Thomson Broadcast Seeks €400 Million Deal for Nigerian Broadcasting Infrastructure

Thomson Broadcast, owned by Madagascar's richest man Ylias Akbaraly, is negotiating a €400 million ($449 million) deal to build radio and television infrastructure for four Nigerian broadcasting institutions. The company wants final Nigerian government approval before the end of October, when French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to visit Nigeria.

Thomson Broadcast CEO Stéphane Bollon met Nigeria's Information Minister Mohammed Idris in Abuja and Paris as talks progressed over several months. The talks follow a memorandum of understanding signed in 2025. Bollon is expected to travel with Macron.

Four institutions in line for broadcast upgrade

The proposed contract covers Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Voice of Nigeria (VON) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). Nigeria has been working to complete its transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television since missing the international deadline in 2015. It launched a pilot in Jos in 2016 and has continued the transition in phases.

Bollon visited Abuja in June and helped arrange part of Idris's visit to Paris in September. During that visit, Idris met Éléonore Caroit, a junior minister at France's foreign ministry, and Jérémie Robert, Macron's adviser on Africa. Thomson Broadcast would still need to raise financing, mainly from private lenders, before the project can proceed even if government approves the deal.

Macron visit and Guinea precedent

France's ambassador to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, announced Macron's visit in July. The two presidents are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation on trade, security, agriculture and culture. Fonbaustier previously served as France's ambassador to Guinea, where he oversaw a €66 million ($74 million) Thomson Broadcast contract to digitise television and radio broadcasting and build transmission sites.

Signed in March 2022, the Guinea project was backed by French state investment bank Bpifrance and the French Treasury. After years of delays, work was expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Akbaraly's wider broadcast business

Akbaraly controls Thomson Broadcast through Redland, the holding company overseeing his family's Sipromad Group. Redland employs more than 3,000 people directly and indirectly, with operations across Africa, France, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. His father, Sermamod Akbaraly, founded Sipromad in 1972. Ylias took over the business in 2000 after studying management in Paris and earning a master's degree in marketing from the University of California, Berkeley.

He has since expanded the group into nearly 20 companies spanning manufacturing, tourism, aviation, real estate, renewable energy, agribusiness and broadcasting. Sipromad entered broadcasting in August 2018 by acquiring the television and radio business of France's Arelis Broadcast. The business was renamed and rebranded as Thomson Broadcast. In 2022, Thomson Broadcast acquired US transmitter manufacturer GatesAir, expanding its presence in the American market. GatesAir was sold to Saothair Capital Partners in October 2025.

Nigeria's digital switchover timeline

The federal government has announced December 2028 as the target date for completing the country's full transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting. Charles Ebuebu, Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, confirmed the timeline in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria. He said the shutdown would be rolled out in stages. Ebuebu said the radio frequency spectrum currently occupied by analogue broadcasters represents a significant national resource.

For Nigeria, the proposed contract would put private financing and French technology at the centre of a long delayed broadcast upgrade. It also ties the media market to a deal that still needs government approval and funding.