DIGITAL SWITCH OVER AND FREE-TO-AIR BROADCASTING

 The DSO may free up premium frequency bands, but can it compete? asks SONNY ARAGBA-AKPORE

With an ambitious move to generate nearly N600bn in revenue yearly, the Digital Switch Over (DSO) programme launched recently by the Federal Government may not be as smooth as envisioned despite its promise of free-to-air broadcast systems. The government also anticipates nearly $1bn from Spectrum sales alone, and other speculated income streams. The Information and National Orientation Minister, Mr Idris Mohammed, and his Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy counterpart, Mr Bosun Tijani, are very enthusiastic that DSO will certainly be a game changer.

Nigeria is about 20 years behind the schedule announced by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). With a wobbling analogue television broadcasting believed to be inefficient and massive misuse of radio frequency bands, the government feels that the transition to DSO, no matter how late, will boost government revenues. “Turning off analogue transmitters frees up high-value frequencies in the 700MHz and 800MHz bands,” it said.

Government intends to sell this freed-up space—known as the “Digital Dividend”—to telecommunications companies for 4G and 5G rollout and mobile broadband expansion to boost internet connectivity, and this single process is projected to generate over $1 billion in direct auction revenue. 40 million homes are expected to pay minimal yearly fees to keep their converter boxes active, thus creating a recurring, high-volume pool of capital, and the government takes a regulatory cut of these administrative fees.

But is revenue generation the ultimate purview of the government? Apart from the Information and Communications Ministries’ involvement at policy formulation levels, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) are expected to play key roles as regulators and service providers.

Already, Nigcomsat has a Direct to Home (DTH) centre where it is expected to warehouse programmes with the help of content creators, beam signals of about 100 programmes to multiple radio stations nationwide via its satellite, the Nigcomsat 1R, at no cost to subscribers.

Although there are expected free set-top boxes to track signals for radio stations and TV with no monthly fees, NBC has structured the setup boxes to include a yearly access or activation fee (often called a “Free TV Carriage Fee” or smartcard renewal fee, as the case may be. But that is where the excitement stops.

Millions of homes paying a minimal yearly fee to keep their converter boxes active creates a recurring, high-volume pool of capital. The government takes a regulatory cut of these administrative fees. Analysts say that under the old analogue regime, individual TV stations owned and managed their own expensive transmission masts. By the DSO model, TV channels focus only on making content. They must pay licensed National Signal Distributors (like ITS or Pinnacle) to transmit their channels to the public.

The government generates direct revenue by licensing these signal distributors and takes a percentage-based regulatory levy on the carriage fees paid by the TV stations to remain on the Free TV network. The free set-up boxes are internet-enabled, and so users will have unfettered access to crisp digital signals for optimal content. There will be an advertisement boom projected to hit over N600 billion, from which the government will have cuts as tax. But beautiful as the initiative is, it will not gain currency until December 31, 2028.

Although the DSO programme appears populist, can it compete with DSTV and Star Times even though their tariffs are prohibitive? We just hope DSO is not a wild goose chase. ITU initiated DSO in 2006 with a mandate to migrate tv and radio broadcasts from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.

The 2006 decision was reached at the Regional Radiocommunication Conference held in Geneva. Member nations signed the Geneva 2006 (GE06) Agreement, which originally set a global switch-off deadline for June 2015. Because many regions struggled to meet this target, it was subsequently extended to 2020. Nigeria officially began its DSO journey with a pilot programme in Jos, Plateau State, on April 30, 2016. Following a steady progression, the Federal Government initiated a major nationwide rollout of the DSO but was stifled by a lack of political will laced with alleged personal interests.

While other countries on this belt are striving to create an enabling environment for the implementation of DSO, some countries, including Nigeria, were unable to catch up. The updated rollout pivots to a satellite-first approach to reach nationwide coverage faster, offering seamless picture quality and audio. Even when there are manifest prospects from DSO, there are also palpable contradictions and concerns over its availability.

The hybrid satellite approach appears not to be comfortable with some stakeholders in the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON). Analysts reason that true DSO legally requires Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) to free up bandwidth for telecom operators, warning that the satellite model shifts dish and decoder costs to citizens. And this is unfortunate. The satellite option may be on edge as the Nigerian satellite operator has no backup satellite to mitigate the situation in the event of downtime.

If fully realised, the DSO may free up premium frequency bands (like 700MHz and 800MHz) for auctioning to telecom operators to expand 4G/5G broadband. It is also designed to create thousands of jobs in local content creation and offer an integrated audience measurement system for advertisers with an estimated turnover of over N600 billion yearly. StarTimes and DSTV may lose market shares as advertisers will cash in on the free tv channels to boost their revenue.

But Star Times has a comparable advantage since it is uniquely insulated because it operates as the primary technical partner to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) through its joint venture, Integrated Television Services (ITS)—one of the licensed national signal distributors. Because StarTimes built much of the digital terrestrial television (DTT) infrastructure used for the DSO, the company stands to generate substantial business-to-business revenue from transmission fees and infrastructure management.

       MultiChoice’s lower-tier GOtv packages face immense pressure; its premium DStv tier remains relatively protected. FreeTV cannot compete with DStv’s exclusive live sports broadcasting rights (such as the English Premier League) and expensive international content libraries. MultiChoice will likely be forced to pivot aggressively toward premium exclusivity and its Showmax streaming platform to hedge against losing the market.

The nationwide platform launch of June 17, 2026, was the official activation of Nigeria’s National Digital Broadcasting Platform. Managed via a partnership between the NBC and NIGCOMSAT, this initial rollout went live with over 57 digital channels, scaling toward a target of 100+ free-to-air stations. From 2026 – 2028 (The Hybrid Rollout Phase) will lead to the deployment of a converged broadcast model.

Aragba-Akpore is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board