StarTimes Subscription Packages: Nova ₦2,100 to Super ₦9,800 a Month

Pay for Nova at ₦2,100 a month if your house mostly watches news, Nollywood and local channels. Families get more from Basic. Football fans usually need Classic on an antenna decoder or Super on a dish.

StarTimes subscription packages also cost more on a dish than on an antenna, so check your decoder before you pay. Prices as at 1 October 2026.

StarTimes subscription packages and prices in Nigeria

StarTimes sells four main bouquets in Nigeria. From cheapest to dearest they run Nova, Basic, Classic and Super, and each one comes in two versions, one for antenna decoders and one for dish decoders, each with its own price. These monthly prices match the antenna and dish list Legit.ng published in 2026. Cashback goes back into your app wallet.

StarTimes subscription price list, antenna (DTT) and dish (DTH):

You can renew for yourself or for your mum's decoder back home. Pay your StarTimes subscription online on AidaPay.

Watch one naming catch on dish. Legit.ng's list calls the middle dish bouquet Smart, but the app shows it as Basic (Dish) at the same price. Go by the price and the word "Dish" in the plan name.

Three kinds of StarTimes viewer and the bouquet each should buy

Start from your habits, not from the channel count. A bigger bouquet only pays off when somebody in the house really watches the extra channels, and most homes turn on the same few channels night after night, whatever the advert promised. Think back over the last two weeks. Write that short list down.

Light viewer: news, Nollywood and a few hours at night

You get home, catch the evening news, maybe a film, then sleep. Nova covers that. Legit.ng's channel list puts NTA News 24, Emmanuel TV and ST Zone in Nova, along with ST Sports Focus for highlights.

On antenna, Basic costs ₦1,900 more. Skip it unless you keep wishing for a channel Nova doesn't carry. Pay monthly rather than daily too, because the daily plan costs far more over a month.

Nova is also the safest bouquet when you're not sure what decoder you have. It costs ₦2,100 on both antenna and dish, so you can't overpay by picking the wrong type.

Family with children: cartoons, films and local channels

Basic is where the kids' channels start. According to Legit.ng, it adds ST Kids and Nickelodeon for the children, plus ST Naija and ST Yoruba for the grown-ups who want their own shows once the cartoons finish.

On antenna, Basic costs ₦4,000 a month. Documentaries and animated films sit one step up in Classic, which brings in National Geographic and DreamWorks for ₦2,000 more on antenna. On dish, the same step costs ₦2,300.

Before you move up, ask the children which channels they really watch. If the answer is one cartoon channel, stay on Basic.

Football fan: Classic on antenna, Super on dish

Here your decoder decides the answer. Legit.ng's channel list places ST Sports Premium and ST World Football HD in Classic on antenna but in Super on dish. So on an antenna decoder, the main football channels may come with Classic at ₦6,000 a month. A dish viewer needs Super at ₦9,800.

Super on antenna costs ₦3,500 more than Classic. The list doesn't say what that extra money adds for football.

Line-ups shift between seasons. Before you pay for a bigger bouquet for one league, check which channel shows it in the StarTimes ON app or with StarTimes customer care. Nobody wants to find out at kick-off that the match sits one bouquet higher.

Quick picks at a glance

Light viewers: Nova, paid monthly. Families with children take Basic, and move to Classic only when the house wants documentaries and animated films too. For football, it's Classic on an antenna decoder and Super on a dish, once you've confirmed the channel carries your league.

StarTimes subscription price: daily, weekly or monthly?

Monthly wins almost every time.

Daily plans are the sachet-water way to pay for TV: handy on the day, dearer over a month. Here are the prices for the cheapest and the dearest common plans:

To get the cheaper monthly rate, buy your StarTimes monthly plan on AidaPay for your own decoder or a relative's.

Paying for Nova one day at a time for a whole month comes to ₦4,500. That's more than double the monthly price. Weekly gets closer, but four weeks of Nova still cost more than a single monthly payment. On Super (Dish) the gap is wider, and a month of daily payments there would come to ₦18,000.

Short plans still earn their place now and then. Say there's one big match on Saturday and payday is still four days away: a ₦600 day on Super (Dish) gets you through that match without spending a whole month's money. A single week also works as a cheap trial of a higher bouquet. Watch it for seven days. If nobody in the house has touched the extra channels by the end, go back to your old bouquet at the next renewal.

Legit.ng describes StarTimes as mainly monthly, with no regular weekly bouquets. Daily and weekly plans show in the app today, but treat them as top-ups and check before you count on one.

Antenna or dish: the one thing that changes the answer

StarTimes runs two systems. An antenna decoder (DTT) picks up signal from a nearby transmitter, while a dish decoder (DTH) gets its signal from a satellite, which is why a dish still works in places an antenna can't reach.

Nova costs the same on both, and above Nova a dish always costs more. On Basic the gap is ₦1,100 a month. It grows to ₦1,400 on Classic. Super is the odd one out: there, a dish costs only ₦300 more than an antenna, so your decoder type matters far less at the top.

How to check which decoder you have

Look at your roof or wall. A round dish means you're on dish, and a rod or flat aerial means antenna. When the cable disappears somewhere you can't follow, ask StarTimes customer care with your smartcard number. Then write the answer on a small paper and keep it next to the decoder for next time.

Before you renew: a short checklist

Confirm your decoder type first. Then pick the bouquet from what your house actually watched last month, and choose the monthly period unless you only need a day or a week. If you want a sports channel, confirm which bouquet carries it on your decoder type. Those few minutes stop the two costly mistakes: the wrong decoder type and a bouquet nobody uses.

Buying a new decoder

For a new flat, antenna is the cheaper choice every month wherever the signal is strong, and Legit.ng also lists the dish decoder at a higher price than the antenna one. Choose dish only when antenna signal is poor where you live.

How to pay for StarTimes online and change bouquet

You can pay for your own decoder or for someone else's. All you need is the smartcard number on the decoder or its card. Once you type it in, the account name shows, so you can check you're paying for the right house before any money leaves your wallet.

Fund your wallet first, then follow these steps:

1. Open the AidaPay app.
2. On Home, tap Cable TV.
3. Choose StarTimes.
4. Type your smartcard number. Check that the name that shows is the right one.
5. Pick the bouquet and period. Make sure the plan name says (Antenna) or (Dish) to match your decoder.
6. Confirm with your PIN.

When a payment fails, check the smartcard number first. One wrong digit brings up the wrong name or no name at all. Next, look at the plan type, since an (Antenna) plan won't work on a dish decoder and a (Dish) plan won't work on an antenna one. If you've paid and a channel is still missing, ask StarTimes customer care which bouquet carries it.

The same wallet lets you renew cable TV from one app if you also pay for another decoder. Legit.ng lists other routes too, including bank USSD, the StarTimes ON app and POS agents.

Changing bouquet is less clear. When we checked on 1 October, the StarTimes Nigeria website redirected to a Kenya page, so we couldn't confirm the official rules for switching mid-month. The safe move is to switch at renewal: let the current month run out, then pay for the new bouquet.

Tonight, check whether you have a dish or an antenna. Then pick the monthly plan that fits how your house watches TV, and if there's a GOtv decoder in the other room too, compare with GOtv subscription prices before your next renewal.

Frequently asked questions

Published 1 October 2026. Prices and codes change - if you spot one that has moved, tell us and we will fix it.