The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Wednesday commended broadcast stations for “high compliance’’ in providing local content on both cable and public broadcast channels in the country.
Its Director-General, Mr. Yomi Bolarinwa gave the commendation when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He recalled that three years ago the commission had issued a regulation to local television stations to play down the use of foreign programmes on local channels during prime broadcast time of between 6 p.m. and 10p.m., a period also referred to in the industry as the “family belt’’
Compliance, he stressed, had been “very successful.’’
“Only last week members of the Independent Television Producers were in my office thanking the NBC for what we have done.
“Because we have greatly assisted them; people now come looking for content and they were able to produce such content increasing job creation, increasing wealth in the industry.
“So compliance with that particular regulation has been high.’’
Bolarinwa noted that 15 years ago, Nigeria, which deregulated its broadcasting sector in 1992, did not have “one single local content on cable and satellite channels.
“You had channels of about 50 and not one single local content.
“We made a rule that if you have 10 channels, two of them must have local content.
“The `African Magic’ is a success story not only in Nigeria but also all over Africa and ditto for the Nigeria music.
“Today you go out and the Nigeria music is everywhere; today you go to any party in Nigeria; it’s the local music.
“These had been made possible by the broadcasting stations because the NBC insisted that you must play Nigerian music and they kept on playing it and it caught the fancy of the Nigerian public.
“By rule-making, by regulation and enforcing the regulation, we have created jobs, we’ve created wealth, we’ve developed the industry and ancillary industries attached to the broadcast industry.’’
NAN reports that Nigeria deregulated its broadcast industry in 1992 paving the way for private sector participation in an otherwise government-dominated industry.
Before the deregulation, there were about 30 broadcast stations, but 20 years after Nigeria has about 400 public broadcast stations owned by governments and private sector operators. (NAN)