In the coming weeks, the Federal Government (FG) may release the white paper on digital migration for the country.
The white paper, ITRealms Online gathered would extract most
of its contents from the supposed documents submitted by the Presidential
Advisory Council (PAC) on Digital Migration over two year ago.
This indication was given at the weekend by the Zonal Director,
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Femi Ayeni in a chat with ITRealms
Online in Lagos at the launch of Walka Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld.
While urging Nigerians to be patient with the Federal
Government over the time it may have taken to get to this point, he said that
the white paper would be released soon to justify their patience.
According to him, the white paper is expected to take lots
of inputs on modalities for implementation of the nation’s digital migration
plans from the outcome of the submissions of the Presidential Committee on
Digital Migration.
These, he said, would not be limited to how to deploy the
decoder boxes and eventual incentives for broadcast operators in the country in
order to ease off any hardship that may come in the way of the migration.
As said by him, most Television houses in the country are
already on digital channels, which means they have migrated their services and
broadcasting.
When the white paper is released, he anticipates further
discussions on the implementation processes.
In a related development, the Ministry of Communications
Technology (CommTech) stated in the recently released draft of the national
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) policy that Nigeria should
take advantage of the on-going transition from analogue to digital
broadcasting.
This, the Ministry noted, is a current global trend towards
conversion from analogue to digital broadcasting and Nigeria should take
advantage of the opportunities inherent in this transformation.
They listed some of the benefits of migration
to include higher quality
reception, access to
more channels and availability of a wider spectrum of Value
Added Services (VAS).
Also, CommTech Ministry stated that the policy objectives
would comprise to comply with International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) mandate of
migrating from analogue
to digital broadcasting; and to
properly manage the benefit of digital dividends that will result from the
migration.
According to a copy f the document available to ITRealms
Online, section 7.13.2 which centres on strategies emphasized that the
government plans to embark on a massive publicity campaign for the purpose of
sensitizing the general public on the transition from analogue to digital
broadcasting; ensure availability and cost effectiveness of set top boxes; and
encourage the local manufacturing of set top boxes in Nigeria.
Additionally, the document proposed that the Federal
Government, through the Ministry would develop a licensing regime for signal
distributors and content providers; provide a clear roadmap for harvesting the
“digital dividend” spectrum and ensure competitive allocation of the resource;
and ensure compliance of migration by the ITU mandated dates of 2015 for Ultra-High
Frequency (UHF) and 2020 for Very high frequency (VHF).
ITRealms Online recalls that mid-last year, a two-day media
workshop on digital broadcasting migration was held at the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja (FCTA), with participants demanding for the official release
of the white paper submitted by the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) on
Digital Migration in Nigeria over 25 months ago.
The workshop, which held at the Digital Bridge Institute
(DBI), Utako District, Abuja, saw participants arguing that the formal release
of the white paper would enable the Nigerian public to know the contents, and
for the media to x-ray the paper to spur immediate implementation by the
federal government and private sector operators, especially in the broadcasting
industry.
Participants noted that the commencement of the
implementation process is crucial for charting the way forward for the country,
mostly in fulfillment of the global agenda for countries of the world to
migrate to digital platform by July 2015, of which Nigeria and some African
countries have since brought their migration deadline to July 15, 2013 as a way
of fast-tracking the process.
Also, participants at the forum mainly media practitioners
lambasted the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for not doing enough in
leading the campaign for digital migration in the country.
“It is unfortunate that most people, especially media
practitioners based in Abuja where NBC is based don’t know much about the
issues around digital migration efforts by Nigeria,” one of the participants
decried.
The workshop witnessed presentation of papers on “digital
transition: behind the issues; digital migration in Africa and globally;
digital migration in Nigeria; challenges of reporting digital migration in
Nigeria; Research report on Nigeria Digital Migration,” among others.
The coordinator of the event of the Nigeria Digital
Migration workshop, Mr. Emmanuel Edet disclosed the workshop was organized by
the Association for Progressive Communication in collaboration with London-based
online news medium, Balancing Act and Open Society Initiative.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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