Nigeria’s aspiration to digitise her television broadcasting began in 2008 when the then government announced a plan to implement digitisation of the country’s analogue television signal by 2015. This was of course in line with the global deadline given by the International Telecommunications Union, an arm of the UN responsible for telecoms technology.
Since then, the country has witnessed a public awareness campaign for the transition from analogue to digital in television transmission. GOtv, the pay TV offering of MultiChoice on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) with its advanced DVB-T2 technology has been at the forefront of the country’s campaign towards digital migration. The impact of GOtv in the DTT space has given Nigerians in the middle- and lower-income categories have access to a wide range of informative and entertaining content on subscription plans that best fit their needs and budget.
Quality and affordable digital entertainment for the whole family has been the brand’s proposition and nine years after, GOtv (now GOtv Nigeria) has refreshed its brand identity in keeping with its promise of giving customers more value for money.
When the DTT service first started in 2011, it had ‘Entertaining Africa’ as its pay-off line to reflect the core of its mission in the continent. The Pay-TV service provider has recently repositioned to give its customers a stronger sense of control with a variety of exciting local, kids, news and sport content across several packages.
The brand changed its pay-off line to ‘Live it. Love it’, an apt phrase to capture the intention of the brand for its present and potential customers because GOtv Nigeria is more than just entertainment. And now, the brand has streamlined this to ‘Love it’ – a crisp and succinct call to action for customers to enjoy the TV entertainment they love with family and friends.
GOtv Nigeria assets also spot a bolder look with modern geometric design elements for an added visual interest and identification. The primary colour palette – red, green and yellow – has also been refreshed and extended with a secondary palette that includes orange and turquoise, to create a more aesthetically pleasing design on all communication materials. These work together to create a memorable brand in the hearts and minds of its customers.
Since its inception into the Nigerian market, the brand has launched a series of campaigns to woo and impress its customers. Some of the recent campaigns include GOtv Top Up which, like the name implies, topped up the customers’ subscriptions on lower packages for an opportunity to experience the exciting premium content available on GOtv Max. There was also GOtv Golden Window, which guaranteed new customers access to 3 months of uninterrupted access to quality entertainment. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the We Dey Your Side campaign offer in April was particularly soothing for Nigerians during the lockdown as the campaigns ensured the upgrade of the customer’s package to the next higher one. Many customers said the lockdown period was tough for them but also mentioned that it could have been tougher without these campaigns.
When it comes to local programming, GOtv parades the popular Africa Magic Channels – AM Family, AM Epic, AM Yoruba, AM Hausa, AM Igbo – which showcase a variety of great popular Nigerian series and top-notch dramas such as The Johnsons, Halita, My Siblings & I, Flatmates amongst others.
GOtv is as proudly Nigerian as it can ever get. It has enhanced the Nigerian spirit of resourcefulness and industry as it has been able to create jobs for thousands of Nigerian youth with the GOtv Sabiman Initiative, a door-to-door customer service scheme that ensures customers enjoy maximum value from its service. Nobody can gainsay the fact that unemployment is a major problem in most African countries. MultiChoice, the owners of GOtv provides training for the participants in, among other things, installation of GOtv, resolution of customers’ complaints, and customer service. This invariably means the bigger the reach of GOtv, the more employment opportunities for Nigerians.
The real deal, of course, is in the local and international programming Nigerians enjoy from the comfort of their homes and offices and the brand is more than ever before committed to delivering the best when it comes to family entertainment in Nigeria. The various packages now available are designed to meet each family’s needs, tastes and pocket.
There is also the Nigerian flavour in the naming of the packages. Back in November 2019, MultiChoice expanded the entertainment offering on GOtv with the introduction of two new packages with ‘Naija centric’ names – GOtv Jolli and GOtv Jinja. These new packages according to the company were exclusively and specially curated for the Nigerian market and came upgraded with new channels and fresh content for a more enhanced viewing experience. With the new package names, the brand has been able to gain a level of stickiness with customers as the names are part of Nigerians’ colloquial and everyday language.
An overview of GOtv packages reveal options that customers can choose from depending on affordability and their needs, a move by the company not to compromise on quality and variety offered.
With just NGN 3,600 per month, customers can get GOtv Max which offers great variety with over 72 international and local channels. GOtv Max is the home of La Liga and Serie A, local and international programming and a variety of kids and educational channels.
Next is GOtv Jolli which costs just NGN 2,460 per month and with this, customers have a broad selection of over 68 local and international channels across all genres.
Also available is GOtv Jinja which costs just NGN 1,640 per month and affords the customers access to over 47 quality channels.
Without doubt, the GOtv Nigeria brand has evolved over the years. With presence in 24 states and close to 50 cities in the country, the brand continues push the envelope within the DTT space with different creative campaigns that are geared towards giving Nigerians top-class television entertainment delivered via the most modern broadcast technology platform whilst entrenching itself in the fabrics of the society with its socio-economic programmes and reward schemes. It’s safe to say that hundreds of thousands of households are living in the unforgettable world of GOtv, and they are loving it!
