BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Broadcasting in Nigeria, entered a new era with the decision of the federal government is allow private ownership of radio and television stations aer 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-diusion services began in Nigeria. This re-diusion 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-diusion stations were converted into fully operational stations, radio had finally arrived in Nigeria. Unlike radio which began in Nigeria through federal government initiative, television broadcasting began in the country through regional initiative. This was in October 1959 when the government of the former Western Region started the first television service in both Nigeria and Africa- the Western Nigerian television (WNTV). The following year, on 1st October 1960, the former Eastern Region followed the example of the West by establishing the Eastern Nigeria Television (ENTV) in Enugu. The federal government got round to establishing its own television service when it started the Nigeria television service (NTS) in partnership with the NBC- International of America, in April 1962 in Lagos. In the same year, the government of the former Northern region also started its own television service called Radio Television Kaduna (RTV). The regional government and a British television company jointly owned this.
