|
|
|
Nigeria set to beat global timetable on digital transition
By Adaobi Nwangwu
To beat the global timetable of transition from Analogue to Digital broadcasting and meet President Yar' Adua's Vision 2020, the Nigerian Communication Satellite and DIGITECH Broadcasting Ltd have gone into partnership.
During the signing of a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU), the Mana-ging Director NIGCOMSAT, Ahmed Rufai Lawal, said the venture would afford Nigerians opportunity to have access to all Nigerian television and radio stations as well as over 200 other channels.
The NIGCOMSAT Boss said the solution based joint venture is to ensure that the historically disadvantaged Nigerians now have access to quality communication without necessarily paying exorbitant fees for the opportunity. Lawal said the intent of this joint venture is also to redress the long term damage to the Nigerian broadcasting environment created by years of technological dumping and inconsistent approach to signal and content distribution by practitioners.
"The unfortunate outcome is that the man in the village who through no fault of his has little access to information. In most cases the, the individual has only one source of information his state Radio or TV or from NTA and FRCN. This type of Nigerian may not travel outside his geographic state of origin which in effect handicaps him sociologically."
Shola Ajay, MD DIGITECH Broadcasting Ltd, is of the opinion that information is a right and not a privilege therefore Nigerians especially in the rural areas should be able to receive signals from all over the country and around the world. This is where the partnership comes in.
DIGITECH takes cognizance of the fact that service of this magnitude will both be costly infrastructurally, and elaborate in the real intention of all Nigerian broadcasters to take advantage of this service.
Further more, Ajay stated that the focus of the partnership is to allow broadcasters concentrate on the provision of quality content inorder to realize maximum advertising revenue.
"The ratio of content funding to transmission cost for most broadcast organizations is very lopsidedly in favour of the latter. The reversal of the trend would simply make these organizations formidable since they can now compete for advertising naira effectively."
Again the venture is to significantly lower the entry cost for new broadcasting practitioners and also to ensure that technical infrastructure is not deterrent to broadcast practitioners.
Rufai noted that "this joint venture conclude the fact that existing broadcasters and prospective new pay TV and licensed Free to Air operators will have access to DIGITECH's facilities and those of its overseas partners such as TELEMEDIA.
He added that it will serve as an open door to attract foreign investors as it will showcase the untapped Nigerian cultural resources which will in the long run increase its foreign direct investment.
Apart from millions of dollars which would be accrued into the government coffers, Rufai explained, "the DIGITECH service will afford broadcasters two distinct advantages amongst which their signal instantly becomes national whereby any citizens of Nigeria can receive their signals anywhere and West Africa through a decoder".
The joint venture when operational will provide a level playing ground for all broadcasters to compete on the basis of content and not access to hardware.
The project is to commence within the next six months.
|
|
|
