Abstract

The succession of momentous technological innovations in interactivity and dissemination has positively altered the face of communication and mass media in the world today.  The nature of the media and the society itself in the last two decades has witnessed a series of major institutional eruptions and corporate reshuffles in a world where technology dictates the pace. Tied to this technological revolution is the issue of migration from analogue system of transmitting and receiving broadcast signals to that of digital. While digital broadcasting has become the norm in developed countries, almost all the countries in African including Nigeria are yet to start serious transition to digital broadcasting.  The digital switch over date for all broadcast stations is 2015.  How prepared is Nigeria to embrace digitization? This question forms the basis of this paper as it articulates the imperative of Digital Switch Over and examines the critical challenges that Nigeria is facing. The discourse shows that existing social problems, insufficient capital investment in equipment and training of staff and infrastructural problems are the challenges which Nigeria needs to overcome for her to benefit from the global digitization.

Key Words: Broadcasting, Digital Broadcasting, Analogue Broadcasting, Nigeria, Challenges and Prospects.

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 6, No. 2, October  2014, 83 – 91 

©Delmas Communications Ltd.

About the author

Ishola Kamorudeen Lamidi is a Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Full Article

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