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Tag: DSO

  • The DSO Process Needs Help, As Always, By Okoh Aihe

    The DSO Process Needs Help, As Always, By Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

     

    I was expecting a perfect landing for the DSO launch in Rivers State, at least, as per the schedule of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), but that wasn’t to be. In the very last minute a situation supervened causing the exercise to be shifted post-haste. Those who were already in the State capital, Port Harcourt, for what had the verisimilitude of a grand finale, are chewing their teeth in calculating their losses.

     

    That happens in business. As they say, you win some you lose some. In the DSO business in Nigeria there seems to be a group that will perennially calculate losses. We have always known this but it came home strongly the other day.

     

    DSO is Digital Switchover, a tech migration sanctioned by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to harvest the best out of broadcasting and telecommunications and give the end users the benefits of unfolding new technology. It is the process of moving from analogue to digital television transmission. The vacated spectra would be harvested by the relevant authorities and be sold for telecommunications services.

     

    Each administration in Nigeria has paid obvious attention to the DSO, by way of preparing to reap from the outlined benefits. President Goodluck Jonathan set up the DigiTeam, headed by a tested engineer and a former Director at the NBC, Engr Eddy Amana; while the current administration sort to incongruously replace a Presidential Team with a Ministerial Team which is today driving the process of full implementation. All efforts are geared towards achieving the set national objectives but implementation has not been as strategic.

     

    At the time, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said: “Gentlemen, my decision to set up the Ministerial Task Force to drive the DSO process is hinged on the fact that a successful Digital Switchover is a massive job creator and a huge revenue generator. The process is capable of creating over one million jobs over the next three years. As part of the efforts to maximise the opportunities available in the process, we have made necessary changes in the Broadcast Code to protect local jobs and production, we have started the process of introducing world class Audience Measurement and Media Monitoring to deliver on our potential1-billion dollar TV and Online Advertising revenue market and now we will ensure that the DSO ecosystem delivers value to the economy.”

     

    But in spite of overwhelming potentials of the exercise, Nigeria lives outside the window of implementation, having missed the cut twice, first time in 2015 and in 2020. All of government’s commitment to the process pale into insignificance, more like Shakespearean tale of sound and fury signifying nothing. Which is why on this desk, we recently started to encourage the government to match words with action and ensure the speed of rollout is sustained.

     

    The government has tried to keep its own part of the deal. After the maiden launch in in Jos in April 2016, the DSO was launched in Lagos on April 29, 2021. But it was insipid, very insipid, to the extent that it provoked outrage amongst critical stakeholders in Lagos, as they complained about the scarcity of set top boxes and the attendant cost. The set top box converts the analogue TV signals to digital signals.

     

    November 2, 2021, DSO was launched in Kano. We don’t want to sketch on the lurid details that played out during the launch but the NBC played their game with focus, mobilized the State Government which took ownership of the entire process, to make the DSO launch a real Kano show. The launch held in a government facility, attended by senior government officials who were led by the governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. There was a burst of excitement and satisfaction. On this page we had recommended the Kano model for the Switchover in the remaining states of the country.

     

    It was this model that should have been put to test on Monday in Rivers State, unfortunately, the governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike’s time couldn’t be splintered. He asked for a more convenient time because whatever he is involved in, he wants to achieve with all perfection. Our suggestion has been that for DSO to succeed in Nigeria, the states must be part of the process; and, in fact, take ownership of the process. When the launch comes up in Rivers, we appeal the governor should handle it the Wike way without holding anything back.

     

    But here is the part of the story that nearly broke our hearts. After reading our article on the Kano DSO launch, a young businessman who is involved in the DSO value chain called us to complain about a seamy side of the Switchover that is not seen by so many people who wish the process well. Two signal carriers were licensed – Pinnacle and ITS. They are not functioning optimally. There are thirteen set top box manufacturers. Only one is able to function at the moment. Some others are trying to wriggle out of debt. If not properly handled, a monopoly could be created, further conflicting the mix.

     

    The fellow that called us vends set top boxes. Having invested, the boxes are not being picked up even with all the built up expectations. Activation of the boxes is even more troubling. After launch, he moaned, investors are left to do the herculean job that is more of a drain to invested funds. They are left to do the marketing which comes at a huge cost.

     

    Particularly in Kano, culture is one other factor that was never contemplated. Even those who got free set up boxes had to dump them after days of trial because the TV channels had little consideration for a peculiar culture that should also have been included in the programming mix. The NBC should not overlook such culture challenge that can humble its efforts. The country’s cultural diversity must be entertained and its richness promoted.

     

    My counsel is for the DSO process to be properly audited so that inherent challenges can be ferreted and dealt with urgently, more like doing a stress test for the process to ascertain why it’s not working properly. Having followed the industry for decades, this writer is aware of the existence of the Directorate of Broadcast Policy and Research. Their research materials should provide a platform for industry decisions and activities.

     

    We are also aware that there are all kinds of interlopers muddling up the industry, each group looking for a good hold on the DSO business in the guise of providing some nebulous services. Something has to be done, otherwise this writer is really afraid that the Buhari administration may not conclude the DSO process and it would have so muddled up the process that it will become an intractable project for the administration after them.

  • DSO: Reformatting the Kano model for better results, By Okoh Aihe

    DSO: Reformatting the Kano model for better results, By Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

     

    The Digital Switchover (DSO) went to Kano State early in the month with some reloaded swagger and a little twist in the tale which at once looked very positive and promising. The November 2, 2021, Kano launch survived an interim executive before being executed in style by a broadcast boss who is trying to execute his game plan in a distinguished manner. It is to his credit that he has faithfully subscribed to the ageless maxim that “government is a continuum.”

     

    The DSO which is one of the cardinal projects of this administration is a legacy project that couldn’t be executed in the lifespan of one government. So having inherited it from the Jonathan government, the Buhari government made it a major project and promised to execute it with prompt and panache. The administration was probably attracted by the capacity of the transition technology to affect the entire human ecosystem; yes, anybody would be enchanted by its capacity to stimulate job opportunities, unleash growth in the creative sector, and present new TV viewing opportunities to a segment of the society that was condemned to antiquated TV programming in the worst experience of analogue presentation. The economy would be a major beneficiary in a sustained period of blighted recession.

     

    The DSO wears too many colours which, from whatever angle, is tantalizing. The content makers love the creative opportunities and economic empowerment. TV viewers see it as an alternative reality that could seduce their minds away from bad governance and deposit them at the tipping point of nirvana. Ah! The government loves the political appeal, of a promise fulfilled; at least what the others couldn’t do, they have achieved with flowing majesty.

     

    However, the journey lost swiftness, got mired in superfluous controversies and, in fact, really just suffered from suffocating disputations, intrinsically, from very irritating bureaucracy that has attracted some troubling and interesting attention from relevant quarters. At a point the DSO story was a nightmare thus making final execution a remote possibility.

     

    I had earlier written to commend the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approving some money, N9.4bn on February 10, 2021, for payment of legacy debts owed some organisations involved in the DSO value chain. Unfortunately the money did not come with any magic wand!

     

    But this is no time to cry over a world that is gone, but a time to look at a future of promise and possibility, which is the reason Kano has crept into the centre of discourse. On this page we lay no claim to the things that happened there but it will be remiss not to recall how severally we had called for the various stakeholders and governments at all levels to buy into the transition process so as to serve the DSO hot to the people as a prime dividend of democracy.

     

    In Kano the narrative changed. The NBC achieved that amorphous target we had set for it and, in fact, surpassed all expectations. The launch took place inside the State House Auditorium. The governor and the Emir of Kano, among the Kano State crème de la crème, were in attendance.

     

    You can glean this excitement from the presentation of Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). “Permit me to put on record the overwhelming support we have received from the Executive Governor of Kano State, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduge. His Excellency’s commitment to the success of this rollout, remains most admirable and contagious. He did not only grant us audience at a very short notice, but he has gone ahead to own the process and so, for the past couple of weeks, Kano state has been preparing for this new change that is to come. The state house auditorium was expressly approved to host the phenomenal event and all the Local Government Areas were sensitized in preparation for this. A couple of months ago, about a hundred information officers were also trained, and equipped with basic information to assist in handling Frequently Asked Questions. If we have the buy-in of the Governors of other States like we have had in Kano, then, the DSO project will be completed in record time,” he said.

     

    Kano State also presents some interesting stats. According to an NBC baseline study in 2017, the State had about 12,882,030 projected Population, 2,147,005 Households and 1.6 Million projected Number of Television Viewing homes. The figure would have gone up obviously thus pitching the State capital as the biggest economic hub outside of Lagos.

     

    Let’s try to untangle the activities that took place in Kano prelaunch. Trainings were done. Information officers or some kind of ambassadors were recruited to run with DSO message, and about one hundred installers were trained, thus actually demonstrating the job creating potentials of the DSO. But that is only at the superficial level!

     

    For me, something bigger happened, and that is the clincher. In a most welcome development, the NBC boss sensitised the gathering to an address that would be delivered by the DigiTeam leader, Engr. Eddy Amana who he described as well-resourced and the custodian of the historic landmarks of Digitisation. I will want to observe that what impaired the progress in the DSO transition for a long time was the attitude of some people in this government to institute a supposedly elite team that had little knowledge of DSO but were actually more interested in spending the budget. Some kind of shadow cabinet in the warped sense of it.

     

    But let me confess to the truth. I am not so excited to believe that the demons embedded in the DSO transition process have been laid to rest immediately. Instead they will grow more crafty and sophisticated waiting to make their next move.

     

    This is why I want to make this suggestion; that the Kano template which took a long time to format should be fine-tuned in preparation for use in the remaining States. Unfortunately the journey is only starting, leaving the NBC with loads of work to do if the country is ever to achieve the DSO target and join the rest of the world in modern broadcasting.

     

    The job ahead is huge and the threat of failure should not be underestimated. The NBC needs help and so is the new head that is trying to cut his teeth. This is no time for political party definitions and predilections. Those who love this nation, including tech experts, should sink their differences and bury their little hatchets to help resolve the DSO puzzle. Time is of the essence and the NBC will literally need some hydrogen boosters to deliver on the DSO process.

     

  • Giving the DSO process a meaning and little hope – Okoh Aihe

    Giving the DSO process a meaning and little hope – Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

    It can be a pain to see a good story and see the end of that story receding inexorably. In September 2009, former ITU Secretary General, Dr. Hamdoun Toure, after featuring in an interview session at AIT studios on Kpaduma Hills, Abuja, was enthused about the state-of-the-art broadcast equipment he saw, and readily compared them to what was available in some of the most advanced studios in parts of Europe. He never imagined that an African private broadcaster could gather such rich assortment of equipment.

    In a material published in the ITU News of January-February 2010, Toure observed that with what he saw at AIT – OB Trucks broadcasting High Definition Television signals and heavy investment in studio equipment, AIT was not only ahead of the digital switchover (DSO) process which should have ended in Nigeria in 2015, but could boast of better equipment than some television houses even in the most advanced west.

    “The firm is already digitally compliant, far ahead of the country’s switchover date,” Toure observed inside the main studio.

    At the time, DAAR was priming up its equipment, ready to host the world on behalf of Nigeria as FIFA Host Broadcaster for the Under 17 soccer Fiesta. The organization could readily boast of more sophisticated broadcast equipment than South Africa which was to host the FIFA World Cup from June to July, 2010. This writer was in South Africa in early 2010 where the country made a presentation to delegates from African countries.

    It was a very big thing to Hamadoun Toure that as the ITU Sec-Gen, a broadcast station from the continent was on the frontline of those that would lead the journey away from Analogue to Digital platform. That unfortunately has become wishful thinking as Nigeria is not any closer to the conclusion of the journey which began in 2006.

    As the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), takes its digital migration journey to Kano this month, it is gladdening that there is a little stirring in a sector that was becoming uncomfortably complacent but the question should be asked whether enough is being done by the relevant authorities to take DSO to a determinate end?

    As it is, the NBC has suffered leadership instability that has obviously impaired its capacity to perform complex responsibilities like the digital switchover.

    However, speaking in Kano on September 29, 2021, to the media, a hopeful Mallam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, Director-General of the NBC, assured that the Commission, the driving government agency for the project, working closely with the Ministerial Task Force on DSO and Digiteam, the implementation Committee has shown commitment to the transition through the implementation of several critical requirements of the DSO.

    “Let me sincerely commend all the stakeholders who are working round the clock to ensure the success of the transition from analogue to digital television across the country. The Signal Distributors, the Set-Top-Box manufacturers, the Digiteam, the Middleware providers and indeed all stakeholders who have all been pulling all the stops to ensure that the DSO train continues unimpeded on its journey across the country.”

    Ilelah listed all the good things that a completed DSO process could deliver – good television signals, rich entertainment, good jobs and fertile creative environment, among others, which Nigerians will soon begin to experience.

    Much as one would continue to goad him on the path of success, his optimism wears the verisimilitude of a seed placed in a carefully sealed bottle, which is transparent enough for all to see but with difficult access to it. Lots of optimism in dire straits.

    This writer is pained to point out, as always, that the NBC is not in charge of the DSO process, unfortunately. The Ministerial Task Force set up by this administration, which should actually wield less power than the Digiteam set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan, is in charge, even to the point of paying bills. Such action has little respect for the NBC which has its independence ingrained in the Broadcast Act (CAP N11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004).

    It is my humble observation that the DSO process is too important for the kind of things happening in the broadcasting industry, of individuals wielding such enormous powers as to invalidate the huge gains that should accrue to the nation from expanded broadcast activities, and telecommunications spectra gains. What the country needs is a clear statement of intent from the NBC, a bankable one for that matter.

    If we have lost the DSO leadership and drive in Africa, we can at least learn from another country which is moving at snail speed but yet able to articulate a position. South Africa has set March 2022 as terminal date of analogue television switch off, having made substantial progress in migrating some parts of the country from analogue to digital, according to media reports. President Cyril Ramaphosa had given a clear direction in February by setting a March 2022 deadline, and a Cabinet briefing recently, demonstrated that the regulatory authority, ICASA, and the Communications Ministry were working towards the target.

    While one would point out that both Nigeria and South Africa have failed to provide leadership in managing the DSO process in Africa, the case of Nigeria could get more embarrassing except the government urgently dispenses with shadowing figures manipulating the process, and charge the NBC to get to work immediately. A clear action plan with measurable targets is needed to convince the nation that the DSO exercise will not last forever. There has to be something more tangible to hold on to, beyond the number of set top boxes available in the market which is far beneath the 27.5m estimated TV homes in the country. The NBC has to demonstrate that the DSO process is not too complex for the regulator to handle.

     

  • For DSO, a little consideration for the ordinary Nigerian – By Okoh Aihe

    For DSO, a little consideration for the ordinary Nigerian – By Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

    The monetization and other advantages of the Digital Switchover (DSO) remain the most compelling narrative of this convoluting story. The entertainment sector will open up with foaming opportunities. The league of talents available in the sector will suddenly sponge up the opportunities – whether in the movies, music, comedy, live theatre shows, technical and every aspect of the entertainment sector, will suddenly become some kind of attractive pie that every entertainer with a little gift, will scramble to have a piece of. And all of us writers will have more stories to write, build up a dome of adjectives to decorate an industry that continues to search for its best days.

    This is the one story the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, loves to tell. I cede that to him with all respect. And when he tells the story, he waxes lyrical like Unoka in Things Fall Apart, seducing listeners with his flute, and perhaps those hearing the good news from the Minister will jostle for positions of advantage to reap from an opportunity unfolding piecemeal. The nation is bleeding for good stories. Every little strand is important to drop in the mix.

    In spite of some spice of nihilism in a seemingly obliterating situation, I love good news and try to go overboard in search of some crumbs to sweeten our situation. This is why I am contributing this material with the prayers that it be considered dispassionately even by those who grumble that the Simply Tech Column haunts them unjustifiably.

    And there is no need to feel that way. The DSO process is a very big thing, bigger than personal convenience and predilections, and Nigeria, with the exaggerated claim of being the biggest economy in Africa, is far behind in execution. This is very painful and only a few people will understand why. While we talk of the business benefits of the DSO, some people fail to actually reason that one of the most important components of the DSO is the social inclusion in the value chain which unfolds into benefits for the ordinary TV viewer.

    This is why the NTA, for me, presented a rare piece of good news last week, when it reported the meeting between the lower house of the National Assembly – House of Representatives and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to discuss ways of ensuring that the DSO process runs smoothly and also provide benefits for the ordinary Nigerian. It was a smart and needed move by the House and efforts should be channeled into such meetings to prevent the process from atrophying.

    Hon. Odebunmi Segun, Chairman, House Committee on Information and National Orientation, in the report monitored by this writer, was very concerned about government expenditure in the DSO and how such expenditures were being managed to profit the ordinary Nigerian out there. Government, he informed, has subsidized 908, 000 Set Top Boxes to be given out free. How far have we gone about it and how many have been activated? he asked.

    For a simple recall, DSO means Digital Switchover from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting. Although some countries have since concluded the process, Nigeria is only now struggling along. A cardinal feature of the process is that when concluded some television sets will be unable to access TV programming, thus making the Set Top Box, which will help convert these signals, mandatorily indispensable.

    In the United States, Government gave out two coupons of $40 each to each TV home. The South African government is giving out free Set Top Boxes through the SABC. “Important notice. If you see this message,” the station says, “go to your nearest Post Office to register for a free government subsidized decoder…..to continue receiving a television broadcast.”

    It thus become very expedient to give considerate concern to the position of the ordinary Nigerian in the DSO value chain. This is the fellow who earns the minimum wage of N30, 000, the fellow for whom there is little respite because even that amount, now less than $65, is not being paid by the state governor who justifies this aggravating wrench with dwindling revenue from Abuja.

    A Set Top Box which some nations, including South Africa, are giving out free, costs N10, 000 at the moment. A state government which acquires 10, 000 Set Top Boxes will have to shell out N1bn. This is a lot of money especially in the face of the economic tailspin facing the nation, and this Math staggered me last week into thinking that the DSO was heading for the rocks if some ingenuity was not introduced into the process. The ordinary folk cannot afford it and the government may not want to be involved, pleading a worsening economic reality.

    But here is my appeal. An attractive spinoff of the DSO is the Digital Dividends which will cede the broadcast frequencies given up by broadcasters to the telecommunications industry. When former DG of the NBC, Mr Emeka Mba, tested the waters, one of such frequencies was ingeniously sold to MTN for about N34bn. There are two left, this writer was reliably informed. Even when I am the first to admit that the worsening security situation in the country will likely attenuate the value of the remaining two, there may still be the compelling need to put them up for sale. While such monies would necessarily go to the Federation Account, it is my appeal that a significant percentage be given to the NBC as seed fund to acquire Set Top Boxes for some TV homes across the country.

    While one was pained by the insipid participation of the Lagos State Government in the DSO launch in Lagos recently, my prayer is that as the exercise berths in Kano, the State Government and the Local Councils should be fully mobilized to be part of the process, and explore the possibility of funding some Boxes for those who can’t afford them economically. In addition, businesses, as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR), should fund some Boxes while wealthy individuals should give some kind considerations to the ordinary Nigerians by funding their little window to the world.

    This is what I think. The DSO process is far from being foolproof. There are too many contradictions and checkpoints that can abort the process any time, too much of dredges that won’t be healthy to wash up. But the process should be niftily managed for the sake of the people. Some of us will also need to manage our badly concealed interests, expectations and plain but irritating meddlesomeness. The ordinary Nigerian needs a little space. You can’t take food from his table and also take his television. That will be wicked.

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

     

  • Frightening auguries for a country’s DSO, By Okoh Aihe

    Frightening auguries for a country’s DSO, By Okoh Aihe

     

    By Okoh Aihe

    If some miracles don’t happen very soon around the corner, the euphoria over the launch of the second phase of the Digital Switchover (DSO) which began in Lagos penultimate week, could as well be an ephemeral little bubble which doesn’t need the sharp accuracy of a needle to deflate. Pity that some rising joy representing some rare hope in today’s Nigeria will die prematurely. Reason for this apocalyptic conclusion is this writer’s understanding of what is happening in the broadcast sector.

    You cannot flagellate the ordinary Nigerian for being so hopeful about opening opportunities to enjoy digital TV signals. After all, he would enjoy the beauty of television, like the big man is used to. However, it is pertinent to observe that the process which started years ago has been long in shaping into something recognizable and meaningful in Nigeria. In fact, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) which should be implementing the programme has suffered leadership crisis with current head, Prof Armstrong Idachaba, remaining in acting capacity for over a year. It is little surprise that the DSO was stalled for about three years, within which period the nation actually regressed in the progress it made in the transition.

    With all the pronouncements, proclamations and promises by government on the DSO, the first real sign of progress came the other day, February 10, 2021, when the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of N9.4bn for the NBC to reignite the process which stagnated painfully. This was the outward manifestation of subterranean activities by the regulator to properly document the process to release it from a wooliness that ensnared it over a period of time. Such efforts attracted the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to give legitimacy to the DSO transactions.

    The optimism coming from the government is rising by the minute. DSO will provide over a million jobs, give jobs to our actors and actresses, musicians, directors, producers and, in fact, every talent involved in the production of every genre of entertainment, will be accommodated profitably in the unfolding process that seems to carry magic in its wings.

    The story looks refreshing and pompously optimistic, except that all that glitter may really not be gold, especially in our part of the world where we know how to apply dross to every little item of quality. Even with all the razzle dazzle in the Lagos launch, some gaping challenges were observed by this writer. Did the launch have the buy-in of the Lagos State government? If it did, its involvement was negligible. The Governor was represented by a Permanent Secretary, not even the Deputy in such a big event. Perhaps, he was too busy to attend a programme that may have telling effects on the life of the people who voted for him. Oh, just ordinary TV?

    The DSO is not ordinary TV. It brings TV of the highest picture and sound quality with lots of opportunities. When the US flagged off their process in 2007, the government through the Department of Commerce provided two coupons of $40 each for each household. The process documented in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration plan didn’t want to exclude any of the estimated 73 million TV sets in America, quite a number of which were already connected to Cable or TV satellite services. Germany didn’t even trouble their citizens as the country had enough robust technology and signal coverage to transit seamlessly. Governments all over the world attach a lot of importance to the DSO.

    The Nigerian story must always proceed with some degree of absurdity or outright incredulity. The government didn’t seem to prepare for any major role, ab initio. For the DSO to happen the NBC had to license, register or sought the services of some organizations which include: signal carriers, set top box manufacturers, satellite space providers and middleware providers, among others. Over time, the NBC got on the debtor list of these organizations. Heavily. The financial approval by government intended to rescue the regulator from this shame, is trapped in transit without explanations but with those who should know only hoping that, at some point, money will come. Not even SES, the satellite space provider has been paid anything. This writer is reliably informed that some of these service providers are threatening not to continue with the rollout except something drops on their tables.

    The Lagos launch communicates how complicated and challenging the implementation of the DSO can be, especially with the dearth of infrastructure across the nation. For instance while there are 5m TV homes in Lagos, according to NBC statistics, only about 400,000 set top boxes (and some sources say they were less) could get into Lagos at launch, brought in by only one manufacturer out of the thirteen that were licensed. It is also public knowledge that only two of the licensees actually have the capacity to manufacture set top boxes at the moment, thus putting a question mark on the job creation optimism of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    From all indications, the Lagos launch was done in needless imperativeness. The Lagos market is designed to be served by the two signal carriers, ITS and Pinnacle. Only ITS is functioning currently, providing 30 TV channels while Pinnacle is expected to come on stream in June. The signal carriers are expected to achieve at least 80 per cent coverage of the market for the second important phase of the DSO, which is Analogue Switchoff to take place. In all the seven states where the digital switchover has taken place, market coverage has hardly been achieved, analogue switch off has not taken place and dual illumination (co-existence digital and analogue signals) continues, thus increasing the cost of the switchover.

    A little information for Nollywood and all content makers for TV. In the DSO value chain, there is something called the Digital Access Fund (DAF) that is charged on every set top box that is activated. The amount is N1, 500 and is paid annually; this can build up into a big till. This money is supposed to be collected by the NBC who with other stakeholders has to decide on how to channel the money to content makers and other genres of the creative industry. My little challenge for Nollywood is to track this fund.

    My final take is that concerned stakeholders should line up behind the NBC to enable it cobble together all the relationships in the DSO value chain, including the amorphous one between ITS and Star Times, so that the process does not fall into hibernation ever again. Let’s leave no room for current enthusiasm from the Ministry and NBC to wane into despondency.

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja.

  • For DSO, a new life in a season of expectations, By Okoh Aihe

    For DSO, a new life in a season of expectations, By Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

    The thing about the future is that it steals on you like a thief at night and you are hardly prepared. The launch of the second phase of the Digital Switchover (DSO), which looked very far away, is beginning tomorrow from Lagos. Whether it is the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) who should be driving it or the Minister through the Ministry of Information and Culture who should have been an invitee to the event, there seems to be some level of readiness and, come tomorrow, even the ordinary local in Lagos will have the rare opportunity to see and enjoy digital TV signals, you know, that kind of technology that makes TV sound and pictures bring to earth the beauty of heaven.

    Tomorrow will usher in a fresh burst of excitement, knowing that we have missed the digital switchover twice, June 2015 and July 2020, respectively, and, at last, some reasonableness have come into a process that was once upon a time in disarray and completely hopeless. For a start, the promise looks mouthwatering. At the launch tomorrow, Lagosians will have immediate access to about 30 TV channels through the magic of one Set Top Box that will help anologue television sets convert the signals to digital. So, the locals can enjoy pure bliss, watch good TV and see those kind of entertainment they used to espy from the rich man’s window. Their time has come only if they can overcome one little problem.

    There will be speeches laced with reality and a little dose of political mayonnaise to make the content of their presentations much easier to digest. While one can say that there is some level of excitement from within the NBC that the process is able to take off in Lagos, the biggest economy in Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister superintending the parastatal, will obviously be elated that, finally, his government is able to deliver genuinely on this project.

    They, too, can have their day. Although what will happen tomorrow will be unable to replace the horror playing out on our streets, from the north to the south and from east to west, of near absolute chaos to the annoying silence of the authorities, every achievement is worth celebrating to encourage those involved in the process, except that there is the need for caution: that this process be stripped of political appurtenances.

    From tomorrow, there will be new kids on the block in the Lagos broadcast space. Pinnacle and ITS will suddenly become the new stars of an emerging broadcast ecosystem. Except that they remain kids. No metaphor is intended here. Under the unfolding arrangement, the two platforms will serve as signal carriers, at a fee, for the TV stations in the Lagos area. So, with a little flip of the remote button, you will enjoy the possibility of all terrestrial TV stations in a single bouquet. How very interesting!

    The other very important player in the ecosystem is the Set Top Box manufacturer and of course, there are the buyers who form the audience or viewers. The role of government is to provide a commodious playing field for all parties to thrive.

    Perhaps, stepping into the role in the preceding line, the Minister, a couple of weeks ago, directed GOTV and Star Times to evacuate their services to the platforms provided by ITS and Pinnacle, saying that is the only way the signal carriers can survive in the business. While the merit of such affluent declaration was being examined, there was a subtle push back by some other parties which say that the Digital Switchover White Paper on which such proclamation was made has since expired.

    Such subtle dig will be expected in the DSO process going forward. But permit me to make an observation based on the information at my disposal. Directing GOTV and Star Times to go on the platform of Pinnacle and ITS to carry their signals could be obliquely akin to the possibility of directing MTN and Glo to move their services to NITEL facility. Pinnacle and ITS, in the immediate, remain kids without the capacity to carry the massive content of GOTV and Star Times across the country, while NITEL is too old to understand the new dance of modern technology. The platforms will be overwhelmed. Service will fail. And one party suffers – the audience or subscriber.

    It is therefore important to examine some myths and role definitions. I think I should say explode some myths. Myth number one. The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) which comes on stream tomorrow has no congruence with Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) or Cable Television. While DTT is open television for every viewer with a TV set and signals converter at home, DSTV is pay TV and offers premium bouquet for premium prices to the annoyance of subscribers. In this part of the world we love to get things free or pay a little fraction for a great service. But DSTV comes with a high tech decoder which provides access to television programmes. Without buying a decoder, no subscriber will have access to such premium programming like the last UFC fight by Kamaru Usman, the Nigerian Nightmare.

    Myth number two. There is the story around town that DTT has come to equalize the status of TV viewers as folks on the platform will be able to watch Premiership, La Liga and other global sporting events and TV channels like CNN. This is not true in the immediate. Sporting events and some other great television programmes are paid for by broadcasters and are re-bagged for piecemeal delivery at very good price. One can see why the Exclusivity clause in the Nigeria Broadcasting Code is getting nastier but those who want to implement it now will have to pass through the eye of the needle to achieve results as Nigerian courts are not known for blind patriotism or miscarriage of justice.

    Myth number 3. DTT has voracious capacity to accommodate multiplicity of programming. So, while it would already have provided space for Nigerian TV stations, including the top ones like NTA, AIT, Channels and TVC, the regulator has also licensed some outfits to programme quality channels which, on the long run, will have to be sustained by the advertisers, not subscribers. I will have to add here that NBC will really have to sabotage our culture to license broadcasters like CNN and BBC, among others, to run on DTT.

    Myth number four. DTT will not come free. The viewer has to buy a Set Top Box which will cost close to N10, 000. The Nigerian worker who is still fighting for a minimum wage of N30, 000 will not be able to shell out that kind of money in these troubling times. Herein comes the role of the state. What some countries have done is to subsidize the cost of the Set Top Box. I am aware that the NBC has tried to woo the Lagos State government to make a direct intervention and help the ordinary folks hook on to quality TV channels. There has to be the involvement of government, whether Federal, State or Local Council to help Nigerians enjoy democratized TV viewing opportunities.

    The DSO process will be re-fired tomorrow in Lagos. Let truth and genuine patriotism supply the fuel to sustain the process.

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

     

  • BREAKING: FG orders GoTv, Startimes to migrate to FreeTV platform

    BREAKING: FG orders GoTv, Startimes to migrate to FreeTV platform

    The Federal Government says it has directed two PayTv platforms – GoTv and Startimes – to migrate their signals from self-carrying to any of the two licensed FreeTv signal distributors.

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja, said the directive was in line with the Digital Switch Over (DSO) process.

    DSO is the process of transiting from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting and the country has set April 29 for the resumption of the roll out of the second phase in the remaining 31 states.

    The first phase of the roll out had covered the Federal Capital Territory and the five states of Plateau, Kaduna, Kwara, Osun and Enugu.

    According to the minister, the laws of the land recognises a single frequency network which is being operated by two licensed signal distributors – Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Pinnacle Communications.

    He said the two PayTv – Startimes and GoTv – which are currently carrying their respective signals, is in negation of the law and must migrate to any of the licensed signal distributors of their choice.

    “We have directed National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to ask Gotv and Startimes to go to either Pinnacle of ITS.

    “They cannot carry their signals and that is the only way the licensed signal distributors can survive,’’ he said

    The minister gave an assurance that with the approval of N9.4 billion by the Federal Government and the setting up of a 14-member ministerial task force to drive the DSO process the remaining 31 states would be successfully and effectively covered.

    He said the DSO would enable Nigerians have the opportunity to have choices of many TV stations as well as have access to quality pictures and programmes with little annual cost and no monthly subscription.

    Mohammed said the plan for every state the DSO is being rolled out is to cover at least 70 per cent population coverage with Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) while the remaining areas would be covered by Direct To Home (DTH).

    He pledged that no part of the country would be left out without DSO signal before the final Analogue Switch Off

    Speaking on contents on the FreeTv platform, the minister said the government would set up Local Content Development Fund to assist talented young artists and content developers as well as enable budding stations to thrive.

    He said part of the fund would also be used to assist veteran actors and notable celebrities to procure special licenses to either have their own channels or programmes.

  • A needed DSO and protruding questions, By Okoh Aihe

    A needed DSO and protruding questions, By Okoh Aihe

     

    By Okoh Aihe

    One young lady from a radio station in Lagos searched me out. She had read a couple of my materials on broadcasting and needed to ask some questions on Digital Switchover (DSO) by way of getting some more understanding that she, in turn, could extend to her audience. This is a job I was happy to do. Even if you woke me from a deep slumber I would be ever ready because I love broadcasting.

    What is DSO and what does the Ministerial Task Force inaugurated last week mean to the entire process and to Nigerians? Simple question steeped in raw innocence.

    The little problem is that in Nigeria, even little questions are trapped in complications because of forced challenges, a daily grind which makes life unbearable in a desultory rhythm of hopelessness. Simple question, and the telecommunications networks couldn’t permit a corresponding simple answer; instead it was a profile in failed communications, a grotesque version of reality. A communication is complete when properly understood by the parties involved. But not this one. This result would distress her audience. I felt sorry for the young lady trying to do her work.

    My other little constraint is, how do you explain to this excitable girl that Nigeria is late to the DSO party, having missed the switchover date twice, one in 2015 and the other in 2020? How do you explain that a global decision to which the country was a party has been totally compromised because of some very latent interests and is only now receiving a shot of life?

    Or would it ever make sense to her that former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, established a Presidential Committee known as the Digiteam and headed by a well-tested engineer, Mr Eddie Amana, to drive the digitization process, and that this Committee has now been replaced by a Ministerial Task Force, headed by the Minister himself, Alhaji Lai Mohammed? Without an obtuse power play, which one – Committee or Task Force – should be more powerful, the one set up by the President or the one put in place by a Minister?

    A simple question: what does this Task Force mean to Nigeria? It means that government is waking up to the reality that the process which had a beginning must be driven to a logical conclusion with expected results. It means that somebody is thinking right, to ensure that Nigerians enjoy the dividends of digitization – quality music, quality movies, new job opportunities, and some kind of tech nirvana when you lace the entire process into one inseparable piece.

    The Minister was lavish about the opportunities the DSO will provide. Waxing lyrical in a non-campaign season (or is this government in a never-ending campaign season?) the Minister said: “Gentlemen, my decision to set up the Ministerial Task Force to drive the DSO process is hinged on the fact that a successful Digital Switch Over is a massive job creator and a huge revenue generator, This process is capable of creating over 1 million jobs over the next three years. As part of our efforts to maximize the opportunities available in the process, we have made necessary changes in the Broadcast Code to protect local jobs and production, we have started the process of introducing world class Audience Measurement and Media Monitoring to deliver on our potential 1-billion-dollar TV and Online Advertising revenue market and now we will ensure that the DSO ecosystem delivers value to the economy.”

    The Minister’s effusions have a source. Only recently the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of N9. 4bn for the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to fasttack the digitization process and position the country to reap from the dividends that have been so associated with the technology switch. The money will be used to upset legacy debts and ensure that, going forward, the process starts on a clean platform and run with speed. It is also now understandable while the Minister recalled an earlier agreement by the various stakeholders that the process should be driven by the private sector and must be made very competitive. Henceforth, the government will not put a dime, he seems to be saying. We shall return to this but first the concerns of the young lady who works for a radio station.

    The reason for this extra attention is that, just like the young lady, there may be so many people asking very pertinent questions today about government processes, and answers are not forth coming; because Government is the all-knowing and has no reason, for instance, to carry out stakeholder engagement on a rail route to Niger Republic. We have no reason to quarrel about our children being kidnapped from school by bandits because government is all-knowing and knows what to do. Every dodo has become a mega star in an administration whose activities give more worry to the ordinary fella on the street based on what somebody calls empirical evidence, which tells more story. The people are calling for answers on certain issues including the DSO.

    The Digital Switchover (DSO), according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), is the process of moving from analogue to digital terrestrial television. The process will create super signal carriers like Integrated Television Service (ITS) and Pinnacle who have been licensed in Nigeria to carry signals for broadcasters. The broadcasters will thus vacate their frequencies which will be harvested by the government as digital dividends for telecommunications activities. Set Top boxes manufactured locally will assist analogue television sets in our homes to achieve digital relevance. So, another advantage is that the DSO can give us a better and bigger broadcast sector and a more effective telecommunications industry.

    The little contradiction here is the position of the Minister. While he says that DSO should be driven by the private sector, the Task Force has three persons from the Ministry of Information and Culture alone, including the Chairman and Secretary. There are other people from government. One would think that as always, the role of the Minister is to ensure robust policy formulation for the industry. What has played out here is pure regulatory capture of the broadcast industry, just as it is in the telecommunications industry. Or could one not be safe here to conclude that regulatory capture is a common characteristic of this administration!

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

  • FEC returns life to the DSO, By Okoh Aihe

    FEC returns life to the DSO, By Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

    Nigeria is not starved of good people to do us proud. On Monday, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala demonstrated this in making history as the first African and first woman ever to become the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to global acclaim. Her first virtual press conference espoused the qualities for which the world picked this international economist and development expert to be admitted into the revered inner sanctum of universal civil service.

    Few hours earlier, in faraway Las Vegas in Nevada, Kamaru Usman demonstrated that Nigeria wasn’t lacking brave hearts as he successfully defended his UFC welterweight title against Gilbert Burns and totally annihilated the unfortunate fellow in the third round. Raw power of the highest sort properly channeled into usefulness. A commentator even said he had a PhD in cage fight! That is the height of dexterity and accomplishment.

    As it is always, we look at the pecuniary end of everything, the naira and kobo view imposed by government policies and conditions that are lacking in substance and articulation. But I see the scarf of the Nigerian colours of green-white-green, made of Nigerian fabric (Aso Oke) around Okonjo-Iweala’s neck; I see the Nigerian Flag draped at Usman’s corner of the cage, and I see a Nigeria in full flight, ready to take on the global community with our best eleven on the pitch.

    But not so at home. Our best eleven are very far away from the playing pitch because of ethnocentric factors that are tearing the country apart and the leadership is complicit for their inability to deal with it. Good news have been so much in deficit here that you literally have to scavenge for them. This is why Okonji-Iweala brings a nourishing breather.

    Apart from the crushing story of near anarchy unfolding in the land, I started feeling some elation from mid last week when the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, announced the approval by Council of N9.4bn to fast track the Digital Switchover (DSO) process which, for long, had floundered in Nigeria.

    The Digital Switchover process commenced in July 2006 under the auspices of the ITU and was expected to end by 2015 and 2020 respectively. The process would free up broadcast frequencies for uptake by the telecommunications industry for mobile, broadband and last mile connectivity services to the various ends of a country. For Nigeria, this would put more phones in the hands of people, further stimulate the data sector and extend more affordable services even to areas where telecommunications services are yet to berth. Unfortunately, Nigeria missed both cuts.

    Expressing regrets, Mohammed said, “We were not able to make it. But with the approval of this memo by today, we would be striving to switch from analogue to digital.”

    “The effect of the move today is that the digital switchover is real and the economic effect of it will be the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs in content production, channel distribution, Nollywood and electronic appliance productions to service about 20million Nigerian homes. At the end of the switchover, we would have created the biggest free to air TV platform in Africa. I will be announcing a ministerial task force that will execute the council resolve, either this week or next,” an excited minister informed.

    It doesn’t matter anymore that Nigeria was failing in the process very dismally. What for me is more important is that the government has taken a major decision that will rev up the digital switchover engine. And this is much better than anything that has come from Mohammed for weeks.

    Really it can be very exhausting to watch a minister declare that this government has done more to secure the nation than any other government. And following after that are images of burnt houses, a number of deaths and all kinds of depressing things too benumbing for the body to manage. We seem to be insulated from the chaos around us as we throw figures about the place, forgetting always, that truth is measured by the reality on ground.

    On the DSO, Mohammed scores very high. And this is what government is all about – to breathe life into dying or dead processes and give the ordinary folks something to hope for. The DSO is returning to life and the world can begin to see us differently again. Mind you, the N9.4bn is little drop in a sea of needs, like a measure of tea spoon from a swimming pool. But, at least, a journey has started with all fervency.

    Acting Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the body executing the DSO process for Nigeria, Prof Armstrong Idachaba, also looked very relieved on Monday as we x-rayed the DSO journey so far. While trying to make a strong impact at takeoff point, the Commission took some decisions, including going into agreement with some service providers without following due process. The Commission suddenly found itself with over N12bn debt overhang. The process was trapped, with the various stakeholders nearly submitting to a stupefying helplessness. Thankfully, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) made a redeeming intervention, offering professional advice and clearing the way forward.

    “It is a relief for everybody. You can’t drive a process with credibility issues. The issue of support by governments – Federal, States and Local Councils – is key to the success of the DSO project,” he told this writer.

    Suddenly, Idachaba observed, the intervention has infused transparency and confidence into the process, thus challenging all parties involved in the project delivery to expedite action by way of responding to the good faith demonstrated by government.

    Expectedly, this FEC approval will take care of legacy debts owed service providers, including signal distributors and set top box manufacturers. Then the real game for the survival of the DSO will begin. All pretenses will be thrown over board and the various stakeholders will have to re-strategize to deliver the DSO as it was originally conceived. After what seems to be a bailout intervention, the DSO will have to fend for itself and sort out its complexities.

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja.

  • FG stops subsidies on DSO

    FG stops subsidies on DSO

    The Federal Government says there will be no more subsidies, either of set top boxes or Signal carriage as it plans to resume the rollout of Digital Switch Over (DSO), a transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting.
    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at a “Digiteam” meeting to foster dialogue among the various stakeholders in the DSO architecture
    Mohammed stressed that while the government is looking for money to pay outstanding debts and restart the DSO roll out, the process will be fully private sector driven and self sustaining.
    “On our part, we have made tremendous progress in our efforts to get the much-needed funds for the DSO process, in particular to pay
    outstanding debts that will ginger stakeholders to resume the rollout and bring the massive benefits of the DSO to Nigerians.
    “As I speak, we are putting finishing touches to a memo we plan to send to the Federal Executive Council as part of our relentless efforts to secure the funds to re-start the process, and we are very optimistic that our efforts will pay off soon.
    “The Analogue to Digital Switch Over must not be delayed any longer than absolutely necessary,” he said.
    The following the successful launch of the DSO in April 2016 in Jos, Plateau state, the federal government announced the reduction of price of set top boxes from the official N10,000 to N1,500 in order to get it across to all Nigerians.
    About 200,000 boxes were also given out for the pilot phase free of charge.

    Similarly, the Plateau Government also announced subsidy plans for its citizens and promised to distribute 300,000 boxes to them

    Mohammed noted that moving ahead with the DSO was critical to the post-Covid prosperity of the Creative Industry and that was why the government has taken it as a priority.
    He recalled the enthusiasm that greeted the launch of the DSO in Jos, noting that the process was stalled due to many factors but mainly lack of fund.
    “After the launch of the pilot phase in Jos, the launch train moved fairly quickly to Abuja on Dec. 22, 2016, then to Ilorin, Kwara
    State, on Dec. 20, 2017, Kaduna two days later on Dec. 22 2017.
    “We then proceeded to Enugu on Feb. 12, 2018 and finally to Osogbo, Osun State, on Feb. 23 2018.
    “Over two years later, we have not launched the DSO in any state, even when we have 31 more states to cover!,” he said.
    To complement the DSO roll out resumption processes, the minister said the government has started the process of implementing Audience Measurement, which will go a long way in driving advertising spend to the platform
    Mohammed charged stakeholders at the meeting to come up with a strategic plan for a resumed rollout, with an expressed commitment to continue with the process until every state has been covered.
    “The bottom line is that we need to think out of the box if we are to complete this process. Nigerians have waited far too long to enjoy the benefits of digital television.
    “At this meeting, we will listen to all stakeholders on their challenges and prospects, and together come up with a realistic timeline for the resumption of the rollout,” he said.
    NAN reports the meeting was attended by representatives of National Broadcasting Commission, Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, Set Top Boxes Manufacturers, broadcast stations, among others.