The General Assembly of the Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria (BON), has called on the Nigerian government to halt the sale of spectrum allocated to broadcast organisations to telecom operators over concerns that the sale could stifle the future development of television and radio in Nigeria.
“BON calls on government not to sell spectrum, if allowed it will limit Television broadcast in Nigeria permanently on Standard Definition (SD) while other countries are already advancing to High Definition (HD) and Ultra High Definition (UHD),” BON said in communiqué released after its 78th General Assembly and 22nd Annual General Meeting in Abuja.
The assembly also warns that the International Telecommunications Union has not taken a decision to cohabit broadcasting with telecom.
According to the communique, BON will use the platform of its members to call the attention of government and the general public to the looming problems that will likely take Television out of the reach of the middle and lower class.
Navigating challenges in Nigeria’s broadcast media industry
The theme of this year’s BON General Assembly and Annual General Meeting was “Broadcast Media in Quagmire: What are the options?”
The theme highlighted the current challenges faced by the broadcast media industry with the advent of digital transformation, changing audience preferences, and regulatory policies, as well as hard economic times, the industry finds itself in a quagmire.
At the end of the meeting, BON called for the Nigerian government to consider broadcast media houses in its financial assistance to small and medium businesses due to the accumulated effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
New BON leadership
During its 22nd AGM, the General Assembly elected Alh. Salihu Abdulhamid Dembos, the Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, as the new Chairman of BON.
High Chief Tony Akioutu was elected as Vice Chairman.
They both take over from Mr. John Ugbe, CEO of MultiChoice and Dr. Mansur Liman, the Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria; who served as Chairman and Vice Chairman of BON respectively between October 2021 and October 2023.
