Technology
MTN’s N34 bn licence to break Dstv’s pay-TV monopoly
… It would give Nigerians more opportunity of choice – NBC
Nigerians may be in for a jolly time in the pay-tv market with the acquisition of digital pay-TV licence by leading telecoms operator, MTN Nigeria, Which observers are already hopeful will break Dstv’s monopoly. There is also uneasiness in the market over probable domination of the telecommunications giant.
The fear which cannot be wished away by existing pay-TV operators is linked with the strength of MTN Nigeria in the telecommunications market.
Last week, MTN acquired the700MHz broadcasting spectrum licence to provide digital pay television broadcasting services in Nigeria for N34 billion (about $151 million).
Sold by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which is the regulatory agency for broadcasting in the country, the development was, however, challenged by the telecoms industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for not being consulted and involved in the transaction.
When contacted by BH on phone, the Director of Public Affairs, NBC, Awwalu Salihu, said the approval of the spectrum for MTN is a major milestone for the country, and would give Nigerians more opportunity to enjoy digital television services.
In his words: “MTN is going to operate as a pay-TV service provider. Why we considered giving out this at this time is because, the more the merrier. They are not going to be setting up a station of their own. What the company would do is just to depend on the ITS, MTS or any of the signal distributors platform to offer services to Nigerians. However, it is difficult to put a time frame on when they will commence operations. The content being offered will determine the size of audience each operator would be pulling in the market.”
There was no response from Mr. Goodluck Akinwale, Corporate Services Executive, when contacted on phone. There was also no reply to the text message sent to his phone as at press time.
Speaking on the successful auction of the pay-TV licence, the Director-General, NBC, Mr. Emeka Mba, said that MTN would only use part of the spectrum to offer digital TV services.
According to him, “I am pleased to inform you that we have successfully licensed MTN Nigeria to use a part of the 700MHz to provide digital pay-TV broadcasting services. We have thus raised N34bn, slightly less than 50 per cent of our budget.
I am pleased to inform you, also, that through this singular move, Nigeria has once again pointed the way to other African countries struggling with the effort of finding financing for their own digital switchover programmes.”
Explaining further, Mba said: “It may be necessary to clarify that the use of the band, 470 – 862MHz, solely for UHF television broadcasting service on a primary basis in Nigeria predates both the NBC and NCC.
“As a matter of fact, most administrations in the International Telecommunications Union region 1 used the entire 470 – 862 MHz for UHF television broadcasting prior to ITU WRC-2007 conference.”
Mba said that in 2006, the ITU planned the entire 470 – 862MHz frequency band for digital UHF television broadcasting for the region 1, to which the Nigerian administration belonged.
The dominant operators in Nigerian market are Dstv and Gotv, which are service providers on South African company platform, MultiChoice. Also on the list is StarTimes which has fast become an appealing brand to many subscribers across the country because of the affordability factor. Others include Consat, African Cable Television (ACTV), MyTv, Infinity Tv, MultiTv and others.
However, with the emergence of MTN which also has its base in South Africa like MultiChoice, analysts are of the view that the bulk of the industry market would significantly be shared by DStv and MTN, while reducing other operators to the background in the long run.
