Nigeria set for digital broadcasting in 2015: Maku

Nigeria will meet the July 2015 deadline set for countries to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting as stipulated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, has said.

According to the minister, the recent launch of the pilot Digital Switch Over in Jos, will fast-track the process of the migration in major cities, followed by the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

 
Maku spoke in Abuja in his address at an Extra-ordinary National Council on Information, which focussed on the digital migration and national security.

The minister particularly extolled the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan through support and encouragement to the Digitisation Team and other stakeholders to realise the objective of the digital crossover.

He said under the new Global Digitisation Policy in broadcasting, functions in the industry would be separated with the broadcaster taking responsibility for the provision of content while the signal distributor takes charge of the transmission of signals to viewers. “This unique idea will lead to exponential growth in the number of television stations in the country that will be solely dedicated to programming, thereby creating thousands of jobs,” he stated.

The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in partnership with StarTimes had been licenced to set up a special entity that would transmit signals for public broadcast stations while the signal distributor for the private broadcast stations would soon be selected in a competitive bidding in line with global best practices, the minister said.

.He said, the nation would earn huge revenue because the spectrums hitherto occupied by the broadcast stations would be freed and sold to entities involved in deepening broadband services to support internet access and penetration in the country.

The Minister therefore urged state governments to step up the process of transiting their broadcasters to the digital platform by investing in training and quality programming, which would be cost-effective as they would no longer expend resources on maintaining transmitting stations.