Nigerian Television Authority

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The Nigerian Television Authority - also known as NTA - was inaugurated in 1977 and is the government-owned body in charge of television broadcasting in the country.[1] The NTA claims to run the biggest television network in Africa with stations in several parts of Nigeria. Formerly known as Nigerian Television (NTV), the network began with a take over of regional television stations in 1976 by the then Nigerian military authorities, and is widely viewed as the authentic voice of the Nigerian government.

Background

The first official director general was Vincent Maduka, a former engineer. Prior to his appointment Maduka was General Manager of Western Nigeria Television, Ibadan, which was Africa's first television station. The NTA has been criticized by performing artists such as Becky Umeh for pressuring artists to align their expression with government propaganda goals.,[2][3] The Guardian in its editorial of Sunday October 18, 2009 stated "The federal government-owned television network, the Nigeria Television Authority, (NTA) is arguably the largest of its type in Africa, but it is yet to have the operational freedom required to maximise its potentials". However, the NTA's monopoly on the Nigerian airspace was broken in the mid-1990s with the establishment of privately owned television stations and networks, notable among which is the Africa Independent Television.

History

Nigerian Television Authority

Television began broadcasting on 31 October 1959 under the name Western Nigerian Government Broadcasting Corporation (WNTV). It was based in Ibadan and was the first television station in Tropical Africa. Other Northern parts of Africa already had a television station.[4]

Merged Stations

  • March 1962 Radio-Television Kaduna / Radio Kaduna Television (RKTV) was established. It was based in Kaduna and was operated by the Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria. RKTV also provided coverage for the central northern states. Later in 1977 it was re-branded NTV-Kaduna.[4]
  • April 1962 The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was established; it was a federal government-owned service. Based in the city of Lagos it broadcast to the south western states.[4]
  • 1972 MidWest TV was established as TV broadcaster at Port Harcourt. This was run by the state government in Benin.[4]
  • 1974 Benue-Plateau Television Corporation (BPTV) was established and was based in Jos. It was the first television station to launch regular/permanent colour broadcasts in Africa. The colour test transmissions commenced 1 October 1975. BPTV was re-branded as NTV-Jos. [4]
  • From May 1977 all the state television broadcasters named above were merged and re-branded Nigerian Television (NTV) and are now owned by Nigerian Television Authority.[4]

Programming

A number of NTA programmes can be viewed online via Africast as well as TelAfric Television (US & Canada). NTA News bulletins are frequently aired on Africa Independent Television, and BEN Television in the United Kingdom. The station was made available through Sky in the UK on channel 202, but in early March 2010, they refused to make their channel pay-per-view on Sky. The next day the channel was removed from the Sky EPG. It is also on the IPTV platform SuncasTV, and via free-to-air satellite on Galaxy 19, Intelsat 905 and Intelsat 507

NTA Branches and Network Centres

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References

  1. ↑ "The Nigerian Television Authority - About Us". Nigerian Television Authority. Accessed May 2010.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

See also

External links

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