MEDIA MARKETS
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THE CHANNEL
THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 1 2014
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11
Nigeria on the road
to digital
Nigeria has a population of about
150m, and the number of TV sets
– currently over 40m – continues to
grow. In addition to the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA), there
are over 100 TV and radio
stations which make Nigeria the
country with the greatest TV/VCR
penetration in Africa.
Although broadcasting is
supposed to be deregulated, the
Federal Government still
exercises tremendous control
over the private operators
through its licensing require-
ments and other regulations of
the National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC).
Over the coming months the
transition to digital terrestrial TV
will be implemented in the 470 –
806 MH2 band for the country’s
national and state TV broad-
casting systems. It is, as the
NTA’s Maxwell Loko and Mabel
Moses set out in a recent paper,
an opportunity to address a
number of challenges related to
bridging the digital divide.
In Nigeria, every broadcaster
provides its own infrastructure
from recording studios to
microwave links, transmitters,
masts and towers, resulting in
considerable duplication of
broadcast facilities in the
country. In view of this, the
Federal Government approved
that the existing massive
infrastructure provided by the
NTA should form the backbone
of the new broadcast signal
distributor.
The NTA has already embarked
on digitisation with its NTA Multi
Channel project which reflects
the increasing demand for quality
content on specialised channels.
At present eight channels in the
NTA network are transmitted on
DTT reaching 33 cities in Nigeria:
NTA News 24; NTA Sports 24;
Playout partner
In an exclusive multi-year
contract, CSC Media have
appointed WRN Broadcast to
provide playout and media
management services.
A global broadcast company,
WRN Broadcast provides
multi-platform technology
solutions across a complete
range of broadcast services
including multi-channel playout,
media management and
distribution for broadcasters,
content rights holders and
platform operators.
WRN Broadcast, which won
the contract by competitive
tender, will be responsible for
CSC Media’s complete portfolio –
the UK’s largest independently-
owned bouquet of 18 channels,
including Chart Show TV, Tiny
Pop, True Entertainment – and
the social media TV channel
BuzMuzik.
WRN Broadcast will be
delivering 15,000 hours of TV
services for CSC Media every
month, across Sky, Virgin Media,
Freesat and international
affiliate partners including
DSTV/Multichoice.
NTA Entertainment; NTA Know-
ledge; NTA Parliament; NTA
Yoruba; NTA Hausa; NTA Igbo.
The challenges that lie ahead
are multi-faceted. Access to funds
for the creation of compelling
digital content remains a key
factor. The NTA was originally
conceptualised as a public
broadcaster but as a result of
poor funding, the organisation
has gradually moved to partial
commercialisation.
Digitisation also means
training and re-training of staff in
new technologies and production
techniques - training is
expensive but inevitable.
Convergence also raises a
number of fundamental
questions which have to be
addressed. For example, would a
licensed GSM operator in Nigeria
have to get a broadcaster’s
licence to provide TV on
handsets? Broadcasting policy in
Nigeria does not currently take
account of the convergence of
the telecom, information and
broadcasting sectors. Whilst
broadcasting is regulated by the
National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC), the
telecommunication sector is
regulated by the Nigeria
Communication Commission.
SatLink for i24 News
SatLink Communications, a
leading teleport, content
management and HD playout
centre, has been selected by
Israel’s new 24-hour international
news network i24 News for the
global distribution of its three
channels in English, French and
Arabic. SatLink’s satellite and
fibre distribution network delivers
i24 News across Europe, the
Middle East, Africa and Asia, as
well as providing other services
including production, satellite
news gathering, occasional use
coordination, fibres to the UN
App that
learns
Mobiles Republic, a syndicator of
news on mobile devices, has
updated its award-winning app
News Republic. The new version,
News Republic 4.0, includes
significant enhancements to its
TagNav semantic language
technology that allows the app to
learn about the user’s reading
habits as they read through
articles and to instantly
recommend related articles,
thus creating a personalised
news discovery experience on
iPhone and iPod touch and on
Android smartphones and
tablets.
The free app provides an
effective means to sort through
the information clutter and stay
informed on key topics of interest.
Easy to use and personalise, it
includes a wide-ranging
selection of fully licensed news
sources, from international
politics to entertainment.
Powering News Republic 4.0’s
“Smart Recommendations” is
the proprietary TagNav which
instantaneously searches up to
1,000,000 topics. The app gets
smarter by analysing what
consumers read and is able to
build individual interest profiles.
News Republic is available in
eight language editions.
buildings in New York, to Gaza
and Ramallah and content
monitoring.
SatLink is providing ground
services and satellite capacity to
Asia on AsiaSat 5 over DVB-S2,
to Europe & the Middle East on
Hotbird 13˚E on Ku-band and
Canal + bouquet on Astra 19.2˚E
on Ku band, and the CanalSat
Afrique bouquet to North Africa
on SES 4 on Ku-band.
i24 News also uses SatLink’s
Content Monitoring solution of
news feeds in the Middle East in
Arabic, Farsi and English.
