THERE has been huge disquiet emanating from the adjustment of DSTV subscription fees.
The recently announced DStv subscription effective 15th April will see the Premium bouquet costing K710 from about K500, Compact plus K495 and Compact K330.
Obviously DSTV have their own reasons for adjusting the subscription fees but I am more interested in how the announcement has been received by the subscribers.
Never before has any local television station received this kind of feedback DSTV has been given, albeit a negative one this time around.
For example, after last week’s column, I met a colleague who asked why I bothered to write about Mobi TV for going off air.
I tried to explain that Mobi TV is one of the many television stations that we keep mentioning in this column and them going off air unannounced is a topic worth highlighting.
But according to this gentleman, even when Mobi TV is on air, the station is as bad as being off air! I personally did not find this line of thinking charitable enough.
During the discussion, I dismissed the comrade but after my own reflection, I figured Mobi TV might have etched such a reputation for themselves to their audience.
We have repeatedly said in this column that audiences are not gullible and the way a station handles them matters a lot.
So for DSTV, some people have gone to the extent of starting a social media campaign to persuade people not to pay subscription next month as a way of protesting against the revised fees.
It remains to be seen how far the protest will go.
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The elimination of the Zambia under-20 squad from the Africa Youth Cup gives credence to the argument that as a country we have not invested much in youth soccer.
The Hector Chilombo tutored side was being eliminated from the tournament hard on the heels of a similar fate befalling their senior team and under-17 counterparts.
The women senior team and under 20 squad were not spared by the ghost of first round elimination that has bedevilled Zambian teams lately either.
While the under-20 selectors where rounding up their team did they consider calling wonderkid Charly Musonda to the squad?
This boy has been tearing defences in England for his chelsea side and little wonder the senior Belgium side wants to snap him from the country of his origin Zambia.
It has been said at many platforms that FAZ should introduce a women’s league and another for the under-20/17 if the current league and the senior team are to have the best reserviour.
Perhaps Multichoice Africa should be asked if they have adjusted subscription fees in Zambia with a view to sponsor the equivalent of the Super Disk Challenge which has caught the eye in South Africa.
From the mailbag
Dear Xavier
Why hasn’t Muvi TV and ZNBC taken advantage of Multichoice to give us some of the programmes from DSTV.
What I have in mind is that Multichoice has allowed ZNBC to be on their bouquet, which is a good thing that Muvi TV should emulate, but DSTV should share some of the programmes to Muvi and ZNBC.
Also why can’t ZNBC and Muvi use the same decoder and dish for DSTV so that as subscribers we just but a card instead of mounting a different dish and using a different decoder?
Mufalo Lusaka
For more comments manchishi@gmail.com