The Nigerian Entertainment Conference (NECLive), Nigeria’s largest annual gathering of creative sector professionals is joining voices with entertainment and media industry stakeholders to condemn the recent amendments to the Sixth Edition of the NBC Code which was announced on May 27, 2020 by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
These amendments, which came without adequate consultations with industry stakeholders appear to make content exclusivity illegal in Nigeria. The new code also compels content sub-licensing, as it aims to forcefully regulate the prices at which content is sub-licensed by Pay TV operators and rights owners, regardless of whether they have recouped their investments or not.
In a statement signed by Henry Ekechukwu, the Conference Coordinator, the organizers expressed that they strongly believe that government policies such as this will end up discouraging investment in local content production especially sports and entertainment, and adversely impacting the wider media business – a profitable industry projected by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to be worth an estimate of 4 Trillion Naira by 2024.
Furthermore, the amended National Broadcasting Commission code will seriously hurt Nigeria’s economy, leading to job losses in the industry and loss of billions in taxes and other related fees levied by the Federal Government.
We hereby call on the National Broadcasting Commission and the Federal Government to reconsider, and reverse this decision. The focus at this time should be on creating policies that will empower as well as encourage the entertainment and media industry to exponentially thrive, thereby creating a favourable environment for the kind of economic growth that Nigeria desperately seeks.