The federal government on Thursday launched the Abuja phase of the
Digital Switch Over (DSO), signalling the commencement of the full
roll-out of digital broadcasting across the federal capital city.
After several years of unsuccessful move by past administrations to
switch over from analogue to digital broadcasting, the administration of
President Muhammadu Buhari has at last edged the country into the
league of digital world.
Nigeria transited from analogue to digital television viewing on
April 30, 2016 in Jos, the Plateau State capital, when it launched the
pilot phase of the Federal Government’s digital transmission project
that kick started the digitization process in Nigeria.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) had given Nigeria up
to June, 2017 as deadline to switch from analogue broadcasting to
digital across the country.
Speaking at the DSO launch held at Mpape hills, Abuja, the Minister
of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said although the DSO would
not take place in one fell swoop across the country, the federal
government remains resolute in its commitment to meeting the 2017
deadline for the DSO.
“Let me use this opportunity to reiterate the government’s unwavering
commitment to meeting the set deadline of June 2017 for the analogue to
digital switch over here in Nigeria. The DSO train that took off in Jos
has now arrived in Abuja, from where it is set to move to other parts
of the country unhindered.”
Mr. Mohammed, who described the launch as revolutionary in the
Nigerian broadcasting ecosystem, said 30 free channels would be
available for Abuja residents upon the switch over while over 450,000
Set-Top Boxes (decoders) have been provided for the commencement.
“Our objective is not just to move Nigerians from analogue to digital
in a simple technical sense, but to ensure a total overhaul of the
whole TV watching experience and the economy around it”, Mohammed said.
The minister said that apart from the 30 free digital channels, the
switch over will enable free and easy access to government and public
information through a touch of the remote control.
Mr. Mohammed expressed confidence that through technical, production
and manufacturing opportunities that comes with the switch, tens of
thousands of jobs will be created.
“As we speak, jobs are already being created as we engage engineers,
technicians, retailers, distributors and marketers, among others,” he
said.
Mr. Mohammed said the DSO will grow the TV advertising market by $400
million per annum through audience measurement as well as create a N100
billion per annum free TV distribution network for Nollywood.
“We have watched our beloved Nollywood move from VHS tapes to VCD, to
DVD and whereas the whole world has moved to digital consumption of
content with its attendant benefits and democratisation of distribution,
we have been constrained by limited penetration of Internet in our
homes.
“With the middleware in our Stb’s/Receiving equipment, homes will be
able to buy and watch the latest Nollywood movies without the need for
Internet. Imagine a film released on Monday morning being immediately
available to 24 million plus households at the touch of a button.”
Digitization is the process of converting analogue signals or
information from any format into digital forms that can be understood by
computer systems or electronic devices.
The term is used when converting information like text, images or
voices and sounds into binary codes. Digitized information is easier to
store, access and transmit and digitization is used by a number of
consumer electronic devices.
The switchover to Digital Terrestrial Television, DTT, was a
necessity for Nigeria as a signatory to the International Broadcast
Union Agreement tagged: “Geneva 2006” which mandated all countries to
switchover to avoid signal interference from other countries.