L-R: Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, Sir Lucky Omoluwa; Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai; Deputy Chairman House Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values, Dr. Lawal Hassan Anka and Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at the official launch of the Digital Switch Over in Kaduna

By RAZAQ BAMIDELE

Kaduna, Dec. 23, 2017 (AltAfrika)-Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the Digital Switch Over (DSO) process is now on cruise control, following the rollout of digital television in two states within 48 hours.

Speaking at the launch of the DSO in Kaduna in the northern axis of the country, on Friday, the Minister said the roll-out in Kaduna, coming two days after that of Kwara State, had confirmed that the transition from analogue to digital television was now back on track.

Until the digital television rollout resumed with the Kwara launch on Wednesday, the last DSO launch was in Abuja in December 2016, but the Minister said the rollout would now continue apace.

”Within the next few weeks, we will be rolling out in many more states as we seek to take the digital television experience to all the six geo-political zones. We now have our two Signal Distributors in full operation mode, our aggregation platform for channels, FreeTV, is fast becoming a household name, our Set-Top-Box suppliers have started local production and we now have almost a million boxes supplied into the value chain,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed congratulated the Signal Distributor for Kaduna State, Pinnacle Communications, saying it had achieved another milestone in the rebuilding of the nation’s television story.

He also commended all the stakeholders who are working round the clock to ensure the success of the transition from analogue to digital television across the country.

”The National Broadcasting Commission, the Signal Distributors, the Set Top Box manufacturers, Digiteam Nigeria and indeed all stakeholders are pulling all the stops to ensure that the DSO train continues unimpeded on its journey across the country. Thank you all,” the Minister said.

He said with the resumption of the DSO process, the focus will now shift to content production that will help to bolster the economy.

”By content here I refer to TV shows, sitcoms, documentaries, music videos, drama series, talent and reality shows etc. The challenge before us is to ensure that this becomes a profitable industry for our creative talent, entrepreneurs, advertising agencies, TV channels and Digital distributors,” Alhaji Mohammed said.