Minister co-opts BON to beat switch over deadline

As the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) set June deadline draw near this year for the countries within the ECOWAS sub-region to transit from analogue to digital broadcasting, the Minster of Information and culture Mr Lai Mohammed said because of the relevance of the project to broadcasting, co-opting Broadcasting organization of Nigeria (BON) members will go a long way to assisting to beat the deadline.

The Minister made this known while speaking on Radio Nigeria in Abuja, monitored in Lagos recently, adding that with digitalization BON members will be relieved of the burden of transition and signal distribution.

“If there is any industry or sector that is going to benefit it is BON in the sense that with digitalization today BON members will be relieved of the burden of transiting and signal distribution and they can now face content and their production. The alternative service providers will not only create wealth but also employ people.”

The Minister also used the opportunity to clear some of the issues concerning pay- view and preview content providers in the digital switchover.

“The NBC Code is clear on how each of these platforms will make their money. Pay view is supposed to make their money from subscription while preview should make their money from advertisement. If that is the position of the law it has to be implemented otherwise preview will die in the sense that the pay view is making money from subscription and at the same time most of the request for advert are given to them.

Commenting on the set-top-box, he said that the whole idea of the set-top-box was to create jobs for the youth, and expressed delight that three of the registered set-top-box manufacturers are now functioning at full capacity in the country.

The Chairman Broadcasting organization of Nigeria, (BON) Mr John Momoh said that they were at the ministry to suggest the need for a stakeholders meeting where a couple of issues affecting the industry could be discussed.

While relating some issues relating to the digital switch over, Momoh gave an assurance that the organization will not allow an average Nigerian viewer to short-changed in the process.

“Our main concern about the digital switchover is that it must be for the common good and it must be beneficial to the Nigerian broadcasters, Nigerian viewers and by extension, any other person that is watching us,” the Chairman stressed.

He added that there is the need to train engineers and broadcasters in the areas of content provision and signal distribution.