Nigerians using or trading in used television and radio sets, popularly called Tokunbo, have been asked to prepare to change them or change their trade before 2015 when a new law banning importation of the items will begin.
The Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr Yomi Bolarinwa, broke the news yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at a lecture he delivered at the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The lecture was organised as part of the capacity building programme of the union.
He spoke on: NBC: The Challenges of Transition from Analogue
to Digital Broadcasting.
The proposed ban, Bolarinwa said, would ensure that Nigeria meets the 2015 deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on full digitisation of Broadcasting Industry from analogue to digital (UHF) and VHF by 2020.
Bolarinwa, who was represented by the Secretary to the commission, Mr Mark Adeiza Ojiah, said the law would protect Nigerians from buying non-digital TV sets.
He said: “Appropriate regulation will be enacted to stop the importation of analogue broadcast and receiver equipment and enforce the placement of warning signs by store owners and importers who have inventory of analogue equipment that such receivers may not receive digital content at switchover except when plugged to a set-top-box.”
The NBC chief warned importers of tokunbo TV sets to keep abreast of new developments in the industry to prevent them from losing out by 2015.
This came as StarTimes, a Pay TV service provider, promised to transform Nigeria from analogue to digital communication system by 2015.
It promised to accomplish this by reducing the cost of its decoder from N7,000 to N3,900.
The General Manager of the company, Mr Rocky Tiang, told reporters in Ibadan that the offer is in line with the deadline of changing from analogue to digital before 2015.
According to him, the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, recently released a deadline for analogue TV broadcast in Nigeria.
He said the company’s decoder is old with a smart card and an indoor antenna.
via
The Nation
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