• Advertise
  • Opinion
  • Features & Interviews
  • Investigation
  • Contact
Friday, August 19, 2022
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Lagos Today
  • Home
  • News
    • Lagos News
    • National News
    • World News
  • Entertainment⚡ by CRAWL
    • All
    • Art & Design
    • Books
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Sony Music Publishing Opens Nigeria Office, Appoints Godwin Tom as MD

    Sony Music Publishing Opens Nigeria Office, Appoints Godwin Tom as MD

    Elon Musk overtakes Bezos to become world’s richest person

    Elon Musk Tweets ‘He’s Buying Manchester United’

    TuBaba did not Impregnate any Banker – Manager

    TuBaba did not Impregnate any Banker – Manager

    Amusan Sets New Record, Wins Gold At Commonwealth Games

    Nigeria’s athletes will sweep medals at Paris 2024 Olympics if well nurtured- Ex-Athlete, Porbeni

    VICTORIA AZARENKA INTO THE FINALS, DASHED SERENA WILLIAMS’ 24TH GRAND SLAM HOPES

    Serena Williams Quits Professional Tennis

    Kizz Daniel arrested in Tanzania for not performing in paid concert

    Kizz Daniel Released From Tanzanian Police Custody

    Kizz Daniel arrested in Tanzania for not performing in paid concert

    Kizz Daniel arrested in Tanzania for not performing in paid concert

    Amusan Sets New Record, Wins Gold At Commonwealth Games

    Amusan Sets New Record, Wins Gold At Commonwealth Games

    Fela Kuti Celebrated 25 Years After Death

    Fela Kuti Celebrated 25 Years After Death

    BBNaija S7: Hermes Emerges HOH For Week Two

    BBNaija S7: Hermes Emerges HOH For Week Two

  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Features & Interviews
  • Best Of Lagos
    Lagos welcomes The Art hotel: A flamboyant 5 star Business Boutique Hotel

    Lagos welcomes The Art hotel: A flamboyant 5 star Business Boutique Hotel

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA ANNOUNCES NEW MEMBER, AFFINITY ART GALLERY

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA ANNOUNCES NEW MEMBER, AFFINITY ART GALLERY

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Nordic hotel

    Nordic Hotel Makes Grand Debut in Lagos

  • Things To Do
  • Home
  • News
    • Lagos News
    • National News
    • World News
  • Entertainment⚡ by CRAWL
    • All
    • Art & Design
    • Books
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Sony Music Publishing Opens Nigeria Office, Appoints Godwin Tom as MD

    Sony Music Publishing Opens Nigeria Office, Appoints Godwin Tom as MD

    Elon Musk overtakes Bezos to become world’s richest person

    Elon Musk Tweets ‘He’s Buying Manchester United’

    TuBaba did not Impregnate any Banker – Manager

    TuBaba did not Impregnate any Banker – Manager

    Amusan Sets New Record, Wins Gold At Commonwealth Games

    Nigeria’s athletes will sweep medals at Paris 2024 Olympics if well nurtured- Ex-Athlete, Porbeni

    VICTORIA AZARENKA INTO THE FINALS, DASHED SERENA WILLIAMS’ 24TH GRAND SLAM HOPES

    Serena Williams Quits Professional Tennis

    Kizz Daniel arrested in Tanzania for not performing in paid concert

    Kizz Daniel Released From Tanzanian Police Custody

    Kizz Daniel arrested in Tanzania for not performing in paid concert

    Kizz Daniel arrested in Tanzania for not performing in paid concert

    Amusan Sets New Record, Wins Gold At Commonwealth Games

    Amusan Sets New Record, Wins Gold At Commonwealth Games

    Fela Kuti Celebrated 25 Years After Death

    Fela Kuti Celebrated 25 Years After Death

    BBNaija S7: Hermes Emerges HOH For Week Two

    BBNaija S7: Hermes Emerges HOH For Week Two

  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Features & Interviews
  • Best Of Lagos
    Lagos welcomes The Art hotel: A flamboyant 5 star Business Boutique Hotel

    Lagos welcomes The Art hotel: A flamboyant 5 star Business Boutique Hotel

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA ANNOUNCES NEW MEMBER, AFFINITY ART GALLERY

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA ANNOUNCES NEW MEMBER, AFFINITY ART GALLERY

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Nordic hotel

    Nordic Hotel Makes Grand Debut in Lagos

  • Things To Do
No Result
View All Result
The Lagos Today
No Result
View All Result
Home Headlines

Lagos To Officially Transit to Digital Broadcasting Tomorrow

by Segun Adewunmi
April 28, 2021
in Headlines, Lagos News
6 min read
0
0
Lagos To Officially Transit to Digital Broadcasting Tomorrow
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Lagos state will officially transit from analogue to digital broadcasting tomorrow. This is part of the timetable in a renewed effort by the federal government to switch Nigeria on to the digital broadcasting system, after two failed attempts.

As Lagos goes digital tomorrow, the Federal Capital City, FCT Abuja will follow by May 30th, while the switchover in Kano will happen on June 3; Rivers, July 8; Yobe, July 15; and Gombe, August 12.

In the same order, that of Plateau, Kaduna, Kwara, Enugu and Osun states will follow in June, August and September 2021 respectively.

However, some stakeholders in the broadcast sector still do not believe that Nigeria has got the transition process right. They say the Lagos switching as much as others to follow are going to be merely political gatherings rather than practical technical activities.

They expressed fears that DSO completion, expected to take three years, is under threat from corruption and ill-conception.

‘Failed attempts’

Recall that after Nigeria alongside other 119 member countries in 2006 signed up to the International Telecoms Union, ITU protocol to transit from Analogue to Digital broadcasting by 2015 in line with global trend, the country gave itself a task of concluding transition by June 17 2012, three years before deadline.

In a bid to achieve the 2012 migration date, the federal government in 2007, approved the process and in 2008, it inaugurated a Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) on transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

The committee submitted a report with several recommendations on how the country will achieve its aim. However, for what many stakeholders described as lack of political will, the government, kept silent on the report and failed to release a white paper on it for three years.

As a result of that, Nigeria failed to comply with the June 17, 2012, digital migration deadline it set for itself.

Having missed migration in 2012, government resorted to the main ITU deadline of June 17, 2015 and quickly inaugurated a 14-man team tagged Digiteam Nigeria. Again, for what industry sources described as lack of trust between the government and broadcasters in the process, Nigeria failed again, joining 51 other African countries at that time, which did not meet the June 17, 2015 deadline. The implication of that particular goof was that analogue signals from Nigerian broadcasting stations would receive no protection in the event of interference with or from digital signals from neighbouring countries.

Because there were reports that if the analogue transmitters should interfere with any digital broadcast in the neighbouring countries, ITU can force the country to shut down its own analogue transmitters, Nigeria appealed to the organisation for an extension to June 2017. With this new focus, the federal government began a gradual transmission from analogue to digital broadcasting in Jos, Plateau State, and Abuja, the federal capital territory and gradually cascade down to other states across the federation. These schemes were planned to set the pace for the second phase which is taking off tomorrow.

‘Provisions’

Meanwhile, in a recent stakeholders meeting in Lagos, the NBC, admitted that this time around, the federal government has made adequate provision for a successful migration of the country to a digital broadcasting system. Apart from releasing money to the tune of N9.4 billion by the Federal Government, NBC appears excited that the setting up of a 14-member ministerial task force to drive the process would do justice to the process.

The minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed corroborated this, while promising that considering the huge benefits that Nigeria will derive from the migration, the government will not fail to complete the process.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Chairman of DigiTeam, Engr Edward Amana said: “As instructed by the ITU, Nigeria must switch off analogue television transmission and ‘go digital Switching over 22 million TV households to a more efficient and effective TV technology with clearer pictures and more choices for viewers is the aim of the Digital Switch Over (DSO) program.

The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and the DSO Ministerial Task Force are tasked with ensuring that Nigeria ‘digitises’ and developing a public information and awareness campaign to inform citizens about DSO/FreeTV”

‘Benefits’

For Mohammed, “there are a lot of benefits to derive in DSO. When the process is completed and there is Analogue Switch Off, the spectrum band to be vacated by broadcasters would be ceded to the telecom regulatory agency for sale and use in the mobile broadband industries. The spectrum is worth over one billion dollars. Besides the huge revenue it will generate for the country, the DSO would change the entire creative industry ecosystem and is capable of creating one million jobs in three years. The government would ensure its successful completion” he added.

However, a Jos-based broadcast engineer, who pleaded anonymity, explained that a major hindrance to the switch over process is the dodgy handling of monies earmarked for the first phase of the journey by those in charge. He pointed to the N2.5billion corruption scandal that erupted from the 2017 payment of seed grant to a private company, in breach of the guidelines of the Federal Government Whitepaper on Digital Migration, which led to the suspension and eventual arraignment of a former Director-General of the NBC by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC.

He said: “The suspended NBC Director-General, if you recall, is facing charges related to intent to defraud the Federal Government by paying the said sum to a company that was not entitled to receive such grant. His suspension and arraignment followed petitions to the ICPC by stakeholders. Payment of the grant was allegedly approved by his supervising Minister who, curiously, was not charged along with the suspended DG,” he said.

He also described the recent approval of N9.4billion by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), as payments to key DSO stakeholders, as “a standing invitation” to those that mismanaged monies earmarked for the first phase.

According to him, most of the stakeholders paid for the first phase are unable to justify payments received, as evidenced by the lack of DSO infrastructure and a halt to the programme since 2018.

In February, the Information Minister announced the approval of N9.4billion for payment of outstanding payments major DSO stakeholders, adding that the move will take care of the funding problems that have hindered the programme in the last three years.

Another broadcast engineer, based in Lagos, disclosed that the source of the money for the DSO second phase spending was the N34billion paid by MTN for broadcast frequency.  

He noted that most of those to be paid from this sum are those unable to justify the payments so far received.

He said one of the licensed signal carriers, affiliated to the Nigerian Television Authority, got N1.7 billion for the commencement of the DSO but is dependent on the infrastructure of a major Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) operator’s network coverage in just four cities across the country.

He also noted that the other licensed signal carrier, which got N2.5billion as seed grant, has coverage in only the capitals of the five states of Plateau, Kwara, Osun, Kaduna, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory, which were the pilot locations despite payment by the Federal Government.

He said: “Free TV with which the NBC hopes to drive the DSO is operational only in six locations. How can this infrastructure gap be bridged in three years?”

There are others who allege that the country’s conception of the DSO was flawed from the start because of the adoption of Set-Top-Boxes with conditional access built into them. For instance, a retired staff of the Nigerian Television Authority explained that what is needed to convert analogue to digital signals are standard type STBs, not those with conditional access like those pay television operations, for which he claimed the provider of the system was paid N1billion in the first phase.

Follow us on social media
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...
Tags: Digital BroadcastingLagos state
Previous Post

Army Decries Indiscriminate Sharing of Images of Killed Soldiers

Next Post

Israel committing crimes of apartheid and persecution – HRW

Segun Adewunmi

Segun Adewunmi

Related Posts

LASU Gets 13 New Governing Council Members

Lagos Bans Okada Operations In 4 More Local Governments From Sept 1

by Rosemary Opara
August 18, 2022
0

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved total ban on the activities of commercial motorcyclists, popularly called Okada riders, in...

Lagos State Government to test run Blue Line Train in December 2022

Lagos State Government to test run Blue Line Train in December 2022

by Segun Adewunmi
August 18, 2022
0

The Lagos State Government has said it will test run its Blue Rail Line train service project in December 2022....

Next Post
Israel committing crimes of apartheid and persecution – HRW

Israel committing crimes of apartheid and persecution - HRW

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

Equities Market Gains N45bn To Extend Winning Streak

Equities Market Gains N45bn To Extend Winning Streak

4 months ago
Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump over the drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani

Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump over the drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani

2 years ago

Popular News

    Newsletter

    Connect with us

    Tags

    #EndSARS #EndSARS Protests 2023 Elections 2023 polls 2023 Presidency ACCIDENT All progressives Congress APC Babajide Sanwo-Olu Bitcoin CBN Central Bank of NIgeria China Coronavirus pandemic Covid-19 Covid-19 in Lagos Covid-19 in Nigeria Covid-19 Vaccine Cryptocurrency Donald Trump Dubai EFCC Federal Government Federal Government of Nigeria Fraud Gov. Sanwo-Olu Insecurity Lagos state Lagos State Government Lagos State House of Assembly Lagos State Police command LASEMA Latest jobs in lagos Lekki Tollgate Shooting Muhammadu Buhari Murder Naira NDLEA Nigeria Rape Russia Strike action UK United states US

    News

    • Business
    • National
    • Politics
    • Tech

    Opinion

    • Editorials
    • Today’s Opinion
    • Letters
    • Sunday Review
    • Advertise
    • Opinion
    • Features & Interviews
    • Investigation
    • Contact

    © 2020 The Lagos Today - Nkali.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • Lagos News
      • National News
      • World News
    • Entertainment
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Features & Interviews
    • Best Of Lagos
    • Things To Do

    © 2020 The Lagos Today - Nkali.

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Create New Account!

    Fill the forms bellow to register

    All fields are required. Log In

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In
    %d bloggers like this: