More than 40 million households in the Nigeria will need to buy set-top boxes to watch TV as the digital switchover deadline of June 2015 approaches. This is according to new Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Emeka Mba (pictured), who said that the digitisation of television would allow more room for spectrum expansion for the nation’s broadband and internet penetration.

Mba was speaking as a guest on Nigeria’s Channels TV breakfast programme, where he revealed that there are already about two million digital televisions in Nigeria — a country of 162 million.

The NBC boss confirmed that set-top boxes would be subsidised by the federal government as it is done in many other countries. Mba also said on the programme that new companies would be licensed to be signal distributors, and that the broadcaster would soon be accepting bids for this work.

He also stated that the Commission would begin phased tests of the digitisation in the next two months.

Source and photo: Channels TV