The National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) has expressed its readiness to tackle the long anti-competition
within the Nigerian television market space, reports ITRealms.
NBC, ITRealms gathered recently invited an
international team of TV market consultants to undertake an economic baseline
study of the sector.
Specifically, NBC hinted ITRealms that the consultants would undertake
a review of current market structures to see if there are any restrictions to
content, including premium rights and events, and whether such restrictions
hinders the emergence of new services, and platforms, and their ability
to compete effectively.
Also, the consultants would
assess other issues such as market dominance, network, programme access rules
and content exclusivity; impact of the advertising market on broadcast revenue
and operations; with particular attention to revenue returns for broadcast
stations.
In addition they would examine
whether any current market conduct adversely affects revenue for broadcasting
stations in Nigeria. This is of vital importance because the economic survival
of the broadcasting market depends on the operation of the advertising market.
A press statement made available to ITRealms further stated that NBC
is set to institute a team of local and foreign experts to examine the role of
foreign sports broadcasting property rights, such as football rights on the
cost of pay television in Nigeria as against the development of our local
leagues, and its impact on the cost of pay television in Nigeria. The committee
which shall be formally constituted soon shall work to reduce the possible
impact of such rights on the cost of our local TV rates.
A reliable source
inside the Commission informed us that in order to adequately deal with some of
the issues which has arisen from both the digital transition and the
competition issues within the Nigerian broadcasting market, the National
Broadcasting Commission recently set up the DigiGroup Contact Team made up of
broadcasters, signal distributors, set top box manufacturers, legal and
technology experts.
Recently, there was a
court action against Multichoice Nigeria Limited (DSTV) on the indiscriminate
increase in their subscription fees. It is unfortunate that the Nigerian pay-tv
market is under the stranglehold of DSTV due to its early entry into the
broadcast market and its already established dominance in South Africa.
DSTV has a wide
range of exclusive pay-tv rights (satellite and terrestrial) for the wholesale
supply of premium channels, such as M-NET, the Super Sport channels, KTV, MTV, CNN,
Discovery, National Geographic Channel, etc. It is currently the only supplier
of premium sports (English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Europa
League, prime Tennis tournaments and Basketball leagues etc.)
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