Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has challenged the Ministerial Task Force on the Digital Switch Over (DSO) on the need to ensure very rich content for Nigerian television viewers.
He said the success of the Digital Switch Over depends on the content it offers.
In his opening comments at the inaugural meeting of the Task Force in
Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister also charged it to ensure adequate
publicity for the DSO project in order to keep Nigerians well informed
about it.
”Let me say, straight away, that the success of this project is
hinged on content. If the content is right, the 24 million TV households in the country will embrace it. If the content is wrong, they will not.
”Even the purchase of the Set Top Boxes (STBs) by Nigerians will
depend on the richness of the content offered. Before now, we either
gave out the boxes free or at subsidized rates. But now that the
project is being commercially-driven, the sale of STBs will depend on
the content,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed said rich content in sports, entertainment, children’s
programmes as well as local and international news were necessary to
attract subscribers, with the added advantage of non-payment for
subscription.
The Minister also charged the Task Force to tap into the great
opportunity offered by the project to help popularise the local
professional football league.
”We can work with the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) to have all their weekly matches shown live. I have no doubt that they
will be willing to work with us in this regard,” he said.
The Minister announced the establishment of the 14-member Task Force, which he is personally chairing, in Abuja on Feb. 23rd 2021 to take charge of the DSO rollout across the country.
