The National Broadcasting Commission on Friday suspended its decision to shutdown certain broadcast stations over failure to renew their licences.
NBC had last week issued a shutdown notice to the licenses of Silverbird TV, AIT, Raypower FM, and Rhythm FM amongst others over a debt amounting to N2.6 billion.
Following the ultimatum, the broadcast body received positive responses from the debtor Licensees, including big players in the broadcast industry.
This was made known in a statement on Friday by the Director General, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, where he confirmed the decision to put a halt to revoking the licenses of the defaulting media organisations.
The statement reads in part: “The National Broadcasting Commission on Friday, August 19TH, 2022, issued a shutdown notice to licenses that are indebted to the Commission.
“Following the ultimatum, the Commission received positive responses from the debtor Licensees, including big players in the broadcast industry.
“Sequel to a follow-up meeting held with Executives of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and other critical Stakeholders in the industry, the Commission has decided to temporarily suspend the shutdown of the indebted Broadcast stations all over the Country,” Ilelah said.
“We express our profound appreciation to the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, the affected licensees and Broadcast Stakeholders for their responses and interventions. We, specifically, thank DAAR Communications Ltd and Silverbird TV/Rhythm FM for their responses.”
“The Commission is not unaware of the difficulties this shutdown must have caused the operators and other stakeholders, but must state that the Commission will always operate within the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. N11, Laws of the Federation, 2004.”