SECTOR 2 will increase access to some of the countries marginalised groups, with more local and relevant content. The landscape is made up of different broadcasters: publicly-owned Federal and State stations and networks, commercial urban news and entertainment stations and in its infancy, non-profit community broadcasters. Each of these broadcast in a wide range of languages, including English, pidgin and any of more than 250 local languages. The BBC runs a Hausa service, which has a large audience in northern states. Different radio stations target different segments of society, resulting in a total coverage that reflects Nigeria’s diverse ethnic and linguistic groups and varied interests. Northern Nigerians love their radio. As the news source of choice, the radio has become part of the way of life in northern states, where even the most segregated in society consume local, national and even international content from places as far off as China. Audience participation – through phone-in possibilities, has helped radio to maintain a comfortable place in the broadcast media landscape. In spite of the wide reach of radio, some parts of the country are still not covered. These are mostly border regions, some of which depend on broadcasts from neighbouring countries like Cameroon. Most privately owned stations only cover a 20 to 30-kilomere radius from the capital. Television As a broadcast medium, television does not enjoy the popularity of radio. Nonetheless, there is a fairly large and increasing number of channels, including those of a few private networks. In general, urban areas are better served than rural areas, in part because city dwellers can afford television sets and are close to broadcast transmitters, while rural dwellers are comparatively poor and far away from signals. Access to electricity, which is required to power television sets, is also more reliable in urban areas. One of the consequences is that rural audiences do not get a good variety and are fed content from highly biased state-run channels. Government broadcasters still dominate free-to-air services, which limits the choices available to the vast majority of the population. Digital media Internet penetration is rising with the popularity of data services via mobile phones. In September 2015, it was estimated that the country had over 148 million GSM and more than two million CDMA users. Internet connectivity figures are unreliable because of the different approaches to calculating them. One estimate claims that Nigeria had 67 million internet users in 2014. The figure did not appear to take stock of those who connect to the AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NIGERIA 2015 27