Nollywood will receive a boost of N100billion annual boost from Digital Switch Over(DSO), Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Thursday said.
nollywoodHe said this would be achieved from the FreeTV distribution network apportioned to Nollywood.
Speaking at the launch of the DSO in Abuja, the Minister also listed job creation, 30 free digital channels, free and easy access to Government and Public information as part of freebies to get from the box.
He said:”We have watched our beloved Nollywood move from VHS tapes to VCD to DVD, and whereas the whole world has moved to digital consumption of content with its attendant benefits and democratisation of distribution, we have been constrained by limited penetration of Internet in our homes.
”With the middleware in our Set-top boxes/Receiving equipment, homes will be able to buy and watch the latest Nollywood movies without the need for Internet. Imagine a film released on Monday morning being immediately available to 24 million plus households at the touch of a button.”
In his speech entitled ”The Best of Television For All Nigerians,” Alhaji Mohammed said the local manufacture of Set-top boxes, which has already begun, is already extending to local Smart TV and Tablet manufacturing, thus creating jobs.
”With our strong consumer base, we can quickly become the supplier of these equipment to the whole of West Africa. As we speak, jobs are already being created as we engage Engineers, Technicians, Retailers, Distributors and Marketers, among others,” he said.
The Minister said the Electronic Program Guide will also be a platform for Application (App) developers to create products that will make life easier for the home consumers, thereby creating and promoting an industry of developers that will operate in both the Television and Telecoms industries.
He added that, the increase in Free-To- Air channels and the separation of transmission from content aggregation will spur an increase in TV production activities, as the channels will now be able to focus on their TV shows and harness the variety of human and creative skills to compete to become the most watched channel.
He reiterated the government’s unwavering commitment to meeting the deadline of June 2017 for the analogue to digital switch over in Nigeria and other West African countries, as set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
