There is severe anxiety within the management of MultiChoice following a reported notice served the company by the Federal government that their operations in Nigeria will terminate next year, as their license expires in June 2019.
It was learnt that the letter from the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to MultiChoice indicated that the license issued the company in 2014 by NBC will not be renewed because it is not in line with Digital Switch Over (DSO) White Paper.
The Director General, National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Mr. Modibo Ishaq Kawu, recently disclosed that all paid DTT operators including DSTV, GOTV and Star Times will be shut down by June 2019, except they begin discussions with the two signal distributors, ITS and Pinnacle.
Elsewhere, the broadcast giant was also fined $14 million in South Africa for price fixing in Nigeria, allegedly with the aid a former NBC Director General.
Speaking in Abuja, Kawu said in preparation for full implementation of switch over from analogue to digital signals, all operators in the sector including signal distributors, content aggregator, Set top Box manufacturers ought to be on the same page now, to help in delivering a seamless Digital Switch Over (DSO).
The NBC boss also said in line with a Federal Government’s White paper, Multichoice, the owners of DSTV and GOTV as well as Star Times owned by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) will no longer be able to operate as both signal distributor and content provider.
He said: “NBC has also informed the pay DTT operators, GOTV and NTA/STAR TIMES, to begin discussions with the two signal distributors, ITS and Pinnacle Communications.
“This is because, in line with the Government White Paper on the Transition from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting, after June 2019, these pay DTT operators would no longer be licenced to operate as both content providers and signal distributors.”
Kawu further explained that DSO has been implemented in two mores states of Kaduna and Kwara at the end of 2017, bringing the number of states on DSO to four with FCT and Plateau topping the list.
He said NBC has already scheduled for February 12, 2018, to switch on Enugu State while February 23 has been affirmed for Osun State, while Delta and Gombe states will be the next.
Kawu gave a schedule of the planned DSO, stating that the next phase will include one state from each of the six geo-political regions, in the course of the year.
“We envisage that by the end of the third quarter of 2018, we would have switched on in 12 states around Nigeria,” he assured.