The Nation Newspaper

Tag: broadcasting

  • 29 years of private broadcasting

    29 years of private broadcasting

    Private broadcasting in Nigeria started on September 1, 1994 when Raypower 100 FM began commercial broadcasting in Lagos. This follows the deregulation of broadcast sector by the Ibrahim Babangida military government with a decree in 1992.

    The first licence was issued in 1993 and RayPower went to test broadcast in December 1993 before it fully took off the following year.

    That brought to an end government-run broadcasting sub-sector of the media of the previous 60 years.

    RayPower FM had a low-key activity to mark the anniversary mainly because of the demise of its founder, the late Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, who passed on in May.

    Pioneer General Manager of the Station Mr. Olusesan Ekisola visited the station and spoke briefly on how it was in the beginning during the 90 minutes with Ibiyemi Olufowobi’s programme.

    Read Also: Dokpesi: AAAN condoles with DAAR Communications

    The history of RayPower is the history of private broadcasting in Nigeria. Now, there are hundreds of radio/television licences already issued by the regulator – the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC). Many stations are on air and a lot more licences are kept in the bag by those who obtained them having being unable to commence operation.

    No doubt, private broadcasting has brought a big improvement to information dissemination by providing alternatives, which are needed for proper information dissemination.

    At 30 next year, the NBC itself might need to roll out the drums, to celebrate private broadcasting and its contributions to the development of the country.

  • 2019: NBC warns broadcasting stations over political campaigns, hate speeches

    2019: NBC warns broadcasting stations over political campaigns, hate speeches

    THE Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) yesterday read the out riot act to broadcast stations on political campaigns and hate speeches.

    Its Director General, Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, said liable stations will soon face the law.

    He noted that it was wrong and against the ethics of the profession to broadcast campaign messages or programmes when the lid was yet to be lifted.

    Kawu, who spoke while  briefing reporters on the update of Digital Switch Over (DSO), said the NBC will soon begin to phase out Analogue Switch Off (ASO) in Plateau State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), by the end of the First Quarter of 2018.

    The NBC boss warned that media stations must do everything professional to promote the country’s democracy.

    Kawu said: “Permit me my dear colleagues, to also take your time to remind our broadcasters that as we approach the electioneering period, stations must do everything professional to promote democracy. Broadcasters are reminded that they have a duty to respect all extant laws related to the reportage and coverage of the electoral process. Don’t broadcast campaigns when the period for commencement of campaigns have not commenced.”

    On inciting messages, the NBC boss warned against deliberate airing of contents, which are capable of inciting the people against each other.

    “We are disturbed by the pattern of insensitive and inflammatory broadcasts emanating from some broadcast stations, especially in their coverage of national crises, like the herdsmen/farmer crises.

    “We have observed that some stations deliberately and repeatedly air very inciting contents long after the events break. We have warned stations that they must follow the tenets of the Broadcasting Code.

    “Having warned broadcasters, we shall follow up with appropriate sanctions should any station continue to violate the Broadcasting Code.”

    Already, he said the commission is planning a national conference on “politics and hate speech, during which we hope to present the study we commissioned on hate speech”.

    Kawu also revealed that the commission has submitted a long list of new radio and television stations to President Muhammad’s Buhari for presidential assent.

    “The President has always been encouraging the NBC to open up accesses for Nigerians to be able to register newer radio and television stations, because of his belief that they help to deepen democratic discourse and also help to create new jobs through the broadcasting value chain,” he said.

    NBC, he added, has informed the pay DTT operators, GOTV and NTA/STAR TIMES to begin discussions with the two signal distributors – ITS and Pinnacle Communications.

    “This is because, in line with the Government White Paper on the Transition from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting, after June 2019, these pay DTT operators would no longer be licensed to operate as both content providers and signal distributors,” he explained.

    On DSO, Kawu said by the end of the third quarter of 2018, 12 states would have been hooked up to the digital viewing.

    He noted that so far, the digital switch over has been launched in three states, Plateau, Kaduna, Kwara and the Federal Capital Territory.

    The commission, he said, is “committed to roll out in many more states this year” with Enugu and Osun on the line to join the list of states in couple of weeks.

    He said: “We have already scheduled Monday,  February 12, 2018 for the switch on for Enugu state. Similarly February 23rd has been affirmed for the switch on in Osun State.”

    The full roll out, he said, is subject to achieving about 95 per cent coverage.

  • DSO and future of broadcasting

    Television broadcasting is of so much importance to citizens and the Nigerian state as a means of national integration and cultural development in a fast-paced global arena which is driven mainly by communication technology. Nigeria has fallen far short in its bid to catch up with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards in terms of quality and timing in switching over to digital broadcasting.

    Whereas Nigeria has missed more than two deadlines in the digital switchover process to the disappointment of many Nigerians and ITU, what has become more embarrassing is the claim that the transmitters installed by Integrated Television Services (ITS) have been discontinued by the original equipment manufacturer more than 10 years ago. Tony Dara, an acclaimed broadcast engineer who had acted as a consultant to the National Assembly on Nigeria’s digital switch over brought this fact to the public sphere and the famed Nigerian factor has begun to set in.

    Responding to the finding on installation of obsolete transmitters that have been discontinued by the original equipment manufacturer, ITS General Manager, Rotimi Salami did not contradict the finding but instead sought to rationalise using them on the ground of “room for backward integration” existing in broadcast technology.

    At a time the rest of the world is striving to keep pace with the innovations and dynamism of digital signals broadcast,  while Nigerians  make do with antiquated modems so that the technical epilepsy associated with  electricity supply will be transferred  into our broadcasting infrastructure’s  “compatibility” hardware.  It was the same sickening surrender to stagnant development that led ITS into retaining old buildings and facilities to house the Digital Switch Over (DSO) in Jos and Ilorin, another flaw identified in the Dara Report that ITS failed to debunk. According to ITS GM, there was no reason to even consider new buildings for the DSO process because nine years ago the White Paper on DSO recommended that the “existing and massive” broadcast transmission infrastructure of the NTA, VON and FRCN should form the backbone for the new broadcast signal distributor. Someone should ask ITS why these old buildings were not even considered for renovation.

    Again, to add pseudo-savvy to the idleness of its initiatives, ITS GM exposed the fallacies integrated into decisions by declaring that “a building does not determine the quality of transmission, rather (sic) it is the state of the equipment”. This evidently cannot be technically applicable to a backwardly integrated compatibility-chasing choice of obsolete equipment that will be depending on perpetual coupling and combinations to deliver digital output from analogue inputs! What would it have cost to put up new buildings designed with the spatial and other specifications suitable for workflow in the DSO which is not comparable to the decades old analogue equipment “existing” in NTA?

    It is unfortunate that these are the untenable, illogical and technically bankrupt responses that ITS churned out in a vexatious attempt to dismiss the clear compilation of the deceptive and defective foundation laid for the DSO in Nigeria by the federal government’s own agents and agencies.

    The crux of this disturbing matter is that over N1.7 billion was collected by the NTA-ITS from federal government coffers specifically as take-off grant for the DSO pilot project! With such a humongous budget, why should their DSO project be relying on discontinued obsolete equipment when at every material time there were latest successor models of the digital transmitters by the same manufacturer which are in fact future-assured technology and not the retrograde discarded systems being foisted on the country? Does Nigeria have to wait until the analogue-fanatics pushing backward integration in Nigeria while the world is on digital fast track to the future in broadcast technology are themselves rendered obsolete by age and tenure before we can catch up with the rest of the world in digital broadcasting?

    It is also intriguing that the industry regulator, National Broadcasting Corporation(NBC) which is charged with monitoring and supervising the broadcast industry in Nigeria has so far maintained a loud silence while the ITS scandal unfolds. NBC should have been the first to identify any deviation from set standards and impose the necessary regulatory sanctions to ensure compliance, especially at the critical stage of commencement of the DSO. The only conclusion this surprising negligence of duty and aloofness to the exposure of malpractice raises is culpable collusion. This deplorable attitude was responsible for the initial installation of obsolete equipment by ITS as well as the cover-up of the scandal during and after the celebrated launching of the Jos pilot project.

    An indication of the culpability of the NBC was given the other day on Channels TV when Armstrong Idachaba, the NBC director specifically charged with the monitoring of broadcasting erased any doubts about the Dara Report findings  and the implication that his organisation failed to perform its fundamental duty of monitoring and regulating the very first official roll-out of the DSO in the Jos Pilot Project . Confronted with the Dara Report’s shocking revelation that ITS commenced the implementation of the DSO in Jos by deploying equipment that have been discontinued by the original equipment manufacturer, Idachaba declared that ITS more competent to respond and even offered contact details for Channels TV to “Bring them in and let them explain”. In other words, NBC as the government regulatory agency in broadcasting and the DSO in particular, could neither deny nor confirm that ITS actually rolled out obsolete analogue equipment for the Jos pilot digital switch over project!

    The same Idachaba had earlier bragged that “Jos was a fantastic experience for NBC”, that “all the theorising and planning we did regarding framework for DSO we had a chance to implement in Jos” and crowed about how the local people in Jos were enjoying digital terrestrial television free of charge on 30 channels. He obviously was not expecting to be asked about the Dara Report and was visibly flustered having to literally eat his own words by admitting also that ITS had not met the 30 channels requirement and had still not covered the entire Plateau State (not even the entire Jos township according to Dara Report), since the fanfare launch in 2015 in violation of the timelines set by the NBC.

    The NBC cannot feign ignorance of the damning revelation of the Dara Report without admitting deliberate negligence to perform its statutory responsibility as government regulator of the broadcast industry. Idachaba’s self-censoring refusal on national TV to give a honest and transparent response to the Dara Report as NBC’s head of broadcast monitoring is not good enough. By an unexpected turn of events, the NBC has been caught on camera exposing the deliberate derailment of its regulatory role from public interest to the pecuniary interests of a mafia-type cult of government officials intent on a digital swindle operation under the cover of the DSO.  Against the background of several deliberate failures of NBC to meet set deadlines for the project launch in the last five or more years, the confessional conspiratorial conduct of the regulator in the “pilot” plus the weighty material evidence of the Dara Report should convince the federal government beyond reasonable doubt that corruption will not kill DSO NIGERIA if the culprits can be brought to book.

    It is therefore necessary to urge the federal government to revisit and expand the scope of the initial investigation by the EFCC that resulted in the sacking and arraignment of the former DG of the NBC. It is quite clear now that it is not only the handling of the contracts for set top box “manufacturers” that was riddled with financial irregularities and violations of due process but also the entire process of implementing the DSO. Indeed even the surreptitious manner by which StarTimes hijacked and proceeded to subjugate its supposed license holder NTA in the pay TV sector calls for thorough investigation.

    The House of Representatives Committee on DSO should take the lead by concluding its investigations and releasing a report of its findings. Sad it is that the jinx that has bedevilled our DSO since 2014 remains a cog in the wheel of progress in 2017. Now that we know where the problem comes from, we stand a better chance of eliminating it once and for all. The revelation by Tony Dara is the best thing to ever happen to DSO in Nigeria.

     

    • Yakubu Esq is a legal/government affairs analyst.

  • In support of broadcasting for peace

    There has been a growing recognition of the relevance of communication to conflict management and peace-building initiatives across the world. Dramatic improvement and sophistication in information and communication technology have engendered consciousness about the need to deploy communication for facilitating social cohesion, community resilience and peace building initiatives.

    On the other hand, the negative roles some section of the media and communication had played in exacerbating violent conflict and group mobilisation were unmistakable. There were many instances in which journalists, government officials, security managers and international development agencies fuelled or exacerbated violence through inflammatory communication. The consequences and damages of news reports are hardly mitigated by the fact that the actors intended no harm.

    To avert a ceaseless deepening of this rather unpleasant situation, the Department for International Development (DFID) funded an ingenious intervention, Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP), focused on initiative aimed at fostering the enhancement of capability of actors and institutions dedicated to the promotion of peace and security in Nigeria. Since its inception in 2012, NSRP has, following a thorough needs assessment, prioritised the focus on building the capacity of journalists.  It went further to advance technical and facility support to media establishments, tertiary institutions as well as security agencies, relevant social media enthusiasts on conflict sensitive communication.  The programme deliberately emphasised reporting in order to mitigate risks of violence triggered by transmission and retransmission of dangerous speeches and insensitive messages which impact on human security and social cohesion.

    Through its various interventions, NSRP has trained and facilitated the mentoring of journalists to increase the quality of conflict sensitivity of media reporting.  This is to ensure that their professional performance matches the demand and challenges of working in conflict zones. NSRP specifically supported the highlighting of potential conflict situations by engaging in dialogue with the communities where they exist. Equally important was the need to provide window of opportunities for women.

    It is pertinent to recall that NSRP reckons strongly with the capacity of the media, especially the broadcast media, to impact on the Nigerian society. Indeed, this is to the extent that it has realised that the NBC Code needs to avail the nation’s broadcasting sector with a foundational premise.  This is to enable broadcasters cultivate and sustain peaceful coexistence as desired by NBC. NSRP believes that the inclusion of conflict and gender sensitivity in the new code will help make the media a positive force against violent intolerance and promote diversity.  It is also clear that gender sensitive broadcasting will readily accommodate and tolerate diversity which is indispensable to the sustenance of peaceful co-existence.

    It is in this light that NSRP chose to emphatically focus on conflict-sensitive communication, more especially conflict-sensitive reporting. This is in line with global best practices as duly endorsed by UNESCO and echoed the world over. Conflict-sensitive reporting is the trendy journalistic practice that mandates the media to reckon with the fact that they must consciously report and analyse conflicts with a view to helping to mitigate them.  Central to doing this by the broadcast media is the need to consciously avoid and discourage the use of dangerous speech.  This brand of media practice equally preaches solution building, consensus building in conjunction with what it labels “good journalism” which enjoins strict adherence to professional ethics.

    In the spirit of accommodating and tolerating diversity, NSRP has, in conjunction with relevant stakeholders, advocated and demonstrated multilateral collaboration between relevant stakeholders including the broadcasters, academics, culture enthusiasts, journalists as collectives and individuals, as well as other non state actors like charities and foundations.

    • By Lauratu Umar Abdulsalam

    Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP),  Abuja.

  • Continental Broadcasting restructures

    Continental Broadcasting restructures

  • ‘Why I went back to broadcasting’

    ‘Why I went back to broadcasting’

    Fidelis Duker is a filmmaker, writer and broadcaster.  He is also the festival director of Abuja International Film and Video Festival.  Before he went to Calabar, Cross River State, to start his FM Radio Station called Fad, he had produced about 250 home videos with his first debut titled Skeleton, released in 1991.  Some of his works include:  Violated, Blood Brothers, Pure Love, London Blues, Senseless, Hot Passion, among others.  In this chat with Edozie Udeze, he talks about Fad, his FM Radio station in Calabar, his age-long love for broadcasting, passion for film production and lots more.  Excerpts.

    Fidelis Duker is certainly one of those earliest and most pragmatic producers of home videos who will ever remain indelible in the history of the entertainment industry in Nigeria.  He was one of those who were so committed to the cause that he equally took the bull by the horns when it mattered most.  For a long time, he disappeared from the video scene in Nigeria, more so, Lagos.  But this reporter encountered him at an event in Lagos recently where he opened up on a number of burning issues pertaining to the industry and what he is engaged in at the moment.

    A very unrelenting and meticulous professional, Duker is known to have eyes for details when it comes to film production and sorts.  “Yes, I began with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).  Thereafter, I was involved in Living in Bondage.  That was way back in the early 1990s.  In the process too, I encountered Amaka Igwe, one of those who actually influenced my foray into film production.  I have done the best of films in the home video genre.  So, at a point I felt I had done enough and it was time for me to move on.  So when the launch of Tinapa marketing and sorts was to take place sometime ago in Calabar, I was invited to Calabar, Cross River State, to be part of it.  That was my first encounter with Calabar and Cross River State.  But incidentally I am from that state.  I am an Efik man but born and bred in Lagos.  So, it was like a new feeling for me, a way to be in close touch with my roots, you know”.

    When Duker got to Calabar and witnessed and enjoyed the cozy atmosphere of the city, he instantly fell in love with it.  “I also saw business opportunities in the city,” he averred.  “And so I chose to settle down there.  Then I applied for a license to have an F. M radio station.  It was approved many years later.  But before then, there were only a few private radio stations in the state.  People were really craving to have many alternative stations to listen to; to have fun, to listen to music, to entertainment, fresh news ideas and items, and so on.”

    This was about fifteen years ago.  Today, Duker has been granted the license and he owns and operates his own F.M station called Fad.  “Now you wondered why it took the government that long to grant me the license?” he queried.  “Now, I am a broadcast journalist, well-trained for the business.  I waited for fifteen years, thinking it would never happen.  I almost lost hope or even track of what I applied for.  I have been on television.  In fact, I produced for television for over fifteen years, doing programmes that had quality contents and great lessons to impart.  So it is my area.  I have done some programmes for radio too.  I have a couple of progrmmes I’ve done for radio stations before.”

    In order to contribute his quota to the development of his community, Duker finally relocated to Calabar.  It was for him to ditch out that renewed zeal to make broadcasting zestful and fresh for his people.   “Between 2015 and now, we’ve been able to establish a radio station.  The most important thing is that Lagos is where you experience the bustle and hustle of a city that never goes to sleep.  It gives you all the hypes you need to move on; to do business and be on your toes almost endlessly.  But when I got to Calabar, I saw a different environment – calm, tranquil, cool – ready to be exploited business-wise.  Someone needed to wake up this beautiful city to action by establishing one or two businesses that needed the attention of the people.  That was exactly what I did,” he confessed.

    For him the sudden switch from film production to broadcasting was no big deal.  As a trained broadcaster, someone who had his first professional stint at broadcasting, it was like a second home-coming for him.  “It was nostalgic for me.  Yes it was.  But when you get to Calabar you see people who are eager to welcome new ideas – very respectful, well-mannered with the patient to assimilate one or two positive ideas.  In a way, it is a stark opposite of the boisterous nature of Lagos, yet it is a place yawning to welcome new prospects, new frontiers and so on.”

    As a small city in terms of size and landmass, Duker explained that this helps people to get to know one another better.  “It equally helps business to thrive,” he said.  “Unlike Lagos, Calabar people are communal.  In the last couple of years I have been in Calabar, I have indeed learnt a lot.  I understand Nigeria is a vast country with plenty of opportunities.  Yes, my being to Calabar has made me to appreciate that fact better.  You can’t explore or exploit the best of Nigeria if you do not travel around.  Everybody thinks and even sticks to the notion that everything happens in Lagos and Abuja.  No, this is not true.  For now, Calabar and Ibadan have been my two major cities in the past few years.  Two very interesting cities waiting to be tapped in terms of business opportunities.  When you leave Lagos or Abuja, you find another set of Nigerians who love to mix and who wish to welcome new investments in their domains.  In these places, people are more communal; more friendly, more accommodating.  People are even more relaxed to listen to good programmes; more engrossing and stimulating music to keep them moving on in life.”

    Because of the natural tendency for people to take life easy in these cities, they tend to, however, appreciate and savour broadcasting better.  For Duker who found his professional bearing in Lagos, it is indeed a fresh feeling, an eye opener of sorts about the need to open up other towns to new trends; new ideas.  “Yes like in Calabar, and in Ibadan, by 6 or 7p.m, people are at home.  They spend less hours or time on the road to get home.  So the atmosphere is more cordial, more receptive to broadcast entertainment.  That is one of the beauties of such places.  I still feel that if you live in such places, you might live longer”, he said, laughing hilariously.

    Duker, even in the midst of his new found love and peace in Calabar said he cannot forget or lose touch with Lagos.  “This is where I made my fame.  This is the city that grew me into the Fidelis Duker that I am today.  And I cannot forget Lagos, after all, my family members are still here in Lagos.  This is a place where we understand that you have to be hard working to be where you ought to be professionally.  It is said that Eko does not accept a lazy man.  Therefore, one of the benefits of Lagos is that you have to be hard working; you have to be committed, you have to understand what you are doing to achieve your best.  This was why almost all my films, with the exception of a few, were made in Lagos.  Between 80% and 90% of my films were made in Lagos.  I remember I shot King of Money in 1999.  King of Money, for me, was very challenging because after making it, I had a lot of problems with the family of the late Eze Ego (Victor Okafor) from Ihiala, Anambra State.  This was almost at the time he died and they felt the film was on them.  However, the film was on another issue entirely.  Between 1999 and 2006 the OPC was in vogue and I did a film on their activities too.  Just like you had the Bakassi Boys, I also did a film on them.  All these were the things I find interesting as a filmmaker.  I was tackling issues as they came up and this did not go down well with a lot of people”.

    With a new book titled My Conversation with Nollywood, Duker has carefully chronicled his journey with the film industry in Nigeria.  In it, he details his ups and downs, the major upstarts, the tips, the lulls, the excitements and the upsurges.  “It is one book that tells my story,” he said simply, nodding his head as if propelled by an evocative music.  “It shows also the people with whom I have made this journey.  It harps on the role of the media in my success story.  Nigerian media has been good to me.  May be it is because I am a media person myself and so I seem to understand them better.  They also understand me and together we have come this far.”

    “My first Yoruba film Alaigbowe – (I am ungrateful) wasn’t even the film that shot me into limelight.  Not My Will, shot in 1996, made me famous and from then onwards, I have not looked back,” he said.  Truly, as he grapples with the new assignment in Calabar, Duker’s love for films has not waned.  He still hopes to do more as time goes on.

  • Broadcasting in indigenous Nigerian languages

    WHEN you read Joyce Cary’s immortal novel, Mr. Johnson, if you’re an African, you’d feel outraged at the author’s apparent low opinion of Africans, especially, as an ignorant bunch. It’s a bit like seeing the South African movie entitled The Gods Must be Crazy.

    Cary says something to the effect that knowledge hovers above the head of the African but he can neither see, hear nor feel it.

    It’s okay to be angry at that sort of opinion, but what do you make of the neglect of African languages and culture by Nigerian broadcasters, only for the British Broadcasting Corporation to come and exploit them, to good effect?

    BBC World Service has just revealed that its six-year research has shown that broadcasting in more Nigerian indigenous languages is the way to development in the next few years. Specifically, the public broadcaster has added Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin to its bouquet. That is, in addition to its broadcasts in Hausa over the decades, to an audience of 23 million listeners, by current estimate. The project is all part of what is called BBC’s largest expansion programme since the 1940s.

    In that programme, Nigeria takes the lion’s share of a total lf six African languages to be added in a scheme that seeks to increase BBC’s audience base from about 300 million to 500 by the year 2022. It’s a 289 million pound project offering 1,300 new jobs worldwide and Nigeria is positioned, statistically, to get 27 per cent of that!

    The implication for the economy is apparent. There will be “mentoring and internship for upcoming journalists,” says BBC Africa Regional Editor, Solomon Mugera.

    When a reporter asked why so many Nigerian languages and why not one in Ghana, such as Twi, a BBC top shot replied: “We’ve been very successful in Ghana with English. We can’t do every language. We have to draw the line somewhere.”

    Of course, BBC has been on that turf for decades – broadcasting in other languages than English the world over.  In Nigeria, that effort even includes such TV shows as Wetin Dey, a pidgin fare. The present project, too, will extend to TV and video, as well as other digital formats.

    So, why is the BBC doing this with the UK’s taxpayers’ money? “It’s about the place lf the UK in the world,” says Mugera. The perception the world has about the UK. It’s about prestige.”

    Prestige! No wonder why many African leaders often exclusively grant audience to BBC reporters over journalists from their own countries’ broadcasting stations.

    Profligate African leaders! Those who will rather do that than develop broadcasting in their own countries to attain the standard that BBC and the UK government have invested so much in for decades. Like these leaders, profligate African academics will keep developing the English language to the neglect of, and contempt for, African languages.

    And Joyce Cary might return some time soon in the form of UK universities evolving curricula in pidgin for studies in institutions of higher learning. Then, Nigerian universities will be caught napping. Isn’t that the reason it is Europeans and Americans who get research funding from the Bill Gates Foundation to figure out cures for malaria, a disease that is largely an African-Asian trouble?

    –Muritala Sule writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State

  • Digital broadcasting: Fed Govt gets N1.8b from signal distributors

    Digital broadcasting: Fed Govt gets N1.8b from signal distributors

    The Federal Government has realised N1.8 billion from the digital broadcasting switch over programme.

    The digitisation is likely to fetch the Nollywood industry about $250 million revenue annually.

    Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed yesterday broke the news at a briefing in Abuja on the transition from analogue to digital television.

     He said with the commencement of the pilot scheme in Jos last Saturday, the country hoped  to meet the June 17, 2017, global deadline, after failing to meet 2012 and 2015 deadlines.

    From Jos, the train will move to Abuja and Lagos for the roll out.

    He said three firms have been licensed for signal distribution.

    The three firms; MTS,  Pinnnacle and ITS, have each paid the N600 million fees.

    The minister said 13 companies have shown interest to manufacture the Set-Top-Boxes, with four fully prepared for takeoff.

    When fully switched on,  the country, he said,  would have the largest digital viewing of 30 million.

    Besides, the minister noted that the digital switch-over would bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in television viewing and curb piracy.

    He said: “As you are aware, last Saturday we carried out the pilot roll-out of the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, known as the Digital Switch Over, or DSO. The ceremony was the culmination of a roller-coaster journey that started in 2004, when the council of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN specialised agency for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), adopted Resolution 1185 on the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting. Since then, Nigeria has missed two deadlines to transit from analogue to digital, in addition to missing a number of self-imposed dates for the pilot scheme.

    “But on Saturday, after six months of uncommon commitment and dedication by the stakeholders, we finally switched on digital broadcasting in  Jos, which was chosen for the pilot scheme. As you know, Jos is a historic city as far as television broadcasting is concerned. It was also in that city, in 1976, that the colour television was pioneered in Nigeria – and indeed in West Africa.

    “Gentlemen, when we rolled out the DSO in Jos last Saturday, we didn’t just switch on digital broadcasting, we also revolutionised television broadcasting in Nigeria. Television will never be the same in Nigeria again. I will talk more on this later, but let’s quickly trace how we managed to reach this milestone.

    “When we came in about six months ago, a cloud of uncertainty and confusion hung over Nigeria’s digital transition. There were no Set–Top Boxes, without which the transition could not be kick-started; there was no established Signal Distributor on ground. There was no software and security devices for protection of the boxes. The banks had cancelled the Letters of Credit that were granted for the importation of Set-Top Boxes and no one could say if we will meet the third deadline of June 2017 to switch on digital broadcasting and switched off analogue broadcasting. Investor confidence was waning, and doomsday critics who said Nigeria had no capacity to transit were about to be proved right.

    “But we swung into action, setting up an interministerial task force to drive the process, in a show of political will. We met with the critical stakeholders, including the Regulator, the Digiteam, STB manufacturers, Zenith Bank (which issued the LCs), Inview Technology, CCNL, NONTAP, BON and RATTAWU. After a series of meetings and concrete actions to resolve knotty issues, investor and stakeholder confidence was restored and we were set on the path that led to last Saturday’s roll-out.

    “As I said earlier, the DSO roll-out last Saturday was nothing short of a revolution in broadcasting. The DSO is an evolving media landscape that affects us all and how we receive, watch, monetise and develop television and production going forward. Therefore, what happened in Jos at the weekend is momentous, the dawn of a new era for government, TV channels, producers, advertisers and, most importantly, the Nigerian TV customer.

    “   For television stations, this will mean a new experience, as they will no longer need to worry about signal transmission, thus paying more attention to content. For content providers, this is boom time, as the demand for content will skyrocket, thus allowing our youths to give vent to their creativity. For viewers, there will be a harvest of channels. The Jos residents, who acquired the STBs as part of the pilot roll-out on Saturday, now watch 15 channels without subscription, up from the maximum five, which they were watching before. The 15 channels provide high-resolution pictures and hi-fidelity sound. When we fully transit to digital, over 30 TV channels will be watched by over 30 million viewers, making Nigeria one of the biggest markets for free-to-air TV in the world.

    “Unlike the analogue broadcasting, the digital broadcasting technology is not limited to the delivery of television programmes only. Value added and interactive services, such as Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), television shopping, weather forecasts, electronic newspapers, etc. can also be accessed by the viewer, ushering in a new television viewing experience. The viewer can also access information on government policies and programmes without going on the Internet. Through the EPG we are providing, real-time information will be brought to every home from public service announcements to advertising and to news services, at the touch of a button.

    “In terms of the economy, licensed Set-Top Box manufacturers have been mandated to establish manufacturing companies in Nigeria to produce the boxes locally, after importing the first set of boxes.

    ‘’This will create massive employment and ensure the transfer of technology to our people. The transition will also be a catalyst for retailers and installers to emerge all over the country, with a massive impact on the local economy.

    “For musicians and movie producers, the DSO will be a blessing asthey can now wrong-foot those who have been pirating their works by releasing such works directly to millions of homes using the digital platform. Also, the capacity generated by the digital broadcasting technology allows for more players to be licensed for the provision of many more television services, compared to the analogue broadcasting technology. This means more choice for the viewers, with the possibility of services being licensed by genre, for example, musical, news, gospel, movie and so on. In fact, the benefits outlined earlier on will be there for the public to experience and to enjoy.

    “Also, with forensic audience measurement now becoming part of the benefits of digitisation, advertising revenue will only follow great content and it will become impossible to survive if you are not immersed in content creation. The advertiser will know what people are watching and when they are watching it and will therefore put their money where the eyeballs are. By making the playing field level, content will truly become king.”

  • Imperatives in the Nigerian culture, tourism, broadcasting and entertainment sectors

    THIS is an unsolicited input into the public policy on the Nigerian Culture, Tourism, Broadcasting and Entertainment sectors for the incoming governments at all levels. It gives useful insight into the humongous potentials in all the aforementioned sectors to assist the governments in overcoming our many economic, social and value-perception challenges. If accepted and taken seriously, it will lead to sustainable alternative source of foreign revenue-earner.

    Executive summary and problem statement; The country’s arts, culture, broadcasting and culture sectors in the absence of well-articulated governmental administrative policies and procedures have for long and till now been operating as a huge jungle in which whatever works for the privileged few, either with access to the powers that be or public information platforms are invariably and mistakenly taken as norms, and in most cases supersede even various extant legislations. There are already enough laws which if backed up with necessary administrative strategies have the capacity to lead us out of our present woes; reposition the sectors for our governments to maximize their huge potentials to resolve most of our economic, social and value-perception challenges. There is absolutely no need for the incoming administrations to waste further time on new legislations, or setting up committees because the right pathways are clear enough.

    Culture and Tourism

    NIGERIA today has 774 constitutionally-recognized local government areas. On the average, every local government has 10 communities and in each community is at least a cultural monument or site presentable as a tourist attraction. The inhabitants of each community also produce goods, services and have lifestyles which to their unsophisticated minds do not have any economic value but in the hands of experts to package for the global market will command considerable appeal. Taken together, Nigeria at a glance and for a cursory economic evaluation has 7740 tourist sites and same no of communities whose daily lives and output could constitute our sustainable national cultural tourism programme; serving also as our own unique cultural products for exports. Every week, the country has about 150 locations staging different kinds of cultural events and different cultural monuments that tourists could choose from. It is therefore possible to immediately develop a national cultural tourism index without new legislations, budgets, or setting up committees. All we need do is charge the relevant agencies to immediately chart their implementable time-table to actualize it. A useful incentive to start off is to put all arts and cultural agencies on a 2-year notice of zero budgets with achievable internally-generated revenue for their governments. Our arts and culture administrators currently have a wrong mindset that needs re-programming! Their appalling belief is that lack of or inadequate capital budgets hinder them to properly develop and structure our culture for tourism but pray, what do they require capital budgets for? Yes, a little initial seed money is required for preliminary activities but this could be easily sourced either as a bank loan or grants from various commercial enterprises that will also benefit from a structured cultural tourism programme. Most if not all the various ancient sacred temples forming the bulk of India cultural and spiritual tourism sites remain in the inner recesses of the country and accessible only through the same footpaths of many hundreds, if not thousands of years! In the Alps frozen with ice all year round; Switzerland and other countries of the world that mountain-climbers and skiers frequent, their locals are gainfully engaged as guide and trainers. In Italy and Spain, the ruins of their former emperors’ castles are their tourists’ sites. Conversely in Nigeria, our cultural administrators want capital budgets to recruit “experts”, erect 5-star hotels and modern highways in their misguided notion that targets only the holiday-makers for tourism but leaves out the core tourists; students, researchers, archaeologists and explorers. We must stop using government money to build hotels around tourist locations or to construct highways because it is wrong! First it detracts from the real cultural value of the locations, which from what obtains in India, Italy, Spain should be in-sittu. Beyond this, hotels and roads constructions are commercial ventures, which with the necessary traffic of tourists will naturally rouse entrepreneurs to do the needful.

    Advertisements and Broadcasting

    A former Director-General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission engaged me on a strategy to reposition the broadcasting industry as a veritable source of employments for mainly our youths and veterans of the creative industry. Unfortunately since his unplanned exit, subsequent leaders have been focusing more on the technicalities of frequency allocations which in today’s world is practically useless. What restriction is there on a station given the authority to cover a particular region but is available on the net for anyone across the globe to access? The huge social/economic potentials in the area of modeling, products and public advertisements are conveniently ignored. Today companies freely recruit foreign models or produce their advertisements abroad. The cost of a TV programme parading mainly foreign cast and crew with few locals in the name of local content is higher than what many stations grudgingly give 10 Nigerian producers yet we have NBC! Rather our local cuisines and fashions, the foreigners are calling the shots! Now we have a problem of value-perception emulating alien culture and avoidable medical problems emanating from the consumption of foreign products?

    Creative Arts and Entertainment

    CREATIVE writings and audio-visual productions are intertwined with the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of expression. Sensible countries therefore steer clear of legislating on those that can or cannot engage in them. Enforceable control and regulation are two-fold; first by the various practioners’ guilds that disallow non-members from operating; like in journalism for journalists only. Second is through the licensed distributors as the business arm. They decide what is produced; how and when it gets to the public. The National Film & Video Censors Board is the agency with the legal mandate to regulate distribution. It developed a New Distribution and Exhibition Framework, NDEF for that purpose.

    Unfortunately, its present leadership believes that the best way to solve a problem is to pretend it doesn’t exist! It has therefore tactically abandoned the NDEF, focusing instead on classification and censorship, ignoring the reality that without an operational NDEF, all its decisions on censorship and classifications are of no effect. That is why despite yearly budgetary allocations in billions, our public space is still awash with offensive movies and music! To effectively contain all the challenges in the industry, full implementation of NDEF is a must, better to be championed by the Board already legally-empowered but now wholly funded by NEXIM which by its exclusive mandate is responsible for developing and funding Nigerian entertainment products for exports. New anti-piracy law is needless because Nigeria already has one of the best in the world. Absence of licensed operators of the distribution system to administer and simplify its enforcement is the issue. The NFVCB and the rudderless Film Corporation must immediately be excised from government funding.

    –‘Yinka Ogundaisi is a writer, filmmaker and marketer

  • ‘I prefer broadcasting to agriculture’

    ‘I prefer broadcasting to agriculture’

    Oche Otene is studying Agricultural Economics at the Federal University of Agriculture in Makurdi, Benue State. The 400-Level student is passionate about broadcasting and he is a radio presenter with Food Basket station and Radio Benue FM in Makurdi. He tells BENJAMIN IDOKO (Physics Education) why he chooses to be an on-air presenter.

    How did you discover your skill in broadcasting?

    I have always had passion for broadcasting and when I saw the opportunity I grabbed it. It was a friend, who gave me the information that a radio station was holding auditioning to recruit broadcasters. I went there and praise God, I was chosen. Since then, I have been into radio presenting and making a living out of it.

    What programmes do you anchor in the station?

    I anchor religious programmes, such as Sunday Sound Waves and Songs of Faith.

    After graduation, do you plan to be a presenter or look for job in the farm?

    I have great passion for radio presenting. I am only studying Agricultural Economics to get my first degree, but after graduation, I am going back to broadcasting.

    What interests you as a presenter?

    The most interesting part of my job as a radio presenter is the fact that I keep people informed and entertain them in my programmes. Also, I get to meet people every day, who some level of confidence to make dealings with me. The trust is always there. This is the beauty of being a professional.

    How do you combine your studies with broadcasting?

    It is not easy. Well, I try to maintain balance in both areas. Most of my programmes are fixed at night. I dedicate my day time to my studies and also study extra hours. In all, God has been helping me utilise my time efficiently.

    What is your advice to the youth?

    There is a notion that it is not possible for the youth and undergraduates to be working while schooling. This idea is making many youths to remain in one place, even after graduation. In developed countries, we see youths engaging in part-time job while they are in school. As youths, we must try to develop skills apart from our academic pursuits. There is always a gain at the end. We may not all end up doing white-collar job. But whatever we know how to do best would sustain us.