As part of efforts aimed at expanding digital content distribution an enhancing public access to quality broadcasting, Director General National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Charles Ebuebu, has disclosed Nigerian consumers will now enjoy up to one hundred channels via the Digital Switch Over (DSO) Policy.

Speaking in Abuja recently, he noted that, “if you have satellite receiver lined up to the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NigComSat) and connected to your TV, you can receive 43 channels.”

In addition, he disclosed, “on or before the date of launch, we want to scale it to one hundred. We have launched in eight states, which is a far cry from the projections put in place.”

Concerning challenges, Ebuebu recalled, “we had sporadic funding and a national structure was not put in place. So, we went to the drawing board and considering that technology has evolved, we decided to go satellite. We utilised the NigComSat to reach Nigerians all at once.”

The DSO ecosystem is a partnership between the public and private sector. The NBC serves as the regulator and of the policy, while the NigComSat provides the satellite backbone. In the private sector, companies such as Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Pinnacle Communications were licensed as signal carriers.

Recall Nigeria signed the Geneva GE06 Agreement in 2006, committing to migrate from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting. This was not merely a technological upgrade, but a global obligation mandated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to improve signal quality and enable more efficient use of the broadcast spectrum.

After initially setting a national deadline of June 2012, the country aligned its target with the ITU’s global deadline of June 2015 but ultimately missed it due to persistent implementation challenges. The goal was to unlock the 700/800 MHz spectrum for broadband and to modernise the nation’s broadcasting landscape in line with the rest of the world.

Beyond spectrum sales, the DSO is a direct engine of economic growth across multiple sectors. The government projects it will create up to two million jobs, spanning the manufacturing of set-top boxes and TVs, television and film production, online advertising, and data analytics.

The switch to digital also enables real-time audience measurement, allowing broadcasters and advertisers to track viewer behaviour. This data-driven approach is projected to increase advertising revenue by up to 300 per cent, as advertisers can finally justify and optimise their spending.

On of the most significant economic benefit of switching off analogue is the “digital dividend”—the spectrum currently occupied by analogue TV. Once vacated, this prime 700/800 MHz spectrum can be auctioned for telecommunications services, particularly for high-speed 4G and 5G broadband deployment. The government estimates that this spectrum sale alone could generate $1 billion in revenue, fundamentally altering the project’s economics and boosting the nation’s digital infrastructure capacity.

The financial cost of the nearly two-decade-long delay has been astronomical. The initial migration cost was estimated at around N32 billion excluding subsidy on Set Top Boxes, but to date the government has spent over N60 billion, with results remaining largely in the pilot phase. This does not include the millions of dollars invested by Broadcast Signal Distributors and local set-top box (STB) factories.

President Bola Tinubu also approved an additional N10 billion grant in August 2024, to, among other thing, lease transponders and establish the satellite backbone for the new DSO push.

Both the Minister of Information Mohammed Idris and Ebuebu are confident of success given the extensive preparations.

Following the Digital over launch on June 17, 2026, the transition is expected to be completed 18 months after with a Final Switch off of analogue signals by December 2028.