Nigeria struggles with digital TV
June 26, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Nigeria’s switch-over to all-digital TV transmission is “faltering” say local reports. Twenty-nine of the nation’s federal states remain with analogue transmissions. Just eight states have mostly been covered with digital transmissions, although there remain problem areas.
Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper complains that there seems to be “no end in sight” for Nigeria’s much promised digital adoption. The newspaper blames a “paucity of funds, lack of political will and new technicalities may have stalled its progress”.
The designated Nigerian completion date was December 7th 2022 and this was already well behind the ITU completion date of 2015.
Many African nations have successfully made a complete transition to digital TV including Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Eswatini (Swaziland).
Reportedly, the official digital roll-out plan has now been totally dumped. “In its place, the Federal Government plans to execute a uniform roll-out, the date of which is not certain because of the change of administration.”
Local officials praise pay-TV broadcaster StarTimes for its work in promoting digital adoption. “StarTimes has their masts installed already on the ground. All we need to do is to appear at the centre whenever we are ready and turn on the switch and everybody can begin to enjoy [digital TV]. In other words, we are almost there. The entire country can be launched in one day because of the StarTimes agreement. But then, there is a financial implication. StarTimes, whose masts we are going to use need to be paid and not small money after all,” the source told the Guardian.
StarTimes CEO Tunde Aina, said as a pay-TV operator in the country, StarTimes has covered more than 70 cities in 35 states including the capital Abuja. Aina said DSO is about FreeTV and is now deployed in about eight cities, “but even then, the eight cities are not well covered yet. The cities are Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Enugu, Osogbo and Jos.”