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President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday in Abuja Nigeria is “irreversibly committed’’ to meeting the June 2017 deadline for transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting.
The President stated this at the official launch and roll out of Digital Switch Over (DSO) spearheaded by the Ministry of Information and Culture and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the June 17, 2017 deadline for transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting in West African countries was set by the World International Telecommunication Union Council.
Buhari, represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said with DSO, the country stands at the threshold of exciting time for free TV channels, jobs creation, entertainment and commerce.
He stressed that digitisation will create jobs in the area of contents, software development and production of Set Top Boxes.
The President added that digitisation would provide platform for film producers and musicians to release their production directly to the platform that will substantially curb piracy.
“As the doors open for digital transmission, what is important is that it will liberalise access to and increase the versatility of media information.
“Interactive programming, mobile reception of videos, internet and multimedia base advertising, educative programmes sales and marketing are obvious low hanging fruits,’’ he said.
The President assured that the DSO rollout will continue in the states until the entire country is covered.
