New Software to Link Film Producers with Customers in Digitization – FG

On-going digitisation in the television industry will come with software that enables film producers to sell directly to consumers without the Internet, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, has said.

Mohammed who said this while inaugurating a new television channel, Wazobia Max, in Abuja yesterday also disclosed that Abuja would be next city to go digital in the digitisation programme after Jos, Plateau State, on Saturday.

According to the minister, the set-up-boxes being introduced in Nigeria to enable television sets to receive digital signals will harbour the revolutionary software.

He said, “I am very proud to announce that the middleware in the set-top-boxes will allow film producers to sell their Nollywood movies directly to customers, who can then access them without internet connection.

“We are expecting that this will then truly move the industry into the digital era. An industry that started with video tapes, moved into compact discs (and DVD’s) will now move to set-top-boxes that will give access to thousands of movies.

“While the general gist is to switch from analogue to digital, we have decided to make it much more than that. We are recreating the experience and turning it into an empowerment and employment tool for our increasingly bubbly creative industry.”

He added, “Unlike the analogue broadcasting, the digital broadcasting technology is not limited to the delivery of television programmes only. Value added and interactive services such as Electronic Programme Guide, television shopping, weather forecasts, electronic newspapers etc can also be accessed on the television set by the viewer, ushering in a new television viewing experience.

“The capacity generated by the digital broadcasting technology allows for more players to be licensed for the provision of many more television services, compared to the analogue broadcasting technology. This means more choice for the viewers, with the possibility of services being licensed by genre, for example, musical, news, gospel, movie and so on. In fact, the benefits outlined earlier on will be there for members of the public to experience and to enjoy.”

With the switch over, the minister said, the Federal Government would be introducing 30 free-to-air local and international channels with emphasis on the local ones.