. DANIEL AYANTOYE writes

For years, the cluster of decoders beneath the television set in Olumide Adeoye’s sitting room symbolised modern home entertainment.

There was a GOtv decoder and a StarTimes decoder and, at one point, two FreeTV decoders connected to dishes mounted outside his home and photography studio in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Today, the devices remain in the house but no longer serve the purpose for which they were bought.

Instead, they sit quietly beneath a smart television, serving as little more than decorative relics.

The 37-year-old photographer said the decoders, once central to family viewing, have gradually been replaced by internet-enabled entertainment platforms.

“In my house, I have GOtv, StarTimes and FreeTV decoders. I bought them at different times over the years. GOtv was the first. Later, someone introduced StarTimes to me and I bought it for my photography shop. Then I got two FreeTV decoders from a friend in Ilorin, one for the shop and one for the house,” Adeoye told Saturday PUNCH.

According to him, the transition away from pay television happened gradually until the family realised they no longer had any reason to renew their subscriptions.

The shift has become so complete that even the satellite dishes and connecting cables have been removed.

“One of my children told me one day to throw the decoders away since we no longer use them. I told her to leave them there, but we have removed all the cables and dish panels,” he said.

When our correspondent visited Adeoye’s house, the family, including the children, were in the sitting room watching the smart TV.

No one was holding a remote; instead, a mobile hotspot connected the television to YouTube, where a Yoruba movie was streaming.

Beneath the television sat two decoders.

Similarly, 55-year-old Chukwudi Armstrong first subscribed to DStv in 2009 and remained a customer for more than a decade. But four months ago, he finally unplugged his decoders.

For him, the decision was driven largely by economic realities.

“They increase their fees arbitrarily, and there is no stable electricity,” he complained.

The money once spent on pay-TV subscriptions, he said, is now directed towards more pressing household needs.

“I discovered that something I used to spend about N2, 000 on, rose to about N16,000 monthly. When the economy became terrible, it was one of the things I dropped. I told my family to just use their phones to watch movies and other programmes.”

The experiences of Adeoye and Armstrong reflect a quiet but significant transformation taking place in many Nigerian homes.

As subscription costs rise, internet access expands and smart devices become more common, traditional pay-TV services that once dominated living rooms are increasingly losing ground to streaming platforms.

MultiChoice loses 1.4 million subscribers

MultiChoice, the owner of DStv and GOtv, disclosed in its audited financial reports for the year ended March 2025 that it lost about 1.4 million subscribers in Nigeria between 2023 and 2025.

The company revealed that Nigeria accounted for approximately 77 per cent of subscriber losses recorded across its ‘Rest of Africa’ operations during the period.

It attributed the decline to rising inflation, repeated price increases, fuel scarcity and persistent electricity challenges.

According to the report, subscription revenue from Nigeria fell by 44 per cent to $197.74m in the financial year under review, compared with $355.93m recorded in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Despite the losses, MultiChoice maintained that it still had 14.5 million subscribers across its operations at the end of the financial year.

The pay-TV giant has also faced content-related challenges.

In December 2025, Canal+, which completed the acquisition of MultiChoice, announced that access to 12 major Warner Bros. Discovery channels, including CNN, Discovery Channel, TLC and Cartoon Network, could be withdrawn from January 1, 2026, if a new distribution agreement was not reached.

However, checks by Saturday PUNCH showed that some of the affected channels, including CNN, Discovery Family, Cartoon Network and Cartoonito, remained available as of June 2026.

As decoder subscriptions decline, internet data consumption is rising significantly.

Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission showed that average monthly data usage per active subscriber increased from about 3.3 gigabytes in January 2023 to approximately 7.4 gigabytes by May 2025.

It was noted that the increase was driven largely by growing demand for video streaming, online television, social media content and other internet-based entertainment services, rather than by growth in subscriber numbers alone.

NCC statistics further showed that internet consumption in Nigeria reached approximately 13.2 million terabytes in 2025, representing a 35 per cent increase from the previous year.

Active internet subscriptions also surpassed 142 million, while broadband penetration crossed the 50 per cent mark for the first time. Industry projections suggest the trend is likely to continue.

Data from Statista forecasts sustained growth in Nigeria’s subscription video-on-demand market through 2027, with the number of streaming users expected to increase steadily over the coming years.

Similarly, a report by Technology Times revealed that average monthly data consumption per active MTN Nigeria subscriber increased from about 500MB in 2017 to approximately 14GB in 2026.

Across the wider telecommunications industry, data traffic reached 4.06 million terabytes in the first quarter of 2026 alone, translating to roughly 28GB per subscriber during the three-month period.

Despite Nigeria’s population being estimated at over 200 million, internet connectivity continues to expand at a remarkable pace.

Data from the NCC showed that active internet subscriptions rose from 169.3 million in January 2025 to 182.2 million by January 2026, reflecting growing reliance on mobile internet services and digital platforms across the country.

The surge in connectivity has further accelerated the shift towards streaming services, social media platforms and online entertainment, intensifying competition for traditional pay-TV operators.

Subscription fees, data costs rise

While data usage continues to rise, both internet and television consumers have been grappling with higher costs.