Kwese TV Channels in Nigeria Went Off Air in 2019
Kwesé TV went off air in 2019. This is what its channel line-up was, and what DStv and GOtv cost in Nigeria for anyone replacing it.
Kwesé TV is gone, so nothing on its channel list can be watched on it today. The paid channels came off the satellite bouquet on 1 November 2018, a little over a year after the service launched in Nigeria, and what was left was switched off on 5 August 2019. There is no Kwesé package to buy, and a Kwesé decoder has nothing left to subscribe to.
A Starter package is our pick for most former Kwesé homes, from DStv or GOtv, both ₦6,000 a month from 5 November. In plain naira that is a little less than Kwesé’s 30-day pass was, and both have ESPN. DStv’s has more channels and GOtv’s needs no dish. The exception is anyone who wants the Premier League every weekend. That means DStv Sports or GOtv Sports, at ₦21,000, about three and a half times the monthly bill.
The channels Kwesé carried
Kwesé advertised more than 65 channels when it launched in Nigeria. These are the ones it named in its launch announcement.
| Type | Channels |
|---|---|
| Sport | Kwesé Sports 1, Kwesé Sports 2, Kwesé Free Sports, ESPN |
| Entertainment | Viceland, REVOLT TV, DTX, Passion, Zee Bollynova, African Movie Channel, African Movie Channel Series, Kwesé Movies 3 |
| Children | DreamWorks, Boomerang, CBeebies, Cartoon Network, Jim Jam, Toonami |
| News | CNN International, Channels TV, TVC News, NTA, Africa News |
| Still free when a subscription lapsed | Africa News, Flow TV, NTA, Islam TV, Kwesé Free Sports |
Sport was the selling point. Kwesé was the NBA’s exclusive broadcaster in sub-Saharan Africa, and its launch line-up also listed the NFL and Anthony Joshua’s fights. Kwesé Free Sports held free-to-air rights to the 2018 World Cup and to the Premier League.
What happened to Kwesé TV
It was the satellite pay-TV service of Econet Media, part of Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet group, and it launched in Nigeria in October 2017. ₦10,960 bought the dish, the decoder and installation, with the first 30 days of viewing included. After that a 30-day pass was ₦6,275, and there were shorter passes too: three days for ₦990 or seven days for ₦1,850.
On 1 November 2018 Econet Media said it would concentrate on the free-to-air channel Kwesé Free Sports and on streaming, through the Kwesé iflix app and the Kwesé Play box. The satellite bouquet lost its third-party pay channels and Kwesé’s own sports and entertainment channels. Free-to-air, religious and free news channels stayed, with the monthly subscription waived. Subscribers who had paid for November or further ahead were promised a full refund.
The rest went in 2019. Econet Media went into administration in July. Econet then announced that the Kwesé satellite service would be discontinued from 5 August, saying it could no longer find the foreign currency to pay its content suppliers. Techpoint, reporting from Nigeria that week, found Kwesé Free Sports off the air and the Kwesé TV and Kwesé iflix apps gone from the app stores.
Can you still use a Kwesé decoder?
Not for Kwesé. The decoder in the picture was built for Kwesé’s own signal, and that signal is gone. Do not buy one second-hand expecting a pay-TV service to come with it, and treat any offer of a “working” Kwesé package with suspicion. Kwesé’s old website now shows a holding page with no service on it, Google Play has no Kwesé app, and no company we know of sells Kwesé subscriptions in Nigeria.
DStv or GOtv in its place
Both are run by MultiChoice. DStv comes by satellite dish, as Kwesé did. GOtv uses a small antenna. The DStv and GOtv figures here are from their own websites.
| What you compare | Kwesé TV at launch | DStv now | GOtv now |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it reaches you | Satellite dish | Satellite dish | GOtenna antenna, no dish |
| Starter kit | ₦10,960 for dish, decoder, installation and 30 days of viewing | ₦15,000 for decoder, dish kit and a month of the entry-level package | ₦15,000 for decoder, antenna and a month of the entry-level package |
| Price per month | ₦6,275 | ₦4,400 to ₦44,500 | ₦4,000 to ₦21,000 |
| Channels | 65+ | 45+ to 162+ | 47+ to 94+ |
Neither of their starter prices mentions installation, so ask what the installer charges before you pay. If the Kwesé dish is still on your wall, ask whether it can be reused, but do not count on a saving: DStv’s ₦15,000 bundle comes with its own dish kit.
To stay at what Kwesé cost, DStv Starter and GOtv Starter are both ₦6,000, with 98+ channels on DStv and 68+ on GOtv. DStv’s needs a dish. GOtv’s does not. The cheapest thing that works is GOtv Easy at ₦4,000 a month, which is mostly local stations and news.
Kwesé’s sport is split up now. ESPN is on GOtv from Starter upward, and reports of MultiChoice’s launch put the NBA on DStv Sports, at ₦21,000 a month. The Premier League is on DStv Sports or GOtv Sports, both ₦21,000.
For children, Kwesé had Cartoon Network and Jim Jam. On GOtv, Jim Jam is on every package, Cartoon Network starts at Starter (₦6,000) and Nickelodeon at Select (₦11,000).
Neither replaces Kwesé’s three-day and seven-day passes. DStv and GOtv price their packages by the month. Our two guides go through every package: DStv decoders and prices and GOtv packages and prices.
