The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has charged the Ministerial Task Force on the Digital Switch Over, DSO, to ensure that the project offers very rich content for Nigerian television viewers, insisting that the success of the project depends on the content it offers.
A statement by the Special Assistant to the President on Media, Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi quoted Alhaji Mohammed as saying this in his opening comments at the inaugural meeting of the Task Force in Abuja on Tuesday, where the minister also charged the Task Force to ensure adequate publicity for the DSO project in order to keep Nigerians well informed about it.
Alhaji Mohammed said, “Let me say, straight away, that the success of this project is hinged on content. If the content is right, the 24 million TV households in the country will embrace it. If the content is wrong, they will not.
“Even the purchase of the Set Top Boxes, STBs, by Nigerians will depend on the richness of the content offered. Before now, we either gave out the boxes free or at subsidized rates. But now that the project is being commercially-driven, the sale of STBs will depend on the content.”
The minister averred that rich content in sports, entertainment, children’s programmes, as well as local and international news, were necessary to attract subscribers, with the added advantage of non-payment for subscription.
Charging the Task Force to tap into the great opportunity offered by the project to help popularise the local professional football league, the minister added, “We can work with the Nigerian Professional Football League, NPFL, to have all their weekly matches shown live. I have no doubt that they will be willing to work with us in this regard.”
Recall that Alhaji Mohammed announced the establishment of the 14-member Task Force, which he is personally chairing, in Abuja on February 23, 2021, to take charge of the DSO rollout across the country.
