NBC to roll out Digital Switch-Over in 6 states

Malam Is’haq Modibbo-Kawu, director-general, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), has disclosed that the commission is set to roll out Digital Switch-Over (DSO) in the six geopolitical zones simultaneously.

Modibbo-Kawu, made this known in a communiqué which was issued at the end of one-day Broadcast stakeholders meeting held in Abuja.

The DG NBC listed the state in each of the zones to include: Kaduna in the North-West, Kwara representing North-Central, Gombe in North-East, Enugu, South-East, Osun for South-West and Delta representing South-South.

He highlighted that 70 percent of contents in the DSO are local contents, while the collection of TV and Radio License fee would be collected to support content production.

He attributed the success of DSO to the combined effort of all stakeholders namely, Digiteam Nigeria, Broadcast Signal Distributors, Set-Top-Box manufactures, channel owners, partners (CCNL and In view technologies), and Call Centre Operators.

Modibbo-Kawu encouraged the stakeholders in the DSO value-chain to harness the digital economy to generate jobs for Nigerian youths.

He said that NBC would liaise with states and local governments to be partners in the DSO in order to subsidise the Set Top Boxes (STB) for their people.

All television transmission, the director-general said would go through a broadcast signal distributor of their choice, and cautioned broadcasters to strike a balance between freedom of speech and hate speech.

He disclosed that the NBC was firm on the issues of national security and would publish research works on various issues.