SECTOR 3

Panellists said discussions about the financial state of government-funded
broadcasting services was difficult because the processes are opaque. Some
alleged that corruption was rife and that audits were poorly conducted across all
state-funded broadcasters.

Scores:
Individual scores:
1

Country does not meet indicator

2

Country meets only a few aspects of indicator

3

Country meets some aspects of indicator

4

Country meets most aspects of indicator

5

Country meets all aspects of the indicator

Average score:
Score of previous years:

✓✓✓

✓

✓✓

✓✓

✓✓✓

1.3
2008: n/a; 2011: 1.9; 2015: 1.6

3.7 The state/public broadcaster offers diverse
programming and formats that cater for all
interests, including local content and quality public
interest programmes
With more than 100 TV stations across the country, the NTA is considered the
largest television network in Nigeria. It has TV stations in each of the 36 states and
offers the widest diversity in content and reach. ‘NTA stations serve local interest
programmes, including programmes in local languages,’ said one panellist.
With an almost similar deployment, the FRCN (also Radio Nigeria) with its scores
of state and zonal stations is the leading radio broadcaster in the country with the
widest reach. Its FM and SW spectrum band stations are highly geographically
focused, delivering local content to a range of different geopolitical and sociocultural interests.
Along with the federal services, states run broadcasting corporations intended to
serve state and local interests.
A panellist said:
The reach of government-funded broadcasting was unmatched by
content that served the interests of the different publics they intended
to serve. Across the board, politics and propaganda serving the interest
of federal and state politicians dominate the content of these services.
A panellist said:
Everything that you would expect a public broadcaster to focus on is
lacking. Development and human rights issues such as female genital

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AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NIGERIA 2019

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