The Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) has identified poor electricity supply, the incessant collapse of the national grid as well as high cost of procuring diesel and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) as factors responsible for stifling the performance of Broadcast stations in the country.
Besides, BON said the dwindling advertising budget of advertisers and non-payment of outstanding debt is militating against the optimal performance of broadcasting stations in the country.
Appraising the performance of the sector in the outgone year, in a statement issued in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the Executive Secretary of the BON, Dr. Yemisi Bamgbose, said Federal and State government owners of stations should put mechanism in place to ensure proper funding of their stations so that democracy can flourish.
“Federal government should deploy necessary funds to the National Broadcasting Commission to enable it to implement digitisation programmes that will benefit stakeholders in particular and the general public in general.
“It was a year that the National Electricity grid collapsed many times, magnifying the epileptic public power supply problem while bills for the non-available power supply kept and keeps rising unabated,” Bamgbose complained.
He frowned on what he termed the “imposition of double taxation,” which compounded the woes of the industry. Bamgbose, who expressed concern over the saturation of the airwaves by private radio and television stations, called for linkages and mergers to be able to benefit from advert revenues.
Meanwhile, the ES has assured that Broadcast managers would perform their constitutional responsibility without fear or favour, even as he canvassed an eclectic approach to salvaging the situation.
