Cost of watching YouTube videos in Nigeria
KoliTechHome | Entertainment | ( 1 ) | Subscribe Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday September 10, 2015 at 12:43:51:
How much does it cost to watch or stream a video from YouTube in Nigeria? There are now a growing number of Nigerians who prefer entertaining themselves by watching YouTube videos. A good majority of them are people who can afford to buy internet service or probably don't havetime for cable tv at home but just feel the need to entertain or eduacate themselves. I have a friend who normally uses up to 2GB watching videos from National Geographic just becasue he is fascinated by Wild animals. I think a good number of Nigerians who watch YoUTube videos on their phones or protabledevices are the man who hardly have time to stay at home. Some are also those who just have an affordalbe internet service that allows them to watch many hours of video even at their homes or offices.How much does it really cost to watch a YouTube video in Nigeria? Well, I think the cost varies depending on the type of internet service you are subscribed to.Let's assume that you are subscribed to a data based plan like I am that costs me N1 for 1MB, then it means that to watch a YouTube video that runs into 20 minutes and uses about 40MB, then it means that it would cost me N40 for watching a 20 minute video. It's pretty hard to place an exact figure on how much it costs to watch YouTube videos in Nigeria in terms of data consumed because video files tend to vary in terms of quality, audio, size and so on. A low quality, small size, poor audio, short period YouTube video costs less to stream as it uses less data than a high quality, big size and rich audio, long period movie. Also, due to the fact that internet subscription plans tend to vary from one network to another, it's normally hard to put an exact value on the cost of internet services that would allow people access YouTube videos. So, it depends on the cost of the internet and if it costs you about N50,000 on an unlimited data plan per month, it means that you can watch YouTube videos without paying any extra fees since you are on an unlimited plan.Using a pay as you use data plan to watch YouTube videos is not ideal because it costs as much as 5 kobo to download a kb of data from YouTube and by the time the person watches a 20MB video, it would have cost him as much as N1000. So, a pay as you use data plan is probably the most costly plan to be on when watching YouTube videos in Nigeria.The cost of prepaid internet data plans are gradually getting lower in Nigeria with networks offering as low as 70 kobo per MB and that reduces the cost of watching a 20MB video to as low as N14 only.The ideal way to reduce the cost of streaming YouTube videos in Nigeria is to go for a prepaid plan that has not data caps or limits but just a fixed monthly cost. The big problem however with most prepaid fixed cost plans are that their service is not always efficient as internet speed can at times be too slow or signals suspended after the customer had already subscribed in advance and that's why many Nigerians opt for prepaid data plans since they won't lose data if the quality of such internet service is poor.Personally, I prefer going for a prepaid data plan but paying N1 for 1MB is still a big high for watching a YouTube video given that if I watched it for 8 hrs a day, I may use up to N1,000 and that's still higher than what Pay TV services cost. YouTube streaming is still a bit more costly than Pay TV services in Nigeria but the advantage is has over those cable TV providers is that you only pay for what you want to watch rather than paying for channels you don't really like.The easiest way to know how much it costs to watch YouTube videos on your device is by monitoring your data usage and for Android devices, you can do that by going to Settings > Data Usage > YouTube to see how much you've used.
Comments:
Re: Cost of watching YouTube videos in Nigeria Reply by Tolulope on Monday October 12, 2015 at 13:42:33: What if a wi-fi operator was to offer you N450 per day (00:00:00 to 23:59:59) unlimited uncapped (except for download abusers) wi-fi access?
Re: Cost of watching YouTube videos in Nigeria Reply by Felix Okoli on Sunday January 24, 2016 at 19:22:51: That would be nice but one wonders which ISP would offer that service for the long term?