FreeTV Platform to Deliver 100 Channels Without Subscription, Says NBC

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja

The National Broadcasting Commission has said Nigerians will have access to more than 100 digital television channels without monthly subscription fees under the country’s renewed Digital Switch-Over (DSO) programme scheduled to begin nationwide rollout on June 17, 2026.

Director-General of the Commission, Charles Ebuebu, disclosed this on Monday during a joint press conference with Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited in Abuja, where both agencies defended the Federal Government’s revised “Big Picture” strategy for completing Nigeria’s long-delayed transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

Ebuebu said the FreeTV platform was designed to ensure nationwide access to digital television services through a hybrid delivery model combining Direct-to-Home satellite broadcasting, Digital Terrestrial Television and Internet Protocol systems.

According to him, the initiative would provide quality television access to both urban and rural communities, including areas that terrestrial signals had failed to adequately cover over the years.

“To ordinary Nigerians, the basic FreeTV service carries no monthly subscription,” he said.

“The decoder is an open-standard DVB-S2 device freely available on the open market for as little as N15,000 to N25,000. Viewers will enjoy over 100 channels in crisp digital quality.”

The NBC boss added that the channels would include dedicated indigenous language programming in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Tiv, Fulfulde, Ijaw, Edo, Ibibio, Efik and Nupe among others.

He explained that the Commission adopted the converged DTH, DTT and IP framework after years of delays associated with relying solely on terrestrial broadcasting infrastructure.

“For nearly two decades, Nigeria’s Digital Switch-Over has occupied the space between policy ambition and operational reality,” Ebuebu stated.

“The strategic mistake has been to treat DSO as a contest between technologies rather than as a national access problem. Nigeria does not need a doctrinal argument. It needs a working system.”

He dismissed claims that the 2012 White Paper on DSO excluded satellite broadcasting, insisting that the policy document had always recognised convergence between terrestrial and satellite technologies.

The NBC DG said international examples from countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Kenya and South Africa showed that successful digital migration depended on hybrid delivery systems rather than a single platform.

Ebuebu also highlighted the economic benefits of the transition, saying the programme would unlock Nigeria’s N605.2 billion advertising market through credible audience measurement systems.

“The DSO will unlock the N605.2 billion national advertising market through verifiable audience measurement, generating new revenue streams for broadcasters and content creators,” he said.

He added that the release of the 700/800MHz digital dividend spectrum could generate over $1 billion in auction proceeds to support digital infrastructure and rural broadband expansion.

According to him, the creative sector, currently valued at about N5 trillion and employing more than 4.2 million Nigerians, would also benefit from improved distribution capabilities across West Africa through NigComSat-1R.

Ebuebu said the Commission was already discussing subsidy arrangements and financing models for low-income households to ensure wider access to decoders and digital television services.

He also assured local set-top box manufacturers that the Commission remained committed to domestic production and assembly partnerships despite the need for transitional imports.

“No honest policymaker should pretend that local industry can instantly satisfy that scale without transitional imports and carefully managed supply chains,” he said.

On audience measurement, the NBC chief described the absence of credible nationwide television ratings as one of the biggest structural weaknesses in Nigeria’s broadcasting industry.

He said the proposed GARB audience measurement framework would provide broadcasters and advertisers with reliable data capable of improving advertising rates and industry revenues.

Also speaking at the briefing, Managing Director of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, Mrs. Nkechi Jane Egerton-Idehen, assured Nigerians that the FreeTV platform had been designed to avoid service disruptions during satellite transitions.

She disclosed that NIGCOMSAT had already secured a commercial backup satellite arrangement at the same 42.5° East orbital slot to guarantee uninterrupted service.

“The backup satellite has identical downlink frequency plan, polarisation and modulation parameters as NigComSat-1R. This ensures that no consumer dish repointing is required when migrating traffic,” she explained.

Egerton-Idehen also dismissed fears of daily signal loss during inclined-orbit operations, noting that modern DVB-S2 decoders and standard 60cm dishes were already designed to accommodate minor satellite drift.

“There is no daily dropout for properly installed systems,” she said.

The NBC said analogue switch-off across Nigeria remains scheduled for December 31, 2028, while a national DSO stakeholders’ meeting would be convened within 30 days after the June 17 launch to finalise implementation details.