NIGERIA’S DIGITIZATION JOURNEY STILL SLOW IN THE FACE OF CHALLENGES….. SAYS RESEARCHER

NIGERIA’S DIGITIZATION JOURNEY STILL SLOW IN THE FACE OF CHALLENGES….. by Tosin Adesile

Following the International Telecommunication Union-ITU’s deadline of June 17, 2015 for member country to go Digital, Nigeria is still at the process of switching from analogue to digital technology. Not just at the beginning of the project but at 24% penetration according to Mr. Emeka Mba, Director General, National Broadcasting Commission,(NBC).

The researcher in an Interview with NBC helmsman found out Nigeria has gone digital since 2010 with NTA Star Times and later GOTV with presence in over forty cities across the Nation.

According to Mr Mba, he said, “What we want to do now is the phase of analogue switch off and we need to be satisfied that Nigerians has Digital television or have gadgets for it before we can recommend analogue switch off”

The NBC boss admits that digital penetration is still very low but the commission is trying everything possible to confront its challenges which funding remains the biggest threat and availability of set up Boxes. “We are now at the phase of concluding work on new National terrestrial system”. The Commission had just concluded a DSO meeting in Jos where the first pilot was concluded to see if they can conveniently switch off.

Mr Kinglsey Igwe  who spoke on behalf  of Mr John Mommoh, CEO of Channels Television in an interview maintained that Shifting and shifting of date has characterised the Nigeria switch off from analogue to Digital by NBC. According to him,” Before it was 2012, now it is 17^th July 2015. Now, there are speculations for a change in date again” but the NBC maintain that the commission must have been satisfied with the rate of penetration before they can recommend total switch off.

Mr Mba who said,” if we cannot meet up with the deadline, we’ll set a new date and make a public statement”.

Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Commissioner for Information, Plateau state listed various reasons why the country is yet to go on full Digitalization like Non-availability of set-up box while lots of enlightenment still needs to be done by Television and Radio Dealers as well as the commission and various stakeholders.

He said,” With the pilot experience and what we have seen in Jos, the Commission is really working hard to ensure they achieve the set deadline”

Engr. Edward Amana, Chairman, Digi Team who explained to the broadcast regulator that he reason for the transition from analogue to Digital is for more effective use of spectrum. Using an Illustration of Abuja for example, there are following stations which are free to air- NTA News24, AIT, Channels Television, ITV, DBN, NTA Channel 5 Abuja, Silverbird Television etc. In the analogue transmission system, each of these stations requires 8 MHz bandwidth to transmit one channel programme which implies that the 7 stations will require 56 MHz bandwidth for their operations. Utilizing Digital transmission in all these 7 stations and more can be transmitted using one 8 MHz Channel. With the DVB-T2 format for digital broadcasting adopted by Nigeria and most African countries, the country can actually put up to 20 Standard television definition channels into 8 MHz Bandwidth. This therefore offers lot of opportunity for a lot more programme and more participants in the television industry.

Prof Rahaman Bello, Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos who praised NBC for the effort to ensure the country achieve 100% digital penetration that the Universities still represent the best form of laboratory to train 1^st class broadcasters who can easily understand the tenets of the current digitalization effort which is the trend.

According to him, a Television licence for an academic Television is not only timely if granted but would have covered the aspect of training which the commission is also committed to as part of its function.”

Prof Ralph Akinfeleye, a doyen of Mass Communication and Chairman Unilag Radio said in furtherance to supporting the NBC effort towards Digitalization, “our department of Mass Communication in the University of Lagos has gone digital already in terms of equipment’s and material ,all we expect is stamping seal from the NBC to conclude the process as television is concerned”.

In order for a hitch-free exercise, awareness is still very low as far as digitization is concerned which suggest a need for that. It is also advisable that licence operators produce enough set-up boxes for homes while content generation should be taken serious by giving opportunity to independent content producers in addition to the one Television Stations generate. The Gap between Rural and Urban areas as far as accessibility to Digitalization must not be too much

Currently, the National Broadcasting Commission has given over 628 broadcast licenses, made up of 97 private radio,43 private TV,53 federal radio, 133 federal TV,112 state radio,68 state T.V,27 campus radio,26 DTH operators, 51 MMDS operators, 12 DSB operators,2 DTT operators and 4 IPTV operators and no campus Television.

(Tosin Adesile recently completed Master Degree in Mass Communication, University of Lagos and he has this as summary of his research work focused on Television Digitization in Nigeria…Where are we?)