It is no longer news that Pinnacle Communications Limited recently won the second Broadcasting Signal Distribution Licence. What is perhaps news is that Pinnacle emerged winner on account of its solid financial status and the submission of a sound and superior technical proposal.
Pinnacle, one of the upscale broadcast communications companies in Nigeria emerged victorious by trouncing Phase3 Telecoms. While Pinnacle offered N618,750,000,00, Phase 3 Telecoms made a financial bid of N100,000,00.
With this development, the stage is set for the second broadcast signal distribution licence of television programming from analogue to digital which is billed to start by June 2015 across the country.
According to the Chairman, of the Presidential Committee on DigiTeam, Mr. Edward Amana, the licence won by Pinnacle covered a period of 15 years and added that Pinnacle emerged winner after beating the reserved price of N500 million.
Sources hinted National WAVES that Pinnacle would soon begin roll out and operate a national digital terrestrial television broadcasting signal distribution network across the country.
Mr. Imana stressed that government decided to set up a Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) to prepare the framework for the implementation following the deadline fixed by the ITU for June 17 2015, for the transition of analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.
“The DigiTeam committee moved immediately to action, executing an international bidding process, which resulted in Pinnacle wining the licence.” He said.
According to the Chairman,15 companies expressed interest through an invitation to express interest but five companies participated in the bidding for the licence out of which two, Pinnacle Communications and Phase3 Telecoms, scaled the technical evaluation.
Mr. Imana did not mince words when he aligned with other stakeholders that the process was transparent.
“This is another milestone in the Nigerian transition programme. Digiteam will leave no stone unturned to achieve a successful programme. “Already, 14 companies had submitted proposals to manufacture Set Top Boxes in Nigeria and we are engaging them to ensure that a manufacturing base is set at the earliest to meet the attractive market in Nigeria.
