THE new push by the National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) for the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting in
Nigeria is expected to redefine television viewing for about 22 million
households that are currently not digital.
After a comprehensive study of
the number of television households in the country by the NBC, it discovered
that there were 37.3 million households in Nigeria, with 26 million priviledged
to have televisions, but out of these, only four million are currently on
digital, leaving 22 million on analogue radar, which is now the focus of the
commission.
The NBC, which rued the
country’s failure to meet the digital switch Over (DSO) deadline of June 17,
set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as agreed to member
nations at the Geneva 2002 meeting in Switzerland, said Nigeria, like other
Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), now hoped to fully
transit by June 20, 2017.
As such, the commission
affirmed that all hands are on deck, to ensure what happened in June did not
repeat itself again in the country.
Speaking at a media briefing
in Lagos, the Director-General of NBC, Emeka Mba, who recalled that Nigeria,
actually failed to transit in June because of lack of funding, noted that all
other plans were actually on ground.
“The ITU deadline was not met
due to lack of fund essentially and other myriads of challenges before the NBC
such as aggregate conent development, distribution and production and
availability of Set Top Boxes (STBs).
“We actually approached the
last administration for DSO budget of N70 billion, it was however, pruned down
to N51 billion and we were mandated to source for part of the money. We
could not raise any money then. But the story has changed. Nigeria’s DSO plans
is back on course as we have been able to raise N34 billion through the
licensing of the 700 MHz frequency spectrum band to telecommunications
operator—MTN Nigeria to use part of the frequency to rovide digital pay TV
broadcasting services.
“I am pleased to inform you,
also, that through this singular move, Nigeria has once again pointed the way
for other African countries struggling with the effort of finding financing for
their own digital switchover programmes.
“With all the arrangement put in place,
we have secured more than half of our budgetary needs to transit, and as we
explore other avenues, we are confident that the new date is achievable”, Mba
said.
The NBC DG disclosed that
work has started in earnest for the DSO, as there would be a pilot programme
scheduled for first week in November in Jos, Plateau state.
Mba explained that from the
survey carried out by the commission, “there are 26 million television
household in Nigeria, out of which only four million are digital. The plan now
is to ensure that the remaining 22 million analogue viewers transit to digital
by the new ECOWAS date of June 20, 2017.”
In addition to meeting this
challenge, Mba said Nigeria will need about 30 million STBs in the next two
years for a successful DSO transition.
As such, he said about 14
indigenous companies have been licensed as at April 1, to manufacture STBs,
stressing that by ending of October, first sets of STBs would have been
available.
According to him, manufacturing
of STBs in the country would create over 30, 000 jobs in the next two years.
He also informed that three
Signal Distributors including ITS, Pinnacle and MTS have been licensed to also
put Nigeria on the right track to meeting the new DSO date.
“Off-shore mass production
and delivery of initial sub vented boxes for Jos pilot project is envisaged to
be completed by the end of October, while the local manufacture of the set top
boxes is expected to begin in April 2016.
“There would be a re-launch of
the DSO in Jos by the first week of November and about 500,000 STBs would be
deployed at that pilot stage. Jos has 316, 000 television homes and was chosen
for the pilot programme because of the topograpghy of the state”, he stated.
No comments:
Post a Comment