GOtv Africa. A new digital pay TV service.

I noticed multitudes of GOtv Africa banners and balloons in the ancient city of Ibadan Nigeria in the last quarter of 2011. The similarity with the name/logo of DStv was clear. Promotional drives were ongoing at different vantage points in Ibadan.

GOtv is a new digital terrestrial TV (DTT) service by Multichoice Africa, operators of DStv. Instead of broadcasting via satellite, GOtv broadcasts from TV masts, sending encrypted digital signals to proprietary GOtv decoders. The signal is then decoded and sent to the television set.

From their sales website:

GOtv, Nigeria’s newest pay TV service was launched in Ibadan on 15 October 2011. Using the latest DVB-T2 technology, this brand new digital service is dedicated to offering television lovers affordable family entertainment. Featuring 2 great bouquets, consisting of 29 and 25 channels respectively, GOtv is an exciting service delivering great television at a price everyone can afford.

GOtv Africa is promising to offer:

  • Excellent picture quality
  • Sharper sound
  • Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) that displays what’s on TV at the touch of a button

The above features are all started with DTT technology. The wide variety of channels offered are all extracted from their DStv service. None of the channels are exclusive to GOtv.

In Nigeria the monthly subscriptions for GOtv is 1,000 Naira and for GOtv Plus is 1,800 Naira. Launch price for GOtv (including decoder and 3 months GOtv subscription) is N9,000 and for GOtv Plus is N12,000.

A screenshot of GOtv Africa
A screenshot of GOtv Africa

Digitization of terrestrial television broadcasts is on-going in many countries globally at this time. Whilst DTT frees-up valuable frequencies for other uses like wireless broadband connectivity, it offers better picture and sound quality even with a minimal signal strength. The Nigerian broadcast industry regulator is the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). NBC’s website reveals that the government of Nigeria started the digitization process in December 2007 with a target date of 17th June 2012. Aside satellite and cable (MMDS), most TV broadcast in Nigeria today is still analogue. Before now, Startimes TV had been the only widely available DTT service.

The GOtv pay service is already available in 3 other African countries: Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.

Previous articleApp spotlight: DStv Guide for Android
Next articleGlo Mobile soft launches in Ghana
Oluniyi D. Ajao
Oluniyi D. Ajao is an Internet Entrepreneur and Tech Enthusiast based in South Africa. Follow him on twitter @niyyie for more tech updates.

60 Comments

  1. Monopoly or Oligopoly. Those two words limit Africa. And now they became two. When will there be 7 or 10 choices? Nigeria and Ghana we hail thee!

  2. Amazing, isn’t it, while other Nigeria and other countries are granting DTT operators authorisation to help grow the interest in DTT broadcast, Ghana is killing the potential by refusing authorisation to the only company bold enough to lunch DTT pay service in Ghana.

  3. Gr8 initiative ? commend multichoice 4 extending its opportunities r way.Buh as an Independent Producer ? would lyk 2 start submitting exclusive contents via my tv show-RolloutAfrica.? ur cable platform.Kind Regards as We luk 4wrd 2 ur reponse.Cheers Mate

  4. My gotv expired on 10 march. When i was travel 2 osun state is very disapointing dat d kids at home cannot even watch local station like Ait.Nta.Ltv
    pls do something guick 4 dat

  5. its good to have such terrestial tv(DTT). I”ve got Go! i have Go Tv am enjoying it. pls help us tell them to give us one “real” sports channel. Select & blitz are not real sports channels. And again their own (ie DsTV ) channel should be included, i mean Mseries.

  6. Pls i brought gotv 4rm ibadan,getting 2 ilorin d gotv is nt wk,ad i hv 3 months scrib on it,what is d nxt 4 me nw.

  7. Africa magic, ss blitz, CNN, SET, MTV B, STV, LTV, CHANNELS, ISLAM, NatGe. All these station are not show in my Gotv.

  8. Plssssss,jst bought gotv decoder,having signal problems even after several adjustments,d number is forever busy,been trying since 7am dis morning,so frustrating.can I pls hv ur other nos,maybe GSM,plssss.anxiously waitng

  9. We waiting for digiterisation of Nigeria tv station ,when will it come up since June 2012 is not realistic any more,NBC pls do something urgent

  10. The service is too poor in my area isolo why don’t u wait and do ur resarch well before coming oout I wish u improve on ur service

  11. pls i have problem with gotv.. there was signal problems, so i scanned it, and alas all my favourite channels gone. what do i do to restore pls??

  12. My gotv due is today 26 and am in south sudan and will be back on tuesday,my siblings a very disapointed that they cant be able to watch Big brother Africa 4 the 1st day,plis do something for them plis i will back on 28th to settle my gotv bill

  13. please go t v to africa magic films like nigerian films you must to change not to repeat please help us we are customers of go t v malawi.

  14. I appreciate u brought these to kenya bt to b sincrre ur signals r tha poorest .concerned customer in nakuru kenya.i bought go tv bt its always on n off even local channels il apprrciate if u work on that.

  15. I just paid my subscription fee at Eco bank. and had a test message to pay before 4th of this month. pls I need answer before I take you on .

  16. we are unable to watch gotv due to no signal more than two months in Sagamu can you pls assist to improve this

  17. my name is godspower d prince.a nigeria.am a buesness man.spend most of my life time abroud. Please i rechearg my gotv iuc2004442170 over there.eg.spain.and who can i do it

  18. my name is godspower d prince.am a buesness man.i spend most of my life time abroud eg spain.please how can i rechearg my gotv iuc2004442170.over in spain.

  19. I am writing a project on DTTB, just want to know whether DVB-T2 has any technical limitation. I will be glad if u can quickly get me this info.

  20. Go tv is in ghana, but I only get 38 channels which supposed to be about 52 channels. I can’t get emmanuel tv, gtv sports, gtv24 etc on my decoder. Any help?

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.