The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has assured of the Federal Government’s commitment to meeting the June 2017 deadline for the country’s Digital Switch Over (DSO) in broadcasting.
He gave the assurance in Jos on Friday at a meeting with stakeholders in the DSO, preparatory to the launch of the pilot scheme in Plateau State.
“After missing an earlier deadline for Digital Switch Over (DSO), Nigeria has committed to achieving DSO by June 2017. Let me state here, for the avoidance of doubt, that we will not miss that target. This is because missing the target will amount to delaying the huge benefits that will accrue to the nation from a successful DSO. More over if we do not meet this deadline all our channels will suffer from interference,” he said.
Mohammed said the Digital Switch Over is a unique opportunity for the country to increase the provision of television and radio channels and enhance the quality of signals as well as the local content, which in turn will contribute significantly to the nation’s economy.
“Digital compression allows more channels to be transmitted with better image quality, good sound and improved interactive applications. I am informed that about eight times as many channels can be broadcast with the same amount of transmission capacity as is currently used for one analogue channel.
“In addition, the switch off of the analogue signal will result in a large increase in the supply of television channels available to viewers, with viewers receiving 30+ digital channels instead of 4-5 analogue ones.
