Content access fees to replace radio license fees – FG

The Federal Government on Saturday said that it would introduce content access fees to replace radio license fees ahead of Nigeria’s migration to digital terrestrial television broadcasting by 2015.

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, made this known at the opening of the extra-ordinary meeting of the National Council of Information (NCI) in Abuja.

Maku said the planned content access fee, which was currently undergoing final adjustments, was expected to get the nod of the Federal Executive Council before the migration.

He said that government and other stakeholders would leverage on the new technology to make the new format more effective than the archaic radio license fees format.

“For a long time radio licenses have not been collected and in other countries the public broadcast services are run from fees collected on broadcast content. But unfortunately in our country, the existing constitutional provision has made fee collection less effective. We are taking advantage of the digital technology and looking beyond sending people to go from place to place to collect fees for broadcast content.”

According to him, under this new regime, individuals must pay an annual content access fee for television content.

The minister outlined some of the advantages of the new broadcast content fee collection regime to include, improved financial capability for stakeholders to improve content and upgrade infrastructure.

He said this would help the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission and other stakeholders have access to adequate funds for sustained upgrade of their infrastructure for effective service delivery.

Maku noted that Nigeria was at crossroads to either transit smoothly or risk being cut-off from the rest of the world by June 2015 when the global migration deadline takes effect.

He stressed the need for improved coordination and cooperation among stakeholders to ensure that Nigeria joined the rest of the world in the new digital era.

“We are here because we are approaching the deadline and Nigeria must transit. We must do everything possible, we must work 24 hours to ensure that our country is not cut-off from the rest of the world,’’ he said.

The minister, who acknowledged that the process of migration was not an easy one, however, noted that the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages.

While stressing the need for robust public sensitization ahead of the deadline, Maku urged NBC, state governments and private broadcast stations to work together to ensure a smooth transition for the country.