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Deadline 2015:Can Nigeria Switch Over?

In line with the directives of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations (UN), member nations of the ITU are expected to completely switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting on June 17, 2015.
The migration from analogue to digital will allow for maximum use of broadcast spectrum, enhance great picture and sound quality, and would accommodate any broadcast activity to take place on a single platform.
Lots of activities have taken place in Nigeria to look at the likely challenges on the course of trying to respond to this new order. There have been suggestions and recommendations made by local and international experts on how best to go about achieving a successful switchover and beating the deadline.
But going by the enormity of the challenges, the possibility of beating even the self-set deadline of 2012 could only end up a mirage. But can Nigeria really switchover come 2012? This is the question ROMMY IMAH attempts to answer in these following reports…

The digital migration of the broadcasting systems concerns the move away from analogue to digital technologies. It is connotative of time for society to adapt to the digital environment as a critical policy consideration.

The length of time to migrate to the digital environment will be determined by political, economic, cultural and social factors.

Migration of the broadcasting system to digital is an international imperative brought on by technological developments in broadcasting, which will see the end of

analogue broadcasting by 2015. Nigeria's march to digital broadcasting could be said to have started in 2004 when she was represented by a delegation at the International Conference on Digital Transition in Senegal and then in Geneva in 2006.

At the Geneva conference, Nigeria was able to do its own digital transition plan then; deciding on the standard to use for her digital broadcasting. There are three standards that could be adopted for digital switchover. There is the American Standard, the Asian standard and then, the European standard otherwise called the Digital Video Broadcast (DVD), which is universally used.

And so, ahead of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2015 deadline for full migration from analogue to digital broadcasting, the Federal Government of Nigeria has set end of December 2012 as switchover deadline for all broadcast stations in the country. Nigeria is a member of the world's telecommunications regulatory body, the ITU.

		Nigeria is not alone in this self-set deadline as some European and African countries had already set deadlines for themselves in order to beat the ITU switchover date. Countries like Sweden, Britain, France, South Africa and Kenya had all set suitable deadlines ahead of the ITU 2015 deadline. The whole world appears to be excited by this directive from the ITU in spite of the heavy cost implications involved in the switchover. While America is ready to go digital by February 2009, South Africa has picked 2010 as its deadline to coincide with its hosting of the world cup. On June 16, 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, a treaty agreement was signed at the conclusion of ITU's Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06), heralding the development of 'all-digital'

terrestrial broadcast services for sound and television.

The ITU observed that the digitalization of broadcasting in Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran by 2015 represents a major landmark towards establishing a more equitable, just and people-centred Information Society.

The migration from analogue to digital will allow for maximum use of broadcast spectrum, enhance great picture and sound quality, and would accommodate any broadcast activity to take place on a single platform.
However, there appears to be greater concentration on television

than radio. This according to experts is informed by the fact that the transition from analogue to digital in television, in terms of the spectrum is much more than that of radio. All over the world, a clear deadline has not been given for audio broadcast, because in terms of the spectrum it is not high.
The digital switchover will leapfrog existing technologies to connect the unconnected in underserved and remote communities and close the digital divide. “The most important achievement of the Conference,” remarked Yoshio Utsumi, then

Secretary-General of the ITU, “is that the new digital Plan provides not only new possibilities for structured development of digital terrestrial broadcasting but also sufficient flexibilities for adaptation to the changing telecommunication environment.” The agreement reached at RRC-06 paves the way for utilizing the full potential of information and communication technologies to achieve the internationally recognized development goals.

The date of transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting in the year 2015 is intended to coincide with the targets set by the Millennium Development Goals.
The regional agreement for digital services has been reached in the frequency bands 174 - 230 MHz and 470 - 862 MHz. It marks the beginning of the end of analogue broadcasting.

The Conference agreed that the transition period from analogue to digital broadcasting, which begins at 0001 UTC 17 June 2006, should end on 17 June 2015, however, some countries preferred an additional five-year extension for the VHF band (174-230 MHz).

The Regional Radiocommunication Conference posited that the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting will create new distribution networks and expand the potential for wireless innovation and services adding that the digital dividend accruing from efficiencies in spectrum usage will allow more channels to be carried across fewer airwaves and lead to greater convergence of services.

Furthermore, the inherent flexibility offered by digital terrestrial broadcasting will support mobile reception of video, Internet and multimedia data, making applications, services and information accessible and usable anywhere and at any time.

It opens the door to new innovations such as Handheld TV Broadcast (DVB-H) along with High-Definition Television (HDTV) while providing greater bandwidth to existing mobile, fixed and radio-navigation services.
Services ancillary to broadcasting (wireless microphones, talk back links) are also planned on a national basis and need to be extended.

Terrestrial digital broadcasting carries many advantages over the analogue system such as expanded services, higher quality video and audio, greater variety and faster rates of data transmission, consistency of data flows over long distances as well as more spectrum efficiency generating more channels.

Last year, what seemed like the Nigerian cut over began following President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's approval of the digitalization process, which prompted the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to flag off the process with the Cable TV operators resulting to the completion of their switchover by May 30, 2008.

What however, is becoming worrisome are the challenges associated with full migration from analogue to digital broadcasting. The government of the United States of America seemed to have identified the challenges American families would face in trying to receive radio and television signals at the full implementation of the new order.
In this regard, the government is giving out two vouchers for set

top boxes (which will help convert analogue signals to digital) to each family to help mitigate the cost of migration. It is expected that by February next year when the switchover takes place in America, most of the TV sets will still be analogue even though the production and importation of analogue TV sets have since stopped.

Only a couple of months ago the Nigerian government through the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), organized a one-day conference tagged: 'Digitalization and its implications.' The conference which held at the Sheraton Hotels and Towers Abuja was the first practical step by the government to look into the likely challenges that would arise from migrating to the new regime.

The Federal Government through John Odey, Minister of Information and Communication noted that the “government fully appreciates that Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind in view of the drastic consequences on our broadcast industry and the overall information sector. That is the rationale for this stakeholders meeting. Your tasks, ladies and gentlemen, are to deliberate on implications of digitalization and provide government with framework for policy formulation and execution on digitalization.”

Director General of the NBC, Yomi Bolarinwa noted at the conference: “We are on the threshold of history. Nigeria is today about to take a leap into the future; a new world of broadcasting that will radically change the landscape as we know it. It will drastically affect the way we produce and transmit programmes, and the way we legislate and regulate broadcasting.

“I am pleased to inform you that as of today, all the MMDS operators in this country have gone digital. Now it is the turn of the terrestrial broadcasters whose transition will have a more profound effect on the sector and on the public. And that is why we are here to decide how to go about it together.”

Bolarinwa went further to say that for the NBC, the Stakeholders' Forum marked both the end of an important phase and the starting of the main aspect of the digitization process adding that since the RRC 06, the Commission has been working with the MMDS operators to form the first line of strategy to achieve digitization.

All the experts from home and abroad who came for the conference including Engr. Vincent Maduka, Alhaji Abubakar Jijiwa of Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), Engr Amana of the NTA, Engr Steven Bello of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Engr Shola Taylor of Kemilinks International, Calvo Mawela of Orbicom South Africa, as well as Daniel Obam, Chairman, Digital Migration Committee, from Kenya, Usman Magawata, NTA's Director General, Ben Egbuna, DG of the FRCN, Tonnie Iredia, immediate past DG of the NTA, Tony Iwuya and Guy Murray-Bruce agreed that the journey to digital regime would be tough.

The speakers no doubt succeeded in stating the obvious about the technical and financial challenges that lay ahead of migrating from analogue to digital and urged government to take the bull by the horn in this regard by introducing measures that would help mitigate costs for Nigerians. This though will cost much.

However, the conference did not come to an end without making some recommendations it hoped would facilitate easy transition. Towards this end, it called on the Federal Government in its communiqué to as a matter of urgency, set up Digitalization Implementation Task Force (DITF) if it hoped to achieve switchover in 2012.

“For a smooth transition to digital broadcasting in Nigeria, government should set up a Digitization Implementation Task Force to plan and execute the process and provide adequate fund to midwife the transition,” the communiqué said.

Shola Taylor, chief executive officer of Kemlinks International and a member of the ITU Radio Regulations Board opined that the challenges of transition in the Nigerian context include absence of a comprehensive policy, spectrum planning framework and coordination, switchover date vis a vis investments required and who bears the cost as well as industry structure.
Others are the social need for free to air, consumer awareness and the cost to consumers, Set top box availability and affordability, realistic migration timetable and the challenges involved in creating new contents.
Citing the State owned NTA as an instance, Taylor wondered how

the network with its numerous stations would survive the migration exercise considering the heavy cost implications involved in the cross-over. He however suggested that government should get ready to fund the digitalization of the over 50 stations in the country. Taylor noted that South Africa for instance, in preparing for the final switchover date, had to first establish the Digital Broadcasting Migration Working Group to develop recommendations and contribute towards the development of a national strategy for switchover of broadcasting systems from analogue to digital. The Group according to him is widely represented in policy makers, the broadcast regulator, the South

African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), community and commercial licensees, signal distributors, the civil society and the organized labour.

The implementation framework includes a planned digital switch for November 2008 and an analogue switch-off billed for November 2011. Towards this end, a Digital Migration Office was put in place and a projected migration cost of R1Billion, approximating US$140million. There are reports that the South African government plans to set up industries to manufacture set-up boxes that will receive digital signals and convert them to

analogue for the benefit of those still owning analogue-enabled TV sets during the transition period. The local manufacturers had the potential to manufacture up to 5-6million STBs a year, which also created the opportunity to establish an export sector.

The STBs were likely to cost between R400 a box and R700 a box and the government would provide an ownership support programme to fund up to 70% of the cost of an STB for about five-million of the poorest television-owning households. This would cost government R2,45-billion during the three-year dual-illumination period.

The technical specifications for the STBs had already been developed and submitted to the South African Bureau of Standards for finalization.

		Kenya, another country that is taking the digital migration challenges very serious had to constitute a Task Force on the 14th of March, 2007 to among other things advise the government on the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting and recommend required policy and regulatory framework; develop proposals on adoption of digital broadcasting in Kenya in addition to recommending a framework for a national migration strategy. Kenya's implementation framework includes the licensing of signal distributors in August 2008, a planned digital switch-on in September 2009 and analogue switch-off on July 1, 2012. In Russia, the incumbent President, Dmitry Medvedev, as the country's first deputy prime

minister in May 2006, six months after joining the cabinet, was appointed to run a new government commission tasked with mapping out the future of Russian television and radio, a challenge of preparing the country for digital broadcasting.

One of the body's main objectives was to ensure that all conditions were right for the government to meet its own digital timetable and switch off the analogue for the digital.

While it is expected for restrictions to be placed on the number of analogue televisions that can be manufactured within Russia or imported, the government has already stopped granting TV and radio broadcasters license for analogue frequencies. Taylor remarked that for Nigeria to successfully

migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting, certain elements of national digital migration strategy must be considered for implementation.

These according to him, include the establishment of a digital migration task force with a clear mandate and funding formular as well as an all-embracing representation.

Others include the establishment of a clear policy on digital broadcasting, proper management of stakeholders, replacement and upgrading of existing infrastructure, migration of all current sites and the need to add other services after switchover.

He suggested the adoption of a realistic implementation framework and the creation of an effective consumer awareness programme. In addition, he canvassed the provision of incentives to encourage local content development as well as consumer campaign to contain information on the need to purchase set top boxes.
Taylor further suggested that policies that will discourage dumping of obsolete

technologies and equipment should be enforced while retailers should be made to sell only type approved set-top boxes.

This should be in addition to giving consumers adequate and timely information on the migration implementation timeframe to enable them prepare for the change. Delegates at the stakeholders' forum recommended

		more advocacy efforts by the Federal Government to sensitize states on the need to make adequate financial provision for the transition, urging that transparency will help to ensure that the cost of transiting is not as staggering as envisaged. Daniel Obam, chairman of the Kenya Digital Television Committee in sharing the Kenya experience advocated the need for clear media policy direction by the government on digital broadcasting for the benefits to be fully realized arguing that digital broadcasting is the way

forward while analogue broadcasting had become technology of the past. “It is no longer a one way communication medium with passive audiences in sitting rooms. Today audiences can easily interact with the broadcaster and even demand content of their choice; they can as well reject or bar content they do not want to watch.

They can access, watch and to listen to content, anytime, anywhere, anyhow. Therefore, players have to adopt new business models to sustainable existence or else they should be prepared to perish”, he noted.

Taylor argued that consumers should be given adequate and timely information on the migration implementation timeframe to enable them prepare for the change adding that consumer education should involve broadcasters, retailers and other players in the broadcasting industry.

“Government and broadcasters should contribute to consumer education by airing the campaigns regularly. Set top boxes for digital broadcasting should be zero-rated to reduce their cost while minimum standards for the set top boxes should be determined to guarantee consumer access and quality to digital broadcasting services”, he suggested.

Former Director General of the NTA, Engr. Vincent Maduka said the United States of America has proclaimed early 2009 for the mandatory cut-over of public TV to DTV in that country, about 10 years ahead of the global or ITU deadline. “This means that the price of the receiver (and of course, the transmission) equipment should have enough time to fall on account of the economy of scale.

“It should be possible for the Nigerian digital receiver market to benefit from the American and world demands by 2012, when the National Broadcasting Commission effects the broadcast digitization mandate for Nigeria”, Maduka observed.

No doubt the moves by governments of various ITU member countries to see that they moved with the digital tides is challenging, especially the developing ones who have to contend with illiteracy, epileptic power supply, corruption and economic instability among others.

The biggest Africa broadcast gathering will this October focus on the digitization process in the industry and the imminent challenges. Industry stakeholders would discuss how to implement digital mode of broadcast, best sensitization methods to employ as well as adopt a policy draft that would serve as a guide to activities in the digital era.

Experts argue that except for South Africa that is considered more advanced, Nigeria is still lagging behind countries like Kenya in preparing for the analogue-digital switchover.
They contend that unless the 'GSM miracle' re-enacts itself in the broadcast industry, all efforts by the regulatory body and indeed government might end up in futility.

A Communique Issued At The End Of A Stakeholders Meeting On Digitization And Its Implications Organised By The National Broadcasting Commission At Sheraton Hotel And Towers, Abuja, On Tuesday, 3rd June, 2008

1.0 PREAMBLE:

THE COMMUNIQUE
The National Broadcasting Commission organized a Stakeholders Meeting on Digitization of Broadcasting and its implications at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja, on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.

The meeting was declared open by the Honourable Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. John Ogar Odey, and attended by the Senate Committee Chairman on Media, Distinguished Senator Ayogu Eze, the House of Representative Chairman on Information, Hon. Dino Melaye, top functionaries of the federal and state governments academics, captains of the industry from in and outside Nigeria, and interested members of the public. 400 participants were present at the meeting.

The overall purpose of the meeting was to examine, critically, the implications of transition to digital broadcasting, with a view to advising government on the formulation of a workable framework for the successful implementation of the digitization process in the country.
The meeting featured paper presentations experts in the industry from within and outside Nigeria, including South Africa, Kenya and the United Kingdom, and a keynote address by the pioneer Director-General of the Nigeria Television Authority, Engineer Vincent Maduka, as well discussed by participant.

2.0. OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

At the end of the meeting, the participants
1. Expressed profound gratitude to the President, Commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'dua, for his foresight and dynamism in approving the commencement of the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting in Nigeria, with effect from December 2007.

2. Agreed that it was necessary for Nigeria to join the rest of the world in the race to meet the ITU resolution and deadline for transition from analogue to digital broadcasting so that the country was not left behind and be turned into a dumping ground for obsolete analogue broadcast equipment.

3. Observed that the transition to digital broadcasting has its challenges such as cost of provision of set-top boxes, paucity of digital sets, low level of content creation, poor power supply and public ignorance of the implications of the digitization.

4. Recommendation that, for a smooth transition to digital broadcasting, in Nigeria, government should set up a Digitization Implementation Task Force to plan and execute the process and provide adequate funds to midwife the transition. Government should also provide the necessary and enabling infrastructure, while operators of the industry must consistently educate the public on the implications of the coming revolution and the roles they were expected to play in the process.

5. Observed that digitization has many advantages over analogue broadcasting, especially in terms of clarity and spectrum efficiency, expressed hope that these would make it popular, lead to a boost in the market of its equipment and, consequently to a drastic drop in the prices of such equipment.

6. Recommended that, for Nigeria to benefit from the envisaged reduction in the prices of digital equipment, the country should attract an assembly or manufacture of the facilities to the country.

7. Advised the National Broadcasting Commission to liaise closely with the Nigerian Customs Service to ensure that all set-top boxes and other broadcast equipment imported into the country were properly labeled and the people adequately informed.

8. Recommend that a sustained free enlightenment campaign be mounted by all broadcasting stations in Nigeria to, adequately, sensitize the populace on the full implications of the transiting from analogue to digital broadcasting.

9. Observed that poor African participation in the conferences and activities of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had adversely affected the process of digitization on the continent.

10. Recommendation that African policy-makers and executors should encourage regular and active participation of African nations in the activities of the ITU, to be able to keep abreast of developments in the radio communications sector.

11. Recommended that the interest of the majority poor people of Nigeria considered in the process of digitization and suggested the introduction of an equivalent of the Universal Access Service Fund of the telecommunications to the broadcast sector as one way of doing so.

12. Recommended the use of standard equipment, especially the Set-top boxes to save cost and enhance reception, while government should get the private sector to assist in funding the process.
13. Advised Nigerian entrepreneurs to participate in the assembling or manufacturing of decoders locally. This will prevent outsiders from hijacking the advantage.

14. Advised governments and operators of broadcasting stations in the country to commence, without delay, the training or retraining of their engineering staff on the operation and maintenance of the incoming digital equipment.

15. Advised the government to find a quick solution to the perennial power problem in the country to avoid jeopardizing the digitization process.

16. Advised the NBC to produce a national blue print on the digitization project for distribution to broadcast stations and the general public. This will convince the proprietors of the stations to provide the necessary funds for the digitization of their stations.

17. Advised the NBC to organize a national digital broadcast content production summit for stakeholders to meet the challenges of quality content.

18. Recommended that efforts be sustained towards achieving the switch-over by the target date because the transition is not open-ended.

19. Recommended that the issue of Community Radio be revived and pursued to the logical conclusion because of its overall advantage to the people of Nigeria.

20. Advised the media in Nigeria to get it right on President Umaru Musa Yar'adua's seven-point agenda.