By Agency Reporter
The migration from analogue to digital television signal in Nigeria will cost the country N60bn ($370m), the National Broadcasting Commission has said.
According to HumanIPO.com, the NBC also disclosed that it would achieve 90 per cent digital coverage by the June 2015 international digital migration deadline.
The commission’s Director General, Mr. Emeka Mba, said the estimated cost of the migration would be incurred largely by the government and television stations.
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Mba said a large part of the cost would be related to ensuring set-top boxes are available to everyone in Nigeira.
“It is a matter of national strategic importance that people have access to formal means of broadcasting, given the health and security challenges we face and in order for them not to rely on rumours, they need access to formal information channels,” the NBC DG said.
He said, “We have done an aggregate budget based not only on what NBC will spend but also what broadcasters will spend and how much it will cost the whole industry.
“NBC is a regulator and not an operator, but we have taken an analysis of how much television stations, government will spend and how much will be spent on Set Up Boxes and we are looking at something over N60bn, which will be the cost of digital switchover in Nigeria compared to what other countries spent.”
He said the United Kingdon spent over £1bn, while the United States of America spent over $40bn.
Mba said the NBC’s self-imposed deadline of January 2015 might be too tight for the industry to meet.
He says January 2015 target is a very aggressive deadline but predicated on availability of resources, adding that the International Telecommunications Union deadline is June 17, 2015. “We have an objective to have at least 90 per cent digital coverage of the country by the deadline,” he added.[eap_ad_3]