APA-Blantyre (Malawi) South African media group MultiChoice Africa Holdings (MAH) has terminated DStv services in Malawi following a pricing row with the country’s communication regulator.
MAH said in a notice to DStv subscribers late Tuesday that it was withdrawing its services from Malawi with immediate effect.
This follows the injunction issued by the High Court in Lilongwe in a dispute between its service provider MultiChoice Malawi (MCM) and the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) over the latter’s decision to prohibit MCM from adjusting DStv tariffs.
MAH argued that the DStv service offered by MCM is not a public service, which means that MACRA “cannot set or adjust tariffs for this service.”
“As a result, the order handed down to MCM is incapable of being implemented by them but carries with it grave consequences for the directors and management of MultiChoice Malawi, including imprisonment,” the South African-owned company said.
It added: “MAH, given the impact on its supplier (MCM) and an increasingly adverse regulatory environment, is, therefore, left with no option but to terminate the DStv service indefinitely.”
The company said it would with immediate effect stop accepting payments from subscribers while those who had already paid would “have those services honoured until the current 30-day viewing cycle ends on or before 10 September.”
JN/APA