The sixth amendment to the National Broadcasting Code has been a subject of controversy amongst different industry players and stakeholders. Like market women chasing away a thief in broad daylight, individuals and groups perceived to be affected by different sections of the code have denounced its provisions – mostly without a broad-picture and objective review of the code.While these individuals with vested interest would rather have the public believe otherwise, one only needs to make a careful perusal of the code to ascertain the intentions of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission in ensuring the following amongst others in the broadcast industry: innovation, healthy intra-industry competition and a sustainable increase in the revenue base of the broadcast sector.Amendments in the code which have provoked an outcry, in particular, are the provisions on the exclusivity of broadcast content, sublicensing, and advertising spend. However, these provisions can be viewed with an intent to regulate the broadcast sector and leapfrog to global standards when compared to practices obtained outside the country.On the subject of exclusive broadcast contents, exclusive sports rights come to mind easily. Nigeria has become a notorious safe haven for Broadcast service providers to hold an exclusive right to high-demand sports content to the detriment of other broadcast service providers.A cursory look at practices obtainable abroad reveals that Nigeria falls short in this regard. There is a notable shift in the treatment of exclusive content agreements in pay-tv markets in Europe by competition authorities towards a view that access to content is imperative for entrants to be able to compete with incumbents. This further highlights the market distorting characteristics of monopoly and anti-competitive tendencies displayed by some players in the industry. On 31 March 2010, the Ofcom imposed a "wholesale must-offer" obligation under which Sky was and still is obliged to make its two main sports channels (Sky Sports 1 and 2) available to other pay-TV retailers at regulated prices. The pay broadcaster will be required to wholesale the Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels to other platforms at prices set by Ofcom. As a result, the United Kingdom enabled other broadcasters such as BT Sports the ability to provide its subscribers with broadcast content at a regulated price.This practice can also be found in Singapore, where the regulatory body, Media Development Authority (MDA) introduced new measures in March 2010 that would require pay-TV companies to cross-carry content subject to exclusive carriage provisions. The cross-carriage measure enables a purchaser of sports exclusive content to provide access to its content on a paid retailer-customer basis to consumers on any pay-TV platform via a network transit arrangement. The exclusive content owner will continue to be compensated directly for the consumption of their content, with the content being monetized by customers of another operator incurring a network transit charge.All of the remedies implemented in the cases quoted in the previous section, especially the creation of wholesale markets for premium contents, outline the possibility of having downstream competition with content sharing. The existence of exclusivity clauses in a potential area of competition can distort the innovation race in technology domains, inhibiting the development of alternative platforms and thus preventing the possibility of reaching the optimal allocation of resources in the longer term. Therefore, the elimination of exclusivity in the Nigerian context, is the most effective way to enhance both the competitiveness of the downstream market and broadcaster’s incentives to innovate, with positive effects on consumer welfare. . Exclusivity of Sports Content: A partial review of the amended NBC Code By Happiness Okonji; Stella U. Rachael; Allen Lawal S. Follow Linda Ikeji Blog.