At the moment, StarTimes and GOtv are the cheapest Digital Terrestrial TV services we have in Nigeria. And both are also becoming very popular simply because the much preferred DSTV is too expensive for an average Nigeria – and this price continues to increase.
StarTimes launched 2010 and faced DSTV heads on. They were able to compete favorably because their packages are affordable. It doesn’t cost a lot to buy the decoder, there is no dish to call a technician to fix, and no need to bother about signal interruption when there is a change in weather (rain or heavy wind). The increasing popularity of StarTimes in Nigeria prompted Multichoice (DSTV’S parent company) to respond in 2012 with GoTV – a cheaper and very easy to set up Pay tv.
Are you looking to switch to a cheaper pay tv? Do you get confused about which Pay Tv provider to choose from? We’ll be breaking it down in this post – Decoder prices, Subscription, bouquet, and channels.
GOtv vs StarTimes: Decoder and Price
StarTimes
All StarTimes decoders are packed with a remote, indoor antenna and a free one-month unique StarTimes bouquet.
- SD Decoder: This is StarTimes cheapest decoder, it costs ₦4,500. ₦5,900 for the Decoder + Antenna.
- The HD Decoder costs 7,500 Naira. It costs ₦8,900 for Decoder + Antenna. The StarTimes DTH S2 Decoder goes for ₦7,900.
The complete set Decoder with 2-month free subscription costs just ₦14,900 and can be purchased offline or online (on Jumia Nigeria).
Read more: How to set up StarTimes satellite digital decoder
GOtv
On GOtv’s official website, the GOtv decoder sells for ₦6,900. It consists of Decoder + GOtenna + 1-month GOTV Max subscription.
Monthly Bouquet, Price, and Number of Channels
| Startimes | Gotv | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Bouquet and Price | number of channels | Monthly Bouquet and Price | number of channels |
| Nova Bouquet ₦900 | 30+ | Gotv Lite ₦400 | 24+ |
| Basic Bouquet ₦1,300 | 60+ | Gotv Value ₦1,250 | 39+ |
| Classic Bouquet ₦2,600 | 80+ | Gotv Plus ₦1,900 | 67+ |
| Unique Bouquet ₦3,800 | 100+ | Gotv Max ₦3,200 | 76+ |
Channel List
| Categories | GOtv | Statimes |
|---|---|---|
| Entertainment and Movies | Africamagic Epic Movies Africamagic Family Africamagic Hausa Africamagic Igbo Africamagic Yoruba B4U Movies E! Entertainment Television Eva + FOX Life Galaxy TV GO Channel M-Net Movies Zone ROK 3 Telemundo TVC Entertainment Televista Trybe Tv Zee World | AMC Bollywood Bollywood Africa E! E-Stars Fox Farin Wata Galaxy Tv NTA E Star Gold Star Plus St Guide St Kungfu St Movies Plus St Novela E St Plus St Rise St Series E1 St Sino Drama St Zone Viasat H+L Zee Cinema |
| DOCUMENTARY | Discovery Family Nat Geo Wild | Animaux CGTN Documentary Investigation Discovery Nat Geo Wild NGC |
| KIDS | Disney Junior JimJam Nickelodeon | Baby Tv JimJam Nickelodeon Smile Of A Child |
| Lifestyle and Culture | Spice TV | Fine Living Isi Mbido St Yoruba |
| Local Channels | AIT Arewa 24 BISCON tv Channels Tv eTV Africa ITV Benin Lagos TV Liberty TV MITV NTA I NTA2 OGtv ONMAX R2TV RAVE Silverbird Tiwa n Tiwa WAP Wazobia Max | AIT Arewa 24 AWA Tv Channels Tv eTV Liberty TV MITV Nigbati NTA Hausa NTA Igbo NTA Lagos NTA Lagos 10 NTA Yoruba Orisun Rave Tv Silverbird Tv St Dadin Kowa St Yoruba TVC NG WAP Tv Wazobia Tv |
| MUSIC | AFRO Music English Hip TV MTV Base Planet Radio TV Sound City | MTV Base NIGEZIE St Music St Naija |
| News and Commerce | Al Jazeera Arise News BBC World News BCOS CNN International EBS TV NTA News24 NTA Parliament RSTV TVC News | Al Jazeera BBC World News Bloomberg CGTN CNBC Fox News NTA Knowledge NTA News 24 NTA Parliamentary Plus Tv Africa TVBC TVC News |
| RELIGION | Dove Tv Emmanuel Tv Faith Broadcast Network Islam Channel | Dove Tv Emmanuel Tv IQRAA TBN |
| SPORTS | SuperSport Blitz SuperSport Select 1 SuperSport Select 2 SupersSport Select 3 | Eurosport News Fox Sports Fox Sports 2 NTA Sports 24 Sports Arena Sports Life Sports Premium St Sports Focus St World Football HD |
Also read: 5 Ways to Pay Your DStv and GOtv Subscriptions in Nigeria
GOtv vs StarTimes: Which should you buy?
Both PayTv’s are very affordable, From the table above, you would see that GOtv’s monthly subscription is cheaper than that of StarTimes – but StarTimes has more channels. Take a look at the Nove bouquet on StarTimes and the Lite bouquet on GOtv for instance. StarTimes charges N900 for 30 channels while GOtv charges just N400 for 24 channels.
Even though it offers fewer channels, personally, I would recommend a GOtv decoder over StarTimes (because of the English Premier League). Before you make the decision to buy, however, make sure to go through the channel list on both Paytvs and make your decision based on the type of channels available on each bouquet, not the price of the bouquet.
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