Proposed amendments to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission code - What to know

The proposed amendments to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission Code will set the industry back decades. It does the very opposite of attracting investors, it is designed to scare them away. You don’t attract investment by stifling investors.

Why should I have to sub-license my content? Why should government determine the price of content? How do you make exclusivity illegal? The very power of the industry.

Do they think HBO and Netflix thrive on kumbaya come and take awoof content parties? And then you don’t leave the owners of content to decide the price of the content they sub-license, you want to determine that too? Are we back to 1978? Has content become state property?

Have we not learnt anything from the state running businesses aground through the years? You will kill innovation, hurt investment, fast track job losses and even the government will count losses in low investment and low taxes.

How do you propose such an amendment without at least engaging stakeholders? How do you look at that amendment and then believe that it’s the way forward?

Is there one country where government determines the cost of selling content between players? How is a country that hasn’t solved for basic human needs like education, food, water, electricity and transportation obsess itself with the very thing that shouldn’t be its business?

The proposed NBC amendment is anti-market, anti-investment, anti-jobs and anti-investors.

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#SayNoToProposedNBCAmendments The proposed amendments to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission Code will set the industry back decades. It does the very opposite of attracting investors, it is designed to scare them away. You don’t attract investment by stifling investors. Why should I have to sub-license my content? Why should government determine the price of content? How do you make exclusivity illegal? The very power of the industry. Do they think HBO and Netflix thrive on kumbaya come and take awoof content parties? And then you don’t leave the owners of content to decide the price of the content they sub-license, you want to determine that too? Are we back to 1978? Has content become state property? Have we not learnt anything from the state running businesses aground through the years? You will kill innovation, hurt investment, fast track job losses and even the government will count losses in low investment and low taxes. How do you propose such an amendment without at least engaging stakeholders? How do you look at that amendment and then believe that it’s the way forward? Is there one country where government determines the cost of selling content between players? How is a country that hasn’t solved for basic human needs like education, food, water, electricity and transportation obsess itself with the very thing that shouldn’t be its business? The proposed NBC amendment is anti-market, anti-investment, anti-jobs and anti-investors.

A post shared by JJ. Omojuwa (@omojuwa) on Jul 6, 2020 at 3:51am PDT