The Challenges of Digital Switchover in Nigeria within the Global Trend in Digital Broadcasting

The overarching objective of this thesis is to investigate Nigeria’s protracted digital switchover (DSO) process from June 2008 when the DSO began until December 2022, which marks the fifth attempt at analogue switch-off (ASO). The global trend in digital terrestrial broadcasting has profoundly impacted the broadcast media and telecommunication sectors due to its efficient use of the radio spectrum. Thus, digitisation presents an opportunity for countries with weak broadcast policy architecture, such as Nigeria, to overhaul their communication policy towards broader public interest objectives. The study relies on the qualitative research methods of document analysis and in-depth interviews. Documents were collected from various private and public institutions; 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy-makers, public and private broadcasters, technical experts, journalists and academics. The research applies stakeholder analysis and advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to examine the interplay between state actors and the main stakeholders to determine how their relationship affects the DSO policy. The significant role of ‘power’ as an element that shapes stakeholders’ preferences, logic and interaction in the policy process is analysed, particularly the notion of ‘indecision’ as a form of power exercised at the early stages of the DSO process in Nigeria. Also, the study explores the impact of institutionalism and its strands (path dependence, critical junction and the so-called new institutionalism) on DSO policy outcomes. The critique of the critical political economy of broadcasting policy in the study illuminates the broader and long-term political-economic context within which the DSO policies in Nigeria should be understood. This study argues that the Nigerian government took a hands-on approach to the DSO process, centralising decision-making, which explains the persistence of the analogue regime in a digital regulatory environment. It observes how the government insists as a policy concern that Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) remains free-to-air (FTA) and not pay-TV services in keeping with PSB’s universal mission. In the Nigerian context, however, over and above such a public interest rationale, the thesis argues that the real motivation is that pay-TV services could challenge the government hegemony in the broadcasting environment by outputting more content. It also appears the Nigerian government perceives pay-TV as a potential threat to the advertising revenue of PSB, which is one of the main sources of income for FTA television due to its reliance on advertising revenue.

The study shows how a weak national institutional structure enables the executive decision to frustrate the digital switchover policy while critical stakeholders are left confused or unable to effectively advocate for a reform broadcasting policy that would serve the public interest. The thesis also demonstrates how the external influence of international policy actors such as the ITU, the Bretton Woods institutions and multinational corporations shapes the direction of digital migration policy in a weak traditional democracy such as Nigeria and within the broader context of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region where only two of its members (Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast) have completed the DSO at the time of writing (October 2023). Therefore, this thesis contributes to the paucity of empirical literature on communication policy formulation in the sub-Saharan region by critical analysis of the DSO process in Nigeria.