The over 70 transmission sites of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) would be deployed for the nation’s digital broadcasting switchover, the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed has said.
The Minister spoke on Monday at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on signal transmission between the Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Startimes.
He said the MoU will fast track the digital roll out after many failed attempts.
He said: “The MoU that has just been signed will fastrack our rollout and take the DSO to a higher pedestal. That’s why I described it as a game changer. With this MoU, ITS will utilise the structures and facilities of NTA-Star, a terrestrial payTV platform, spread across the country, for signal distribution. In other words, it will henceforth become the signal distributor on the structure of NTA-Star.
“At the moment, NTA-Star has over 70 transmission sites spread across 35 States and the FCT, thereby effectively covering a large portion of this country with their signals.
“We will strive to cover at least 70% of the country with Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) signal and then deploy Direct To Home (DTH) to provide 30% signal to areas in difficult terrains such as riverine and mountainous areas.”
The Director General of NBC, Mallam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah said that the Commission will be rolling out a tentative timetable for the switch off of analogue broadcasting in the country.
The NBC boss also saif the commission would embark on vigorous publicity in the next one week.
