Date: 2017-06-06

The Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mallam Isha'q Modibbo Kawau, said yesterday that the commission has procured 650,000 set-top boxes worth $26 million for the pilot phase of the digital switch-over.

Kawu said the boxes would be made available to Nigerians at the subsidized rate of N1,500 as part of ongoing process for the country's switch over from analogue to digital terrestrial television.

Kawu made this disclosure in Ilorin ?shortly after inspecting equipment installed at the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) station, Ganmo in Kwara state where he said that apart from the pilot take-off of the switch-over in Jos, Plateau State, the NBC was already extending to six other states in the six geo-political zones of the country, namely Kwara in the North Central, Osun in the South-west, Gombe in the North-east, Kaduna in the North-west, Enugu in the South-east and Delta in the South-south.

Explaining that the switch-over would provide television viewers with rich 70% local television contents and access to many more television stations, Kawu said that television viewers in Jos before the pilot switch-over had access to only four to five television stations, which he said had shot up to 15 stations.