Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) has called on the Federal Government to ban the importation of analogue television sets into the country and reduce the cost of set-up boxes.
The call is contained in a statement jointly signed by BON’s Chairman, Mrs. Sa’a Ibrahim, and its Executive Secretary, Dr. Yemisi Bamgbose, on Thursday in Abuja.
According to Ibrahim, the position emanated from the meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of BON.
“We call on Federal Government to ban the importation of analogue TV sets into the country while the cost of set-top boxes should be made affordable.
“Also, the process of establishing the Society of Nigerian Broadcasters should begin immediately with a committee to work on modalities for it to begin.
“We call for a complete review of the digitisation process specifically in the area of the legal framework as the only document available remains the government white paper of 2012.
“That document does not capture contemporary technological development; it is deficient in addressing decade-long issues that have emerged since its issuance.”
The BON boss also stressed that the collection of Digital Access Fee is complicated and illegal.
“We call for the immediate stoppage of the collection of Digital Access Fee while the amount so far collected should be accounted for.
“The CWC prosed the following as broadcast license fees pending the final migration from analogue to digital per annum; National Digital Torrential Television (DTT) N20 million, Regional N10 million, Abuja/Lagos/Kano and Port Harcourt N15 million and State DTT N500,000.
“National Broadcasting Commission should as a matter of urgency, bring together all critical stakeholders in the industry to take a total review of the entire Digital Switch Over the process.”
According to her, BON believes there should be more interface with practitioners than issuing directives that are interpreted as moves to gag the industry.
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