The National Broadcasting Commission Friday suspend the shutdown of the indebted broadcast stations all over the country temporarily.

The regulatory agency said that the decision to suspend its initial shutdown of the indebted stations followed the responses received from the affected stations.

The NBC Director General, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, announced the suspension in a statement on Friday.
he PUNCH had last Friday reported that NBC directed 52 broadcast outfits, including the African Independent Television, Silverbird Television and the broadcasting corporations run by various state governments to shut down their operations.

NBC hinged its directive on debts incurred by the broadcasting organisations amounting to at least N2.6bn.

But in a statement on Friday, Ilelah maintained that positive responses received from the debtor licensees, including big players in the broadcast industry was responsible for the temporary suspension.

The statement read, “Sequel to a follow-up meeting held with Executives of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, 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.

“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.”