Broadcasting in Nigeria, entered a new era with the decision of the federal government is allow private ownership of radio and television stations after more than 50 years of its advent in Nigeria.
Privatization is the process which government either partly or wholly transfers equity investment of ownership in a business enterprise to private investors.
Commercialization, on the other hand is defined as the reorganization of enterprises such that they could operate enterprises wholly or partially owned by the federal government without relying on government subvention.
It could be recalled that since the advent of radio and television in 1932 and 1959 respectively, government had hitherto reserved its ownership to either state or federal government.
Radio broadcasting started in 1932, when re-diffusion services began in Nigeria. This re-diffusion started in Lagos with the distribution of programmes, which originated from the British Broadcasting co-operation (BBC) in London. This was part of the overseas services of the BBC. From the Lagos studio, the programmes were distributed to various listening boxes when subscribers who had paid a small subscription fee for this purpose received them.
Because of the popularity of this system, it was eventually expanded to include stations outside Lagos, Abeokuta, Calabar, Enugu, Ibadan, Ijebu-ode, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Horcourt and Zaria. When in 1951 and 1952 the Nigerian Broad casting service (NBS) was established by the federal government and the major re-diffusion stations were converted into fully operational stations, radio had finally arrived in Nigeria.
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