Saving DSO from needless controversies, by Okoh Aihe

Writing about the fresh aspirations of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on the Digital Switch-Over (DSO) and FreeTV being prepped for launch on June 17, 2026, we declared our support for the regulator in choosing the satellite option but warned that the process needs to be more transparent and inclusive.

Before the afternoon of the very day the material, DSO: Before euphoria blinds reason and pain, was published, May 20, lots of materials and communications on the subject were forwarded to this writer, with nearly all of them suggesting the same thing: that the process leading to what would be launched was not consultative and transparency couldn’t pass the least integrity test.

None of them, however, wanted the process terminated, but demanded more consultation with industry stakeholders, inclusivity of existing structure that formed the value chain of implementation, frank discussions and definitions of roles, and full disclosure of organisations and individuals involved. Even then, what is happening seems to be a seething cauldron that must be handled with care lest it boils over, causing damage with its content.

The ITU, in 2006, approved for broadcasters to migrate their signals from analogue transmission to digital transmission, a process that would free up broadcast frequencies for telecom operations. Although the changeover date has since lapsed, the process has progressed at snail’s pace in Nigeria, prompting the new leadership at NBC to adopt fresh and seemingly desperate measures, like the Greek deus ex machina, to resolve an intractable problem. However, the regulator doesn’t seem to be on the same page with key industry partners on the subject, prompting a plethora of calls for a fresh evaluation of the entire process.

The Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), which this writer gathered has been trying to manage industry relationships and calm frayed nerves, has made its position known. In a May 19, 2026, letter to the regulator titled, Re: Planning to Launch DSO, the association of public and private broadcasters said, “We have carefully analysed the proposed ‘launching of Digital Switchover’ as being announced by the National Broadcasting Commission. Our observations show that what NBC is putting together through NigComSat is not a digital switchover but rather a launch of the DTH aggregation platform.”

In the letter signed by its Executive Secretary, Dr Oluyemisi Bamgbose, BON noted that “the 2012 White Paper, approved by the Federal Executive Council and gazetted, spelt out the components required: licensed Signal Distributors, Set-Top-Box manufacturers, middleware, and a 5-tier licensing structure for National, Regional, State, City, and Community broadcasters.”

BON is worried that in the current arrangement being put together, NBC as a regulator is becoming a content aggregator on FreeTV, a development that will create a conflict of interest contrary to the law that established it and the spirit of the 2012 White Paper.

While warning that unilateral migration without stakeholder input could amount to illegality and waste of public funds, BON urged the NBC to “urgently call a meeting of the aforementioned stakeholders for a roundtable discussion.”

By far the most active in the stakeholder group is the Set Top Box Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (STBMAN). This is understandable. After paying heavy amounts for licences to manufacture set-top boxes that will convert analogue signals to digital, the members of the sub-association within BON just found out that the new value chain has no place and business arrangement for them.

And this isn’t funny. Some of the players are indebted to banks in dollars after a new business spawned by DSO encouraged them to support their operations with such funds; and money costs a lot in Nigeria, especially when the interests start to mount.

In desperate measures to save its members from a looming business eclipse, STBMAN President Godfrey Ohuabunwa has written variously to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, BON Chairman, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, while also copying the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Director General, State Security Services (DSS), and Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment.

In alerting the President that the new DSO process being spruced up for launch could transfer the cost of TV viewing and connection — receive equipment and data bundles, among others — to unsuspecting Nigerians, Ohuabunwa stated that “at a time when your administration has consistently promoted the ‘Nigeria First’ policy and encouraged local production, industrial growth and investor confidence, the sidelining of indigenous Set-Top manufacturers who invested heavily based on government assurances sends a troubling signal to local and international investors alike.”

Some key prayers to the President by STBMAN, which also informed of existing court orders on the DSO process, include: “an immediate suspension of the proposed June 2026 switch-over pending broad stakeholder consultations; full compliance with existing court processes and the rule of law; and a national stakeholders’ summit involving NBC, BON, STBMAN, signal distributors, broadcasters, consumer groups and technical experts to develop a transparent and lawful roadmap acceptable to all parties.”

It is clear from the foregoing that, apart from feeling betrayed and with businesses jeopardised, STBMAN really doesn’t look for any trouble but is pushing for processes and disputes to be resolved reasonably.

Reasonable resolution is always a more manageable approach for a regulator, which is why this other document looks rather curious. This writer saw a FreeTV Carriage Licence Agreement drawn up for the operators and everybody involved in the value chain of service delivery on the new platform. The agreement is between the National Broadcasting Commission and licensees in the industry.

In the contract document, the NBC rightly identified itself as the apex broadcast regulator in Nigeria, mandated to regulate and control the broadcast industry, including the management of the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, otherwise known as the Digital Switchover (DSO).

NBC confirms that in pursuance of its strategic mandate and as part of the “Big Picture” DSO strategy, the regulator has received a foundational fund to support the establishment of a national FreeTV platform to ensure universal access to digital broadcasting, foster the growth of the creative economy, and promote Nigerian content.

“The foundational fund is intended to establish a robust digital broadcasting infrastructure, after which the project is designed to transcend into a self-funding model. This successful transition will ultimately free up valuable spectrum space (the ‘Digital Dividend’) for deployment by telecommunications technologies, in line with international best practice and national economic development goals,” NBC stated in the document.

The document also informs that for the purpose of smooth implementation, the NBC has entered into agreements with the following organisations: Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat) — for satellite capacity; Inview Technology Nigeria Ltd and Think-Thank Distribution Ltd (TTDL) — provision of essential platform technology; First Media and Entertainment Integrated Ltd — for the provision of comprehensive audience measurement services; and Think Thank Media and Advertising (TTMA) and Atrick Global Investment Ltd — as lead providers of marketing and publicity services, respectively.

My immediate observation here is that in being anxious and overzealous to supervise, on behalf of the Nigerian government, a project it felt long overdue, the regulator has inserted itself as an implementer and a broadcast aggregator. Is it willy-nilly or inadvertent? Whichever applies, the Broadcast Act has no place for the regulator as an implementer or operator.

However, Anthony Dara, founder/CEO of TV7 and TD Media Company, does not give the NBC such benefit of the doubt. In a well-argued opinion article titled Beyond Transmission: Governance, Audience Measurement and the Legitimacy Test for Nigeria’s Digital Switchover, he listed some factors before arriving at the observation that “these concerns become even more sensitive because the NBC today functions as regulator, policy authority, ecosystem coordinator, carriage framework architect and, indirectly, audience measurement enabler within Nigeria’s digital broadcasting environment.”

For him, “transparency, competition and institutional neutrality are now indispensable. The industry increasingly requires greater disclosure, independent oversight, transparent commercial frameworks, credible audit systems and clearer separation between regulatory authority and platform-commercial interests.”

What Dara suggests is achievable by maintaining some regulatory self-respect and inclusive involvement of stakeholders who tell the industry’s story with their sweat and blood.

For instance, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has started the review of the National Telecommunications Policy (NTP) 2000. The process started with a two-day stakeholders’ engagement in Lagos penultimate week. Such stakeholder meetings, I gathered, will be held in the different geo-political zones of the country before the Commission can come up with a draft document that will further be interrogated before a new Telecommunications Policy can ever come into place.

It is the duty of regulatory agencies to consult with stakeholders; otherwise even genuine, innocent actions can create doubt, erode trust, and question the regulatory fairness, transparency and independence of the regulator. No — the broadcast industry was deregulated in 1992 to

 suffer this kind of fate. There is time enough for the NBC to look at the various suggestions on the DSO because most of them genuinely want the regulator to succeed without leaving anybody behind.

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