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NBC to raise N69bn for digital broadcasting

By on February 6, 2015

The National Broadcasting Commission plans to raise N69bn to handle the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting in the country.

The Director-General, NBC, Mr. Emeka Mba, confirmed this in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja.

The plan involves getting the lump sum of money from the Federal Government and pledging digital dividend as the collateral.

Digital dividend refers to the spectrum or frequencies that will be released for other purposes when broadcasting organisations migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting.

Digital television consumes just a little fraction of the spectrum required for analogue broadcasting, and in the Nigerian plan for digital television, there will only be two transmission service providers (carriers) that require frequency, while the current broadcast operators will only serve as content providers.

Mba confirmed that the Nigerian Communications Commission, which will be the repository of the spectrum to be released in the process of digitisation, was involved in the plan as the regulator of the Nigerian communications industry.

A regulation of the International Telecommunications Union requires nations to move from analogue to digital broadcasting on or before June 17, 2015.

Nigeria had previously set a deadline of June 17, 2012 to achieve digitisation but enough work had not been done by the date thereby prompting a shift to coincide with the international deadline.

However, there are fears that the nation may still not be able to meet the deadline, with Mba confirming that funds are not available for the transition programme thus prompting the move to secure the N69bn and utilising digital dividend as collateral.

When terrestrial television stations move from analogue to digital broadcasting, existing analogue television sets will not be able to receive signals except they connect to a new device known as Set Top Box.

Some of the elements of cost include providing subsidy to about 30 per cent of households that own television sets to be able to buy Set Top Boxes.

Funds are also required to buy off analogue transmitters from existing broadcast organisations to enable them to invest in what they require to operate in the era of digital broadcasting.

 

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