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

StarTimes Nova costs ₦2,100 a month on antenna or dish, and it's the right pick if your house mostly watches news, Nollywood and local channels. Families get more from Basic. Football fans usually need Classic on antenna or Super on dish.

Above Nova, all StarTimes subscription packages cost more on a dish than on an antenna, so check which decoder you have before you pay anything. Prices as at 22 October 2026.

StarTimes subscription packages and prices in Nigeria

You get four main bouquets in Nigeria. From cheapest to dearest, they're Nova, Basic, Classic and Super. Each comes in an antenna version and a dish version, and only Nova costs the same on both. Cashback goes back into your AidaPay wallet.

StarTimes subscription price list, antenna (DTT) and dish (DTH), prices as at 22 October 2026:

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

One naming catch trips people up on dish. You'll often hear the middle dish bouquet called Smart, yet the monthly plan in the app reads Basic (Dish) at the same ₦5,100. Go by the price and the word "Dish" in the plan name, and you won't go wrong.

StarTimes Nova channels list: antenna (DTT) and dish

Nova has about 30 channels, but your decoder decides which ones. Antenna Nova carries 30 and dish Nova carries 29. Only 12 channels turn up on both.

StarTimes Nova channels, split by where you'll find them:

If grandma settles in front of the NTA language channels or Wazobia TV every evening, antenna Nova is the one for her house. Want Channels or AIT for the news instead? Those sit in dish Nova.

Line-ups change from time to time, so look through the guide on your decoder after you renew.

Three kinds of StarTimes viewer and the bouquet each should buy

Start from your habits, not the channel count. A bigger bouquet pays off only when somebody at home watches the extra channels. Think back over the last two weeks and jot down every channel you actually turned on.

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. Its antenna version carries NTA News 24 and TVC NG, plus ST Sports Focus for highlights.

Basic costs ₦1,900 more on antenna, so skip it unless you keep wishing for a channel Nova doesn't carry and somebody at home would really watch it every week.

If you aren't sure which decoder you have, Nova is the safest bouquet of the four. It costs ₦2,100 on both, so you can't overpay by picking the wrong type.

Family with children: cartoons, films and local channels

Nova has only one children's channel on antenna (Jimjam), so the proper cartoon line-up starts at Basic. Its antenna version adds Nickelodeon and Toonami for the children, plus ST Naija for the grown-ups once the cartoons finish, all for ₦4,000 a month.

Classic sits one step up. It brings in DreamWorks, CBeebies and National Geographic for ₦2,000 more on antenna, while the same step on dish costs ₦2,300.

Ask the children first. If they only ever watch one cartoon channel, stay on Basic and keep the difference.

Football fan: Classic on antenna, Super on dish

Here your decoder decides everything. ST World Football HD comes with Classic on antenna, at ₦6,000 a month. On dish, you'll find it in Super at ₦9,800.

Basic on antenna already has ESPN and ST Sports Arena. That may be enough if you mostly follow highlights and sports news.

Line-ups shift between seasons. Before you pay for a bigger bouquet for one league, ask StarTimes customer care which channel shows it. Nobody wants to discover at kick-off that the match sits one bouquet higher.

Daily, weekly or monthly: which StarTimes plan costs less?

Monthly wins almost every time. Daily plans are the sachet-water way to pay for TV: handy on the day, dearer over a month.

StarTimes daily, weekly and monthly prices on AidaPay, as at 22 October 2026:

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. Four weeks of Nova come to ₦2,800, still above one monthly payment. On Super (Dish), a month of daily payments would reach ₦18,000.

Short plans still have their place. If there's one big match on Saturday and payday is still four days away, a ₦600 day on Super (Dish) covers the match without spending a whole month's money at once. A single week also works as a cheap trial of a higher bouquet, and if nobody in the house touches the extra channels by the end, you drop back at the next renewal.

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, so a dish still works where an antenna can't.

Nova costs the same on both. Above it, dish always costs more. You pay ₦1,100 extra a month for Basic, and the gap grows to ₦1,400 on Classic. Super is the odd one out: dish costs only ₦300 more there, so your decoder type matters far less at the top. Dish also carries more overall: over 100 TV channels plus more than 20 radio stations, against about 100 TV channels on antenna.

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. If the cable vanishes somewhere you can't follow, ask StarTimes customer care with your smartcard number.

Before you renew: a short checklist

1. Confirm your decoder type.
2. Pick the bouquet from what your house actually watched last month.
3. Choose the monthly period unless you only need a day or a week.
4. If you want a sports channel, confirm which bouquet carries it on your decoder type.

Buying a new decoder

If the antenna signal is strong where you live, antenna is the cheaper choice every month, because you pay less for Basic and Classic for as long as you keep that decoder. Choose dish only when antenna signal is poor.

How to pay for StarTimes online and change bouquet

You can pay for your own decoder or someone else's. All you need is the smartcard number on the decoder or its card.

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.

If the payment fails, check the smartcard number first. One wrong digit brings up the wrong name or none at all. Next, check that the plan type matches your decoder, because an (Antenna) plan won't work on a dish decoder and a (Dish) plan won't work on an antenna one. If a channel is still missing after you've paid, 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.

You can change your StarTimes package whenever you like. Switching at renewal is simplest: let the current month run out, then pay for the new bouquet, and you won't pay for two in the same month.

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, updated 22 October 2026. Prices and codes change - if you spot one that has moved, tell us and we will fix it.