NAME:

AKPAN RITA NDIFREKE

MATRIC:

134072016

DEPT:MASS COMMUNICATION
COURSE:

HND I

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS AND WORLD PRESS (MAC 342)

PROLIFERATION OF CABLE TV IN NIGERIA AS AN INDICATION THAT NIGERIANS

ARE MORE EXPOSED TO NEWS ACROSS THE BORDERS AND ITS SUBSEQUENT
EFFECTS. DISCUSS
Introduction
Todays television broadcasting system, severely limited by radio spectrum constraints on the number
of channels available at any one geographical location, has grown largely on the basis of mass
entertainment programming. But cable television, with its many channels and the possibility of twoway transmission, has promised to provide a television of abundance with potentially dramatic social
impact.
Many new cable television services have been discussed: locally originated news and public affairs
aimed at small audiences unserved by todays mass entertainment television medium; direct polling of
viewers for their instantaneous responses about important issues; instructional programs for external
degree, vocational, and other course work; information storage and retrieval for institutions such as
hospitals and government facilities; and commercially oriented applications such as utility meter
reading and burglar alarm systems.
The use of cable today, however, stands in stark contrast to this potential. Its service consists almost
entirely of rebroadcasting local television broadcast signals, plus carrying signals from several distant
broadcasting stations and, more recently, offering special pay television channels for movies and sports.
Although numerous cable systems do cover local public affairs (mostly talk shows), local sports events
such as high school football, and other activities of community interest, it is fair to say that the overall

social impact of cable has been nil. We are indeed witnessing a television of abundance, but the
abundance is almost entirely composed of more of the same movies, more sports, and more of other
mass entertainment. Cable remains almost entirely dependent on the broadcasting industry for
programs; consequently, what it has to offer is essentially a mirror image, but with more mirrors, of
what

television

stations

already

provide.

Cable TV in Nigeria
For most Nigerians multi-channel TV is a big dream. Apart from Nigerians living in Lagos, Abuja, and
may be Port Harcourt, most Nigerians have access to less than five free terrestrial TV channels. This
means that most Nigerians rely on terrestrial, satellite, or cable Direct-to-Home DTH TV for multichannel TV.
A number of companies offer cheap DTH Pay TV services in Nigeria. The major players in this regard
are Multichoice with DSTV Access on their satellite TV service, GOtv also from Multichoice, and Star
TV network with StarTimes. Although there are others like MyTV, Daarsat, and free to air satellite TV
channels, our focus in this post will be on the big three Pay TV services, namely DSTV, GOtv, and
StarTimes.
In the strictest sense of the word, Nigeria has very few cable TV networks and most have local
coverage. This is due to lack of infrastructure i.e. copper or fibre optics. Most Direct-to-Home TV
services in Nigeria are over the air instead of cable, although we still call all of them cable TV. Two Pay
TV technologies are popular in Nigeria: Satellite TV and DVB-T (Terrestrial) TV, with most networks
choosing satellite TV, because of ease of deployment. Startimes and GOtv are pay TV networks using
DVB-T, which requires no dish, making equipment cost cheaper for subscribers.
DSTV Access

DSTV Access is the cheapest DSTV Pay TV bouquet from Multichoice, going for N1,500 monthly.
DSTV Access offers a rich array of channels including entertainment, news, movies, music, religion,
kids, documentary, and sports.
Some channels in the DSTV Access Pay TV bouquet include AIT, SilverBird, Channels, NTA I,
SuperSport BLITZ, Magic World, Al jezeera, Mindset Learn, E Entertainment, One Gospel, Islamic
channel, Africa Magic (Hausa & Yoruba only) and so on. However, channels like CNN, BBC, and
MNET channels are missing in this package the last time we checked. DSTV Access now has over 25
Audio channels.
DSTV Access is an entry-level cable TV package. HD channels and premium sports channels are not
available on the Access package. DSTV is a Satellite DTH Pay TV service from Multichoice. The cost
of a complete system with installation and 3 months DSTV Access subscription is N19,900. Read more
about DSTV Pay TV Services.

Gotv
Gotv is a pay TV service offered in Africa by Multichoice Africa. Unlike the other pay TV service from
Multichoice Africa (owners of DSTV), which is satellite based, Gotv is terrestrial TV. So, no need for
dish and ceremonial installation, leading to reduced access cost.
GOtv offers two packages, the GOtv basic costs 1,000 Naira monthly and offers 25 channels, while
GOtv plus costs 1,500 Naira and offers 34 channels including CNN and Disney Junior.
The Initial acquisition cost for Gotv is N8,000 with 3 months free Gotv basic subscription, or N9,500
with 3 months free GOtv Plus subscription. This includes cost of GOtv decoder and stud antenna.

StarTimes
StarTimes is a low cost pay TV service in Nigeria similar in many ways to GOtv. NTA StarTimes seems
to be targeted at the entry level pay TV segment, since its bouquets are quite cheap. Like GOtv,
StarTimes does not require a satellite dish, making things cheaper for subscribers.
It uses Digital terrestrial broadcast technology (DVB-T). All that is required is a StarTimes decoder and
an antenna, preferably an external antenna. A StarTimes decoder with one month subscription to the
basic bouquet goes for around 3,600 Naira.
StarTimes pay TV service currently has a Basic package which goes for N1,000 monthly. There are
three other packages namely Classic, Classic Plus, and Unique bouquets going for N2,000, N3,000, and
N4,000 respectively.

HiTV
HiTV, now Hi Media offers one the cheapest cable TV subscription rates in Nigeria today. HiTV Direct
to Home DTH pay TV offers a rich blend of local and international channels and packages for your
entertainment, news, sports, kids, and so on. Although HiTV has lost the right to the Barclays Premier
league in Nigeria to DSTV, HiTV still has rights to the UEFA champions league and the Europa cup.

Effects
By focusing instantaneous and ongoing media coverage on a particular conflict, international incident,
or diplomatic initiative, the news cycle effectively demands political attention, as governing politicians
attempt to demonstrate that they are "on top of" current issues. The effect has been, according to
Margaret Belknap, that "[t]he advent of real time news coverage has led to immediate public awareness

and scrutiny of strategic decisions and military operations as they unfold" Deeper penetration and wider
broadcast of statements and actions by public figures may increase transparency, but it can also
complicate sensitive diplomatic relationships between states or force an official reaction from
governments that would otherwise prefer to minimize political risk by remaining noncommittal. The
information revolution and spread of global mass media through the Internet and international 24-hour
news thus accelerates the policy-making process, requiring a faster tempo of decision and action to
forestall the appearance of a leadership vacuum.
A notable example of these effects is the CNN effect. The CNN effect is a theory in political science
and media studies that postulates that the development of the popular 24-hour international television
news channel known as Cable News Network, or CNN, had a major impact on the conduct of states'
foreign policy in the late Cold War period and that CNN and its subsequent industry competitors have
had a similar impact in the post Cold War era. While the free press has, in its role as the "Fourth
Estate," always had an influence on policy-making in representative democracies, proponents of the
CNN effect argue that the extent, depth, and speed of the new global media have created a new species
of effects qualitatively different from those that preceded them historically. [1][2] The term's coinage
reflects the pioneering role played by the network CNN in the field, whose "saturation coverage" of
events like the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the fall of Communism in eastern Europe, the first
Gulf War, and the Battle of Mogadishu was viewed as being strongly influential in bringing images and
issues to the immediate forefront of American political consciousness and beyond. Despite these
origins, the term as used generally refers to a broad range of real time modern media, and is not
exclusive to CNN or even 24-hour news cycle broadcast cable news

Conclusion

Indeed, the record is not particularly bright for televisions educational performance. Studies have
shown that people typically do not retain much of the televised information they receive, yet they keep
watchingperhaps because TV does an excellent job of making one feel informed (Buckingham,
1999). But the past is prelude. Televisions future will be what we make of it, and research does
indicate that viewers can learn from television when they are actually paying attention (Chaffee and
Franks, 1996). In addition, citizen opinions of what is important have been shown to be affected by
television news (Kinder, 2003).
As Gitlin observes, media critics who rail against the evils of television and television news often fail to
take into account how pleasurable the experience of watching television can be (Gitlin, 2002). If
television is to continue to serve as a source of inspiration for community dialogue, its entertaining
qualities must be preserved.

However, in preserving and promoting televisions education and

entertainment functions, there is a danger that we may conflate the two to the point of
indistinguishability. It is not such a problem if we do not learn from television, but it is a major problem
if we think we are learning from television when we actually are not, which research suggests happens
quite often (Hollander, 1995).
Truth be told, however, education and entertainment were never wholly separate to begin with. Before
education can take place, curiosity must be stimulated, and this typically requires some degree of
entertaining performance or utterance (Wurman, 2001).

The problem arises when we are being

thoroughly entertained but inadequately informed and yet think we are getting our fill of the latter, for
this can lead to a colossal errormistaking ignorance for knowledge. As Postman notes, Ignorance is
always correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge? (Postman, 1985: 1078). If nothing else, then, this study ought to lead the reader to question whether more information is
equivalent to more knowledge in the case of cable news and the ticker or whether, as our experimental

findings suggest, the deluge of cable news information has created disservice effects that may best be
resolved by subtraction as opposed to addition.

References
Aratani, Lori. 2007. Teens Can Multitask, But What Are Costs? The Washington Post, February 26: A1.
Barry, A.M. Seward. 1997. Virtual Intelligence: Perception, Image, and Manipulation in Visual
Communication. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Blackmon, April, Benson, Kimball and Berhow, Susan. 2004. A Content Analysis of News Crawls on
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and Mass Communication. Toronto, Canada. August 2004. Accessed online at http://list.msu/edu/cgibin/wa?A2=ind0411c&L=aejmc&T=O&P=21053.
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