Court halts NBC’s bid to terminate contract on Nigeria’s analogue to digital TV move
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja has ordered the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC to temporarily stop its bid to terminate a contract on the movement of Nigeria from Analogue to Digital Television.
The court directed the Commission to maintain the status quo on the disputed contract until the determination of a case filed against it by six aggrieved companies.
Specifically, the Court ordered NBC and the aggrieved companies not to take any further steps on the contract so as not to foist a fait accompli on the court.
Justice A. A Ademu issued the order that the status quo be maintained by the two parties while delivering a ruling in an ex-parte application brought before him by six companies having a legal battle with the NBC on the disputed contractual agreement.
The Judge said since the NBC has become aware of the litigation on the matter, it must not do anything for now pending the final resolution of all issues raised against it by the plaintiffs.
Justice Ademu directed that all actions on the issue be put on hold until the final determination of the motion on notice filed against it by the aggrieved six contracting companies.
The Judge has, however, remitted the case file to the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Hussein Baba Yusuf for re-assignment to another Judge having just completed the vacation proceedings.
In the ex-parte motion marked FCT/HC/CMR/CV/442/2024, the aggrieved companies had prayed for an order of the court to restrain NBC from interfering with or terminating the contract relating to the transition from Analogue to Digital Torrential Television in Nigeria pending the hearing of a motion on notice before the court.
In the motion argued by Dr Reuben Atabo SAN, the claimants had sought an order of the court to prohibit NBC from interfering with their contractual rights in respect of the switch from analogue to digital in the country.
They also applied for an order stopping NBC from advertising to bid for a licence for the purpose of transiting from analogue to digital torrential television.
Besides, the plaintiffs asked the court to stop granting licenses to any company or individual to manufacture Set set-top boxes for the switch off of analogue to digital until their case is fully disposed of.
The plaintiffs in the suit are Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Licensed Set Top Boxes Manufacturers of Nigeria, Gospell Digital Technology Ltd, Digitune Media Technologies, I-Box Engineering, Trefonics Electronics and Tve-RLG Limited.
The NBC was sued alongside Inview Technologies Limited as 1st and 2nd defendants in the suit.
Grounds upon which their application is predicated are that the NBC initiated a policy of switch off from analogue to digital torrential television in Nigeria in 2012 and that they were granted a licence to participate in the program upon payment of N50M to the NBC.
They asserted that they were to be given two years of exclusive rights to recoup their investment from the date of switch off by the NBC.
Plaintiffs said they were authorised to manufacture one million Set Top Boxes specifically designed to switch off of analogue to digital torrential television in Nigeria,
They, however, claimed that on August 22, 2024, the Director General of the NBC issued a press statement with the Executive Vice Chairman of the National Communication Commission that the federal government has approved the sum of ten billion for the take-off of switch-off from digital to analogue.
They averred that the NBC Director General announced the jettisoning of the Set Top Boxes they manufactured in favour of Hybrid Android DTH Set Top Boxes with data connectivity functionalities thereby terminating their subsisting contract.
