Missed digital switchover deadline

The ITU had in 2006 set the deadline at a meeting in Geneva for its 119 member countries drawn from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as Iran, to transit to digital television broadcasting which has numerous advantages over the analogue system, including sharper images and economy of spectrum. Nigeria and […]

The ITU had in 2006 set the deadline at a meeting in Geneva for its 119 member countries drawn from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as Iran, to transit to digital television broadcasting which has numerous advantages over the analogue system, including sharper images and economy of spectrum. Nigeria and 51 other African countries, including South Africa, failed to beat the deadline with the implication that analogue signals from Nigerian broadcasting stations would receive no protection in the event of interference with or from digital signals from neighbouring countries.
Data from ITU shows that only four African countries – Malawi, Rwanda, Mauritius and Mozambique – were able to complete the migration. Nigeria’s inability to meet the switchover deadline means that our television stations will continue to broadcast analogue signals until a time when the country is able to migrate. The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) attributed Nigeria’s inability to transit from analogue to digital broadcasting to paucity of funds, though experts add that lack of proper planning, was also a factor.
 “The digital switchover programme in Nigeria was a victim of unfortunate political developments in the country,” NBC Director of Public Affairs, Awwalu Salihu, said in a statement.
The Commission tried to downplay the implications of Nigeria’s inability to migrate to digital broadcasting, arguing that: “The main consequence is that if our analogue transmitters should interfere with signals of any digital broadcast in any of our neighbouring countries, we can be forced by the ITU to shut down our own analogue transmitters.”
However, the NBC said though as disappointing as the development may be, it would to its best to switchover within the possible timeframe as funds are made available. 
In view of the many advantages that digital broadcasting offers over analogue systems for end-users, operators and regulators, the Commission should not relent in its drive to migrate. That we missed the deadline does not mean that we should also miss the goal which even more imperative, especially as it said that Nigeria has already reached about 20 percent penetration of the 26 million TV households in the country.
The NBC should therefore not relax simply because the ITU is not likely to shut Nigeria out of its broadcasting radar because our neighbours – Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Republic of Benin – have also not met the deadline so the issue of interference would not arise. Apart from increasing the number of programmes, digital systems can provide innovative services such as interactive television, electronic programme guides and mobile television as well as transmit image and sound in high-definition (HDTV) and ultra-high definition (UHDTV).
Experts argue that digital TV also requires less energy to ensure the same coverage as for analogue, while decreasing overall costs of transmission. The more efficient use of radio spectrum brought on by digital broadcasting also allows for the so-called ‘Digital Dividend’ resulting from the freeing up of much-needed spectrum for use by other related services such as mobile broadband.
President Muhammadu Buhari is urged not to treat the serious of the switchover to digital broadcasting with levity as the previous administration did, but ensure that the necessary funds are not only made available on time, but are judiciously used to achieve the goal which has the potential of dramatically transforming the lives of Nigerians.
The next information minister must be ready to work assiduously with the NBC to achieve the transition to digital broadcasting, realising that communication is power and it is central to any meaningful democracy, the type the new dispensation has promised to entrench in the country