A firm, Cable Channels Nigeria Limited (CCNL) has denied allegation that it collected N20 billion from the Federal Government for the procurement and distribution of FreeTv decoders to Nigerian homes for Digital Switch Over (DSO).
CCNL, a consortium of re-broadcast companies and promoters of FreeTv in Nigeria told reporters during a briefing in Abuja that there was no iota of truth in the allegation of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Digitisation.
Its Chairman, Sir Kunle Osisanya Afolabi, said it was disheartening that members of the House Committee failed to use the facilities at their disposal to unearth the truth about the operations of the company to enable them appreciate the impact it has made in the industry over the years.
Sir Afolabi, who spoke against the backdrop of the report of the Ad-hoc Committee and the controversy it has generated among industry players, insisted that even before the launch of DSO in December 2016, CCNL has remained a major industry player as a licensed Cable TV Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) operator in the country with vast knowledge and experience spanning more than 30 years.
He said: “CCNL is the official Nigerian licensed content aggregator for the DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) and DSAT Free-to-view platforms with the responsibilities to manage; market and promote to the final consumers as a part of the Nigerian National DSO Strategy.
“We have distributed about 630,000 FreeTv boxes in Abuja and Jos and their environs out of the 750,000 subsidised boxes as of today.
“The truth is that we have not being paid a dime for the over 150 channels that Nigerians are enjoying in their homes and we have been using shareholders’ funds to sustain our businesses in the belief that, by the time things take shape in the industry, our shareholders will also benefit.
“It is therefore misleading insinuations that CCNL was a new comer in the industry and has been paid huge amount of money to the tune of about N20 billion. This is not true and it is unfortunate that members of the National Assembly could not use their foot-soldiers to authenticate the reality about our predicament.
“Let me also emphasise that those dishing out some misinformation about the history of the industry in Nigeria do not know anything about the industry. But we believe the regulatory bodies will assert themselves and do the needful for the growth and development of the industry.
“We also believe that all hope is not lost regarding the digital switchover, but we want the present problems facing the industry to be iron out as soon as possible.”
Flanked by the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Mr Rajiv Mekkat and other management staffers, Sir Afolabi said trouble started in the industry when some members of the ecosystem wanted to take on the roles of others.
According to him, at the inception of the digitisation process, all MMDS re-broadcast operators spread across the country were forced to digitise their services at costs well over N10 billion.
“In the transition from analogue to digital, these MMDS rebroadcast operators (12 of them) who had transited to digital since 2009 and operating under their collective business name Cable Channels Nigeria Limited were licensed to undertake their very familiar business of content aggregation.
“The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) decided to give the cable operators the aggregation licence in order to accommodate their invaluable experience in content aggregation business, their knowledge of the distribution network which they have been doing for over three decades, their relevance in the new television configuration, to help save some jobs of their workforce, to recoup, even on a long time basis some of their losses in giving up their investment for the country to go digital in compliance with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) directive and mindful of the many benefits freeing up of the spectrum would have on the economy of the country and many other reasons.
“However, CCNL is the only stakeholder in the comity of DSO operators’ chain that has not been funded till date. We rather paid licence fee and generate funding for our operations,” he said.