Issue no 121 - 20 January 2012
top story
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The rational version of how advertisers and advertising agencies buy airtime is through using media planning based on audience research. Africa’s reality is very different with only a few countries having continuous research. Very little of the existing research is focused on programme audiences on an overnight timeline that will allow agencies to adjust their choices. But for the majority of countries on the continent, there is only blissful ignorance and “gut feel”. Russell Southwood looks at how this lack of audience research holds Africa’s broadcast industries back.
I met a broadcaster from DRC at DISCOP for the first time several years ago and I was asking him about his station. He told me it was one of the leading stations in Kinshasa (which, by the way, I think it probably is). There are 50 or so TV stations in DRC and no regular, reliable research: so how can anyone know which is a leading TV station and which is another two-bit outfit transmitting pirated content? Advertisers in DRC can only make choices on the basis of what their friends and colleagues tell them and by conducting straw polls in their office. Yes, the office straw poll has happened in several countries I visited last year.
Continuous audience research data is only available for a limited number of countries, most of which are Anglophone Sub-Saharan African countries. These are (in alphabetical order): Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Outside of these regular audience surveys, there is the annual TNS SofresAfriscope survey for Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Gabon, Mali and Senegal. Afriscope clients include: France24, RFI, TV5Monde, CFI - Canal France International, Canal+ Horizons and FTPI - France TélévisionsPublicité International. With the exception of Canal+ Horizons all of these are publicly funded French organisations. TNS Sofres has also started a survey called Maghreboscope for Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. There is no audience data for North Africa’s largest market, Egypt.
Synovate has tried to get continuous surveys going in Mozambique and Zambia without success. Beyond this data, there are occasional privately funded audience surveys (in among other places, DRC, Mozambique and Swaziland) and donor-funded surveys looking at media use. In addition, there are occasional, one-off surveys that look at issues like media and Internet use.
The main methodological issues with the data are two-fold: firstly, whether the survey samples are correctly balanced to reflect the urban vs rural divide in country; and secondly, whether the socio-economic categories reflect African realities.
Until recently, Angola’s Marktest only did survey sampling in Greater Angola but it has extended this in 2011 to Benguela and Lobito, the country’s larger coastal cities. But as with many of the audience surveys carried out, there is not a rural component. To be fair to Marktest, Angola is a huge country and there are enormous difficulties recruiting skilled staff to carry out the sampling.
The problem here is that radio is both urban and rural and is particularly relevant for mass-market brands like soap and beer. Television used to be almost entirely urban but in several countries is now beginning to acquire rural audiences as access to electricity distribution increases. This outward push of transmission coverage will be part of the process of the transition to digital broadcasting: several countries have increased TV transmission coverage in their plans. It will take time but it’s on its way.
In terms of income and social status, there has been a transition from using the ABCDE social status measurement categories to the Living Standards Measure (known as LSMs). The latter provide a breakdown of income and social status based o a range of variables including ownership of different items (eg a television); patterns of behavior (eg a non-supermarket shopper); and standard of living (access to water and electricity in the household). A key question in all country market assessments is: how big is the middle class? The answer to this question is of great importance to those selling high-end products like cars and mortgages. Unfortunately, much of the survey work does not generate consistent or reliable answers to that question.
In some countries, Africa’s media landscape is fragmenting. There are tens or hundreds of radio stations, tens of TV stations and soon more TV channels on DTT. There are several Pay TV providers with many channels and the Internet is rapidly becoming popular among the urban young. Sampling techniques tend to be less good at tracking behavior below the 0.5 million level which is where many of these fragmented, niche audiences will be.
The lack of both reliable advertising revenues data and audience data are both significant obstacles to the development of the media in Africa. However, with audience data the issue is complicated by several different factors. In those countries without audience data, it is regarded as a costly luxury. But also with the exception of the more successful broadcasters, why would a media owner pay for data that simply demonstrated how relatively small his or her audience was?
Whilst advertising agencies will often “talk a good game” in terms of media planning based on research, the number of agencies that deploy these techniques is much smaller than those who do not. Both advertising agencies and clients are still as likely to be buying on a combination of “gut feel” and friendship networks. Others also talk darkly “off-the-record” about “backhanders” being used to acquire advertising contracts.
Without audience research, the broadcast industry in Africa will not be able to professionalise itself. Buying advertising by “gut feel” is a chance process that favours existing stations rather than newcomers and makes reaching the advertiser’s target audiences as accurate as throwing darts at a dartboard with a blindfold on.
To follow the exchanges about this news, you need to be on Twitter. Follow us on @BalancingActAfr
An Agenda for 2012 – Part 1
Videos from Balancing Act’s You Tube channel that will help you reflect on where your business is going this year:
Vernacular, niche television
JuiusLamaon, CEO, Kass Media on its plans for a 4 channel digital futureLive streaming as an alternative to a cable or satellite channel for diaspora audiences
LippeOosterhof, CEO, Livestation on live streaming for African news broadcasters
What do TV White Spaces mean for Africa’s broadcasters?
Steve Song, CEO, Village Telco on the TV White Spaces WorkshopSelling TV and film content online
Conrad Nkutu, CEO, Fast Track Productions on selling its hit daily comedy, The Hostel onlineObi Asika, CEO, Storm360 on music TV, TV formats and mobile download potential
Using local content to gain market share
WachiraWaruru, Citizen TV on the impact of producing Swahili comedy programmes
content
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Tony Maddox, the executive vice president and MD of CNN International, is responsible for CNN's international news and information portfolio. Maddox also oversees international newsgathering, editorial and programming oversight. Under Maddox's watch, CNN has expanded its editorial operations to Kabul, Afghanistan; Lagos, Nigeria; Nairobi, Kenya; Mumbai, India; and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Maddox joined CNN International in 1998 after 13 years with the BBC. On a visit to South Africa in December 2011, Maddox shared his views on social media and 'citizen reporting,' the recently signed 'secrecy bill' and CNN's editorial operations in Africa.
Q: Tell us more about the size and scope of CNN International's operations in Africa?
A: Africa is a big part of CNN and I think will continue to grow. We have invested in a hub in East Africa and Lagos and have also increased our investment in our Johannesburg bureau. All of this means we are better able to respond to stories across the continent, such as those emerging from Somalia at the moment. If you look at an event like the COP17 conference in Durban, our Johannesburg bureau [was] able to cover it in real depth, and [we] also invested a great deal in the Ecosphere initiative that monitored social media during the conference. These... really helped bring our audiences close to the story on the ground.
Q: Is this a market that is becoming viable commercially for international broadcasters such as CNN?
Africa has always had an enormous amount of potential, but I think it is beginning to realise that potential to the full. African companies in areas such as banking and telecoms are genuine global players now. The infrastructure is improving, people's prospects are better and investment is coming into the continent from all over the world, including the likes of China and Russia. Many of our African advertisers - people like Glo, MTN, Zenith Bank, UBA and South Africa Tourism - have long-term relationships with CNN. I think Africa is absolutely commercially viable for CNN, and the entrepreneurial culture on the continent will only make it more so.
Q: Will MEA operations ever gain enough scale to be run from outside Europe (ie be run from within the MEA region)?
A: Atlanta is the hub of our operation and I'm sure that will remain the case, but we have always used regional hubs to give us a sharper focus throughout the world. For example, we made an important investment in our Abu Dhabi bureau, which has made a fantastic contribution to our coverage in the Middle East - and given a lot to our audiences throughout the world. Our Africa bureaux are already a very important part of the CNN global jigsaw, and the investment we made and continue to make in them is recognition of Africa's importance. As Africa changes, I'm sure our investment in our Africa operation will change in tandem.
Q: CNN has worked hard to integrate social media and 'citizen reporting' into how it covers news. Tell us about that process and why CNN felt it was an important one to embark upon?
A: I think social media is exciting and important for newsgathering, and it is here to stay. The proliferation of devices like camera phones and the rise of bloggers and media such as Twitter mean that information flows in a different way now. Very often the first reports from the scene of a news event come from eyewitnesses, and these spread very fast.
All this is impossible for news organisations to ignore, but it also presents challenges for audiences. How can they know what's real and what's not? Who can they trust? That's why it's important for social media to be part of what we do. By embracing it, but also by rigorously checking, acting as curators, and applying proper journalistic standards to that content we can make it work for us and our audiences.
With iReport, our citizen journalism platform, we have also built a community of close to a million people who have enriched our reporting and our content enormously.
Q: And how has social media impacted on your news cycle?
A: I think speed of information is clearly the key impact. Many stories are broken on social media now, including from our own journalists. This means we have to be faster on our feet, but also wary. Accuracy is the absolute cornerstone of newsgathering and always will be, and that puts pressure on a newsroom when a story breaks via social media.
We cannot have people everywhere and nor can any news organisation, but we can ensure we check our sources, corroborate everything and make absolutely certain that we do not mislead our audiences by taking social media at face value. So the news cycle is much faster now, and there is more information around, but the principles of good journalism still apply. If anything, more than ever.
Q: How interactive will TV (and specifically TV news) eventually become?
A: I think that you're already seeing a very interactive relationship between CNN and our audiences through social media and initiatives such as iReport. Where this will eventually lead I think may be partly determined by technology, but it's great to have a close relationship with our audience and to get many perspectives on a story, as well as instant feedback on what we do. What won't change are the professional standards, principles and techniques that underpin that, because that's where we're bringing value to our audiences.
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Zimbabwe football fans might fail to see the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals live on national television if the Confederation of African Football (CAF) rights holder, SportFive persists with its demand for €600 000 for the rights.
African television broadcasters are united in demanding a downward review of the figure, arguing — and rightly so — that they paid $150 000 to screen the 2010 World Cup staged in South Africa. So intense has been the pressure on SportFive — a company domiciled in Paris, France, that they have reduced their initial demands from than a million euros to the current figure.Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) public relations manager Sivukile Simango confirmed that SportFive was demanding an exorbitant sum.
“It is true that SportFive is demanding a lot of money for the rights of AFCON 2012. If all countries in Africa pay SportFive that ridiculous amount some people will become very rich, but at whose expense? We paid $150,000 for the World Cup rights; why is an African tournament priced so exorbitantly? SportFive has revised the figure downwards to €600 000. However, we feel the amount is still too high. How many broadcasters in Africa can afford this amount? We are still negotiating with them for a further reduction which we can afford”.
However, for those with access to satellite television, there will be no such headaches as cash-rich SuperSport will broadcast both the Afcon and Euro 2012.
“The World of Champions” will broadcast all 32 Afcon matches live and in high definition (HD), while Euro 2012 will be broadcast exclusively live, also in HD.
The Afcon deal, especially, marks a windfall for SuperSport as it incorporates a number of continental football properties.The Afcon arrangement will be for the next three editions (2012, 2013 and 2015). In addition, the rights include the African Nations Championship (2014), African Youth Championship (2013 and 2015), Caf Super Cup (2012-2016), Caf Champions League (remaining matches, plus 2012-2016), Caf Confederations Cup (remaining matches, plus 2012-2016) and the Caf Under-23 Championships.
Botswana, whose national team makes its debut in the competition, have already indicated they will not be able to pay the 15 million needed for the games. Fears are that Batswana, without access to Digital Satellite Television (DStv) may not be able to follow the games live because of the exorbitant fees. Government spokesperson Jeff Ramsay admitted it was a challenge as the fee that SportFive are asking for is exorbitant.
“I think you would do better to speak to the national broadcaster, but the national station is dependent on government funding. But yes, it’s certainly a challenge,” Ramsay said.
SportFive has not responded to questions sent to Idriss Akki, the senior vice-president, director Africa.
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Canal France International and the French Professional Football League (LPF) have teamed up yet again to support African TV professionals. After two warm-up sessions in April and November 2009 focussing on match commentary, a third edition in March 2011 catered to TV journalists. This new training course for the producers of football matches was held from 18 to 27 November 2011.
Hailing from Senegal, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, Mali and the DRC, the six producers honed their multi-camera production techniques for football matches. They were supervised by French TV and sport experts working in League 1 stadiums each week. The team of producers watched the setup for the League 1 premium match Paris-SG vs. Nancy and UEFA Champions League matches featuring Olympique de Lyon vs. Ajax and Olympique de Marseille vs. Olympiakos.
This gave the African producers the opportunity to talk with big names in TV sports production such as: François Lanaud who will be in charge for the 2012 Euro final, François-Charles Bideaux, producer for the last three FIFA World Cups and Sports Production Manager at Canal+, and Bruno Hullin, League 1 producer and 3D specialist.
This session wound up with visits to the TV channel Equipe TV and EVS*. They also attended the production of a League 2 night on football channel CFOOT, thus experiencing the broadcasting of a day in League 2 produced in multiplex.
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A new investigative documentary by Anas Aremyaw Anas of Tiger Eye Investigations caught members of staff from Electricity Company of Ghana red-handed accepting corrupt payments for electricity meters in a soon to be released documentary.
The investigations by Anas and the team from his Tiger Eye Investigations Company, also exposed about 354 private and state enterprises that had for various reasons failed to settle their electricity bills, totalling about Gh¢172 million as of November 2011.Some ECG employees with their official identity tags around their necks were clearly seen in the recording engaging in illegal meter sales and receiving money from members of the public who appeared to be desperately in need of electricity billing meters.
Though the official prices of single-phased meters range between GH¢80.50 and GH¢92.50, some employees and illegal middle-men popularly known as Goro Boys were spotted in the video selling the same for between GH¢250 and GH¢650 depending on the area where the unlawful transactions took place. And three-phased meters that officially go for between GH¢100 and GH¢170 were being sold between GH¢800 and GH¢1500.
One ECG official who was caught extorting money from a member of the public was heard telling him, “You say you want a meter and you brought GH¢50.00. It is GH¢500.00. You think getting a meter in one week is a joke, and which meter can GH¢50.00 buy? Have you seen a GH¢50.00 meter before? You are not serious.” This particular official succeeded in selling the meter for GH¢500.00 while another officer sold one for GH¢600.00.
The Tiger Eye investigations also uncovered various acts of malfeasance involving not only staff of ECG but some corporate bodies and private individuals who connived with some employees of the ECG to engage in several illegal modes of sabotaging electricity revenue.
These included meter tampering, where some workers at ECG altered the bills (reducing the amount to be paid) of companies and individuals. Others do what is technically known as bypassing, which joining two main wires together for power, thus practically stopping the meter from recording the amount of power used for accurate billing.
A source at Tiger Eye told The Mirror that Anas' investigations followed the concerns raised by the President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, about the poor services offered by the ECG. The three-part video recording will be aired on various television stations from Wednesday, January 18, according to the source.
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Zuku, the East African three-in-one service provider, today announced that it has completed its first major content sale. The deal sees Nigeria’s My TV purchase over 70 hours of programming from three Kenyan production houses through Zuku.
Especially significant is the fact that the deal could represent a shift in traditional content purchasing practices in Africa. Historically, West Africa has supplied East Africa with the large amounts of content, in the form of Nollywood movies, as well as series from Nigeria and Ghana – with hardly any traffic in the opposite direction. The sale of programming from Kenya to Nigeria could indicate a turning point in this regard.
The deal is also an indicative of Zuku’s approach to cultivating quality grass roots content. Since its launch, Zuku has dedicated significant time and resources to ensuring that it works with the best regional talent to both create and aggregate content that is directly relevant to local markets, and has the ability to travel.
Hannelie Bekker, Managing Director of Wananchi Programming said: “From our perspective, it is great to be able to announce a deal like this. One of the core aims of Zuku is to help enable high quality regional content. The sale of these five series to My TV is testament to the ability of good Kenyan content to appeal across borders. East Africa is a hotbed for creative talent and we intend to continue to find the best producers out there and work with them to realize value.”
Joram Migwi, who heads up the distribution project for Zuku, said: “We are particularly proud of the fact that we are involved in one of the first major sales of programming from East to West. This is something that hope to see more of throughout 2012 and this could really enrich the African content economy.”
Carine Mouawad, Head of Programming for My TV says: “My TV is thrilled to introduce ZUKU content to the My TV MORE programs grid, in an ongoing effort to satisfy the growing demand from My TV subscribers for African content. My TV is confident that the ZUKU series will prove hugely successful with Nigerians.”
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- French comedy "Intouchables" ("Untouchables", from Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, 5 awars, 4 nominations at various festivals), which led the pack with 16,888,372 admissions by 3 January 2012 according to CBO-Box Office. Based on a true story, it stars Francois Cluzet as a wealthy quadriplegic whose life is turned upside down when he hires a wisecracking young black man just out of prison, played by Omar Sy, to take care of him.
- The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has applied for a court interdict to stop TopTV from launching porn TV channels, reports Business Day. Back in March 2010, MultiChoice has said it has reviewed draft research data following a subscriber survey into the carriage of adult content on pay-TV channels.
- One of the pioneers of the Ghana Movie Industry, Hammond Mensah of H. M. Films is ready to premiere and release to the general public its latest action packed thriller movie with the title ‘Who Own Da City’.
- Champions League: Africans with an Internet connection will be able to watch the matches of the day live on their computer or mobile phone - Tuesday February 14, 2012, at 7h45 p.m. GMT- and Wednesday Ferbuary 15, 2012.
Click on this link to watch the match.- Gabon: The government of Gabon, led by President Ali Bongo imposed suspensions on a TV station and a newspaper for coverage of opposition leader André Mba Obame, according to local journalists and news reports. The state-run National Communication Council announced on national public television the suspension of Obame-owned broadcaster TV+ for three months and the private weekly Echos Du Nord for two months, according to news reports. Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (New York) 9 January 2012.
- Czech director Jan Sverak is preparing a new project based on the Saul Bellows book Henderson the Rain King together with his long time production partner Eric Abraham of Portobello Pictures. Sverak is currently polishing a script based on the 1959 novel that sees its middle aged American hero Henderson head for Africa to try to "find" himself. Set in Africa the film will be a big budget English language production with a US star in the leading role according to Sverak. The film will shoot entirely on location in Namibia and studios in Cape Town (South Africa).
broadcast
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According to several Tunisian media, a group of Imams in the city of Sfax announced the launch of the first Islamic TV channel. Things are serious and the Islamists will have the newly installed government’s support. It is, indeed, the former Imam of the Al-Fath in Tunis, Noureddine El Khadmi, now Minister of Religious Affairs, who will be the sponsor of this new TV channel called "Al Qalam" ( the pen).
Its purpose, according to its proponents, is better to teach the precepts of Islam in Tunisia. The promoters of the project believe that have not found what they need in other Arab channels. Programmes will provide religious questions relevant to Tunisians by highly qualified theologians. They want to create an alternative to existing religious Arab channels already on offer, broadcasting mainly from Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
But the Tunisian Islamic TV station wants to do better than most TVs religious state channels issued from the Maghreb such as Moroccan channel As-Sadissa or Algerian Coran TV channel or Channel 5. Tunisians believe that these do not respond to questions asked by Muslims today.
According to Tunisian journalists, the legal authority to launch this Islamic TV channel has already been granted and the seat will be Sfax, a region known to be very conservative.
Since 14 January 2011, date of Ben Ali’s departure and of the fall of his power, Tunisia has seen the rise of Islamic politics. This rise started with conflicts following the release last October by private Tunisian channel Nessma TV of an animated film considered blasphemous against Islam. The conflict has since revived the controversy over the wearing of the niqab at university and led gradually to the victory of Islamist movement Ennahda, long banned by Ben Ali.
The emergence of an Islamic television channel in Tunisia is also the result of the absence of programmes with a real religious connotation. Today in the Maghreb, almost no one is watching As-Sadissa channel in Morocco or Coran TV in Algeria.
Their programs are too educational, too demagogic and adversarial debates are not allowed. Even people who work on these public channels do not watch them.
They prefer television channels such as Iqra or Madjd where very famous theologians like Amr Khaled and Karadaoui determine the actual life of the Muslims with that of Islam today. Religion on television is so serious that it is not to be left to mere technicians or officials. -
GlobeCast and ARABSAT announced today that the Global Arabic Bouquet (GAB), a grouping of premium Arabic channels from the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) available anywhere in the world, is now located on the 5C satellite over Africa. This satellite, ARABSAT's newest, was launched in September 2011.
GlobeCast – ARABSAT and ASBU's partner for the worldwide distribution of the GAB – is providing all the technical services required for end-to-end delivery. The terrestrial delivery is done from Amman by Jordan Media City. This service via ARABSAT replaces the bouquet's previous distribution.
Since the launch of their partnership in 2004, GlobeCast, ARABSAT and ASBU have expanded the Global Arabic Bouquet's potential viewership and footprint, offering a single global coverage to ASBU members.
Philippe Fort, Chief Operating Officer of GlobeCast says, "We are pleased to work with our long-time partners ARABSAT and ASBU on optimizing the delivery of this bouquet of premium Arab content to households across Africa. We're looking forward to the bouquet's success in this growing market."
Khaled Balkheyour, ARABSAT President and CEO, said "Our partnership with GlobeCast has been strengthened with the successful launch of ARABSAT 5C as our fleet is becoming part of the global distribution network of Free-to-Air Arabic channels managed by GlobeCast, specifically the ARABSAT/ASBU Global Bouquet."
Commenting on the new development, Salaheddine Maaoui, ASBU Director General, said, "ARABSAT 5C will give the Arab broadcasters an opportunity to reach the Arab viewers in the African continent, where C-band still plays an important role. This means that Arab broadcasters can now reach African viewers more easily."
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East African pay TV service Zuku TV has signed up 35,000 subscribers in its first five months.
The news that Zuku TV has reached 35,000 subscribers comes as the service’s parent company Wananchi Group plans to roll the platform out in a raft of countries in 2012. Zuku TV is already available in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and it hopes to launch Zuku TV in Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Malawi and Somalia next year.
The platform airs a number of own-brand news, sports and entertainment channels as well as international channels including channels from BBC Worldwide, MTV, MGM and Setanta.
“Zuku has been very well received in the markets that we have rolled out in. Part of the reason for our success we believe is our commitment to providing fresh, innovative and affordable entertainment for the Wananchi. We have experienced unprecedented demand for our product to the point where we are selling out in a lot of our stores. We however would like to also reassure our customers that we are in the process of replenishing our stocks in time for the festive season,” said Wananchi Group CEO, Richard Bell.
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DStv responded to complaints aired in the press that it was over-charging for its Pay TV service. According to DStv, if you take the South Africa subscription in dollars, it is about $80 for the premium bouquet, if you compare this to the same Nigerian bouquet, it is $66. It said South Africa has a price structure that increases every year contrary to the situation in Nigeria where the tariff has remained constant for five years.
“We have increased price twice in six years. Nigerian subscribers have argued that the country is a large market and as such, it should be treated with special concessions, the source said, adding that the market is not as big as people think as pay TV penetration is about 1.5 million compared to the 10 to 20 million population in that has access to television. But in South Africa, the percentage of the population that has access to Pay TV, the source said, is about 5%.
The competition from My TV, Star Times and HITV (now bankrupt) has not matched up with the DSTV, which prides itself as having a far greater choice of programmes. Exclusivity of content and the failure of other channels to offer competitive content remain an issue: “Exclusivity is the backbone of Pay TV business. The competition is on which of the Pay_TV stations could offer the best entertainment, sports, music, education etc. While it is believed that the principles of free market should be the norm, the other operators offering lower prices remain weak in their programme bouquet”, a source said.
While responding to the operating environment, the Zonal Director of National Broadcasting Commission, (NBC) Olufemi Olumide in interaction with Vanguard on Tuesday in Lagos said that there was need for local languages in programs like DStv’s African Magic channel. According to him, if Nigerian local languages were not encouraged in these programs, the country may be left behind in local content.
Piracy remains a big issue in the Nigerian Pay TV market. According to the Director, Public Affairs of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Charles Olisaeloka Obi in a telephone interview with our reporter noted that the Commission was committed to ensuring that broadcast signals were not pirated. “In the past three weeks, we raided many houses in Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa, Lagos among others who were involved in pirating broadcast signals. We will continue to do that to ensure that sanity is restored in the system” he said. By next week according to him, NCC will be rolling out Copyright Marshals as part of its piracy campaign.
For the MultiChoice Managing Director, John Ugbe, cost of content keeps increasing by the day. “Cost of content acquisition is the greatest challenge pay TV operators are faced with globally.
People are getting more aware and enlightened about cable television, thus, the demand is on the increase. Especially with the introduction of local contents such as Tinsel, Big Brother Africa, 53 extra, Jara to mention but a few provided by Mnet on the platform of Dstv” he said.
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- WebTV TV5Monde Africa, launched in May 2010 and available free worldwide on all computers connected to the Internet (tv5mondeplusafrique.com), on Facebook, on Android touch pads, and on Philips and Toshiba connected TV sets, reached a record audience in November 2011, totalling more than 270,000 visits and 55,000 fans on Facebook. The many African series represent the most successful WebTV content across all the continents it broadcasts to.
- Super 5 Media, formerly known as Telkom Media, still wants to offer pay-TV services to South Africans, more than three years after first being licensed (from Icasa on 4 August 2008), and has requested yet another 6 months extension from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to launch its products. In a notice published in the Government Gazette on 28 December, Icasa says it has received applications from Super 5 Media to extend the launch date of its “individual subscription television broadcasting service operations”.
- The source of the jamming being conducted against Eritrean satellite broadcast has been confirmed to be Ethiopia. Disclosing this fact, the Riyadh-based Arab Satellite Communications said that it has told the regime in Addis Ababa that the practice is illegal. In connection with this, Asmelash Abraha, Director General of Eritrean Television, told ERINA that in continuation of its hostile policy of blocking information disseminated from Eritrea, the TPLF regime, with the complicity of external forces, is engaged in jamming and interfering activities. Full story here
- The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is to hold an emergency meeting over the massive clampdown on radio and television stations in the ongoing probe into alleged mismanagement of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) property.
- South Africa: SAARF released its January 2012 TAMS universe update (audience survey).
distribution
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Zuku, the three-in-one service package from Wananchi Group, has entered a licensing agreement with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution for the pay television rights in the East Africa region to a broad selection of library feature films, it was announced today. The agreement is part of the ongoing drive to increase the all inclusive entertainment offering from Zuku.
Second pay movie deals are becoming increasingly popular in the region and Zuku is at the forefront of this exciting development. The agreement with NBCUniversal sees a wealth of programming coming to East African screens. Highlights of movies included in the agreement are: The Incredible Hulk; the Mummy 3; Mamma Mia!; Hellboy 2: The Golden Army; The Changeling and The Tale of Despereaux. Additional highlights include all three films that make up the Jurassic Park trilogy; Spike Lee titles Mo' Better Blues and Jungle Fever; 21 Grams; 8 Mile; Dragonheart; Undercover Brother; Shakespeare in Love; and Gladiator.
The deal with NBCUniversal increases the range of film choice available to East African audiences. The agreement coincides with the renewal of existing deals that mean Zuku is also able to offer even more 'second pay' movies.
Hannelie Bekker, Managing Director of Wananchi Programming, says: "The deal with NBCUniversal marks yet another exciting step for Zuku, bringing a wealth of movie content to our channel bouquets. This continued investment in range and choice is part of Zuku's ongoing commitment to providing an affordable variety of content to East Africans. We are excited to be working with NBCUniversal to bring this range of second pay library movies to viewers. The market in Africa is changing and we are delighted to be at the heart of it."
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South African pay-TV broadcaster SuperSport has acquired the television rights for the London Olympics in 2012.
Coverage from Naspers-owned SuperSport will be spread across a number of channels, broadcasting in high definition and for 24 hours a day. Each channel will transmit up to 14 hours of live sport, using the live feed produced by the International Olympic Committee.
Africa's leading sports network, SuperSport is carried on the DStv satellite pay-TV platform in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa, as well as having feeds on M-Net, CSN, and M-Net HD.
SuperSport has committed to have four news crews in London for the duration of the Summer Olympics, following South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and other African teams, preparing both live and daily highlights packages.
The broadcaster says it will also produce an Olympics weekend show called 'London Calling', complete with athletes and special guests.
SuperSport's Olympic build-up will start on 16 December with legacy programming, building up to the opening ceremony on 27 July 2012. The London Games runs until 12 August 2012.
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- SES Astra has announced that it has signed a capacity agreement with the South African pay-TV operator On Digital Media (ODM) for three transponders on its Astra 4A satellite, and has also contracted to provide the related broadcasting services via its affiliate Astra Platform Services. ODM will use the capacity on Astra 4A to deliver TopTV, a new pay-TV bouquet that will be offered to South African viewers from in May.
investment
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Following the successful launch of NigComSat-1R into space on Monday, December 19, 2011, and its successful landing in its orbital position in space on Tuesday December 27, 2011, which was barely 168 hours after it was launched from the earth surface, the communications satellite will commence full commercial service February 6, 2012.
Managing Director of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai who gave the hint during an interactive session with the media in Abuja at the weekend, said he was happy for the successful launch and landing of NigComSat-1R.
Amed-Rufai added that the communications satellite was currently undergoing test to ascertain its fitness after the launch. According to him, the test-run will last for five weeks (January ending), and thereafter, the satellite will commence full commercial service February 6.
"We are currently test-running the satellite to ensure that its entire systems are still in order and that they still retain their values after the satellite was launched. The result we are getting so far from the test is very good. At the end of the test, which NigComSat Engineers are currently carrying out in Nigeria under the tutelage of China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), builders of NigComSat-1R, it will be formally handed over to Nigeria, to take full control of the communications satellite. Testing is taking place at the two ground stations in Abuja, Nigeria, and we will go full commercial sales of transponders and channels to customers that are within and outside Nigeria," Ahmed-Rufai said.
Fielding questions from journalists on its marketing strategies, Executive Director, Marketing for NigComSat, Mrs. Abimbola Alale said NigComSat had before the launch in December, commenced pre-launch marketing with government and some private sector companies.
According to her, customers to NigComSat-1 are confident in NigComSat-1R because of the quality and cheap services rendered by NigComSat-1 before it was de-orbited, and new customers are already showing interest to hook on to NigComSat-1R as soon as it goes commercial.
The Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and Galaxy Television, have given us their words to return to NigComSat-1R, as soon as it goes commercial. Several other government agencies and the private sectors have also indicated interest to hook on to NigComSat-1R, and over 60 per cent of government agencies are ready to hook on to NigComSat-1R. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), customs, immigration, army police among others within the country, as well as customers outside Nigeria are al waiting for NigCoSat-1R, and we are pleased to share with the public, this development.
"As we speak, we have two requests from Ghana for the purchase of our transponders and our satellite covers over 40 African countries, and it is capable of delivering services to every customer in those countries, be it government or private," Alale said.
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China Central Television has officially launched CCTV Africa, a news production center based in Kenya that focuses on African news and perspectives as well as international news.
CCTV Africa will initially produce a one-hour program every day, broadcast through CCTV's English news channel. The main focus will be on news, but will also feature interviews with leading newsmakers and documentaries. The reports will cover the political, economic, social and cultural aspects in the entire African region.
At the same time, CCTV's mobile TV application "I Love Africa" was also officially launched after six months of broadcast testing. Designed as a brand new platform for Africans to learn more about China and the world, CNTV, the Online Broadcast Center of CCTV, allows viewers in Africa to watch documentaries, educational programs, TV dramas and films through mobile terminal devices.
The launch of CCTV Africa marks CCTV's successful establishment of its broadcast network over the African continent. CCTV Africa has about 100 employees from different culture backgrounds. They are young, energetic and professional. Many of them are Kenyan citizens. In order to ensure high-quality programming, CCTV Africa is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, including two HD broadcasting studios.
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- CAD (China Africa Development fund) inked an agreement with Star communication network technology on Dec 21, 2011 to develop a wireless digital TV network in Africa.
- The 28th edition of the African Cup of Nations Orange will be held from January 21 to February 12, 2012 in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, the most important international football competition in Africa, bringing together the sixteen best national teams. On this occasion, Canal + Africa invested again in this great sporting event through the setting up of special programmes including HD broadcast.
South Sudan: Official blames SSTV management for poor programmes despite funding. In Juba, the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Information George Garang Deng said poor management system of National Television SSTV and South Sudan Radio is a sole cause of in poor performance of the country's media house. Source: The Citizen, Lagu Joseph Jackson, 7 January 2012.
regulation & policy
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Kenyan pay-TV providers MultiChoice, Smart TV and Wananchi Group's Zuku have blamed the low penetration of their services on decoder import duty, Business Daily reported. Taxes account for 45 percent of the cost of the gadget.
According to Business Daily, the operators say a 16 percent tax would enable them to reduce prices, a view the government said it was evaluating. DStv parent MultiChoice's Kenya General Manager Stephen Isaboke said import taxes on ¬decoders are a major discouraging element in the uptake of pay television services in the country. Information and Communications Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said that the high taxes on decoders could stifle migration to digital broadcasting. On average, a pay-TV decoder costs KES 6,000.
Service providers said the price could fall to KES 3,260 if import duty is waived. The uptake rate of pay-TV currently stands at 1 percent with DStv dominating the market for the last 15 years. The service provider has 100,000 clients compared with 35,000 for its nearest competitor, Zuku.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: On 2 January, communications minister Lambert Mende announced he had ordered the temporary suspension of RFI’s frequencies as a “precautionary measure” until the CSAC ruled on the case.
The shutdown is linked directly to the radio station’s coverage of the disputed results of the presidential election last November. The government accused RFI of trying to “trivialize the anti-constitutional comedy of Mr. Tshisekedi", a reference to opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi who stood against President Joseph Kabila in the election.
RFI was later allowed to resume operations after broadcasts were cut at the start of the year over its election coverage.
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- Uganda: 35 Ministers have been implicated in the suspected abuse of public resources which has cost Uganda Broadcasting Corporation more than Shs50 billion. Three more broadcast stations, including WBS TV in Masaka District, have been switched off air by the police, bringing to 13 the number of media entities shut down over reported illegal use of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) equipment (source: Monitor).
- The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) invites all interested stakeholders to take part in the Authority’s initiative to review the existing analogue broadcasting regulatory frameworks to be in line with the digital era.
- Icasa also threatened that it will take TopTV to court to prevent the pay TV operator from unilaterally starting a new stand-alone pornographic package for which it has no approval certificate.
- Somalia: TV Journalist is held without charges. (10 January 2012)
The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland to explain why they have detained Royal Television correspondent Yusuf Ali since Sunday. -
Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) will not be issuing out private television licences any time soon mounting despite mounting pressure to do so, saying its main focus is on meeting the Southern African Development Community (SADC) deadline on the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.
technology & convergence
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The service launched with a library from On Demand Group’s studio and television partnerships providing popular series such as Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Entourage, and hundreds of music videos.
Ondemand! is one of the World leader in interactive media development, content acquisition, service and content management and television production.
Subscribers are able to watch on their mobile phones whenever they want with complete control to pause, resume, and replay. On Demand Group delivers annually 250,000 movies, TV programmes and promotions to 12 video service provider platforms, covering 10-million on-demand enabled homes and 100-million mobile subscribers in six languages including Arabic, English, French, German, Greek and Turkish.
More about Ondemand! here
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South African pay-TV operator MultiChoice has opened its internet video-on-demand (VoD) service BoxOffice Online to beta testers.
The move follows the July launch of the satellite version of BoxOffice, which allows DStv users to rent movies on their personal video recorders for 48 hours. Users do not need to be DStv subscribers. MultiChoice said it will allow a thousand users to sign up for the trial this month, with a further thousand given access to the service in January, TechCentral reported.
In addition to movie rentals, BoxOffice Online will also offer DStv's "catch-up" service, where DStv subscribers can watch shows that have already aired. Payment for the VoDis done via credit card and consumers are then able to download content to their computer for viewing. Final pricing for movies has not been finalised, but has been set at ZAR 33 per title for the duration of the trial. DStv Online CEO John Kotsaftis said the online model offers a wider selection (30-40) of titles.
The satellite version of BoxOffice has only 15 movies available at any given time because of storage constraints of the recorder. Kotsaftis says one of the aims of the trial is to ensure the user experience, payment mechanisms and product work properly before it is made available to a wider audience.
The average title is between 845-900MB in size, and Kotsaftis says the company has opted to run the trial via a desktop client because SA's broadband can be inconsistent and this can prove problematic for streaming. A browser-based version of the service will follow after commercial launch. ¬DStv expects to make the service commercially available in February or March next year.
Kotsaftis says the company will continue to assess the state of SA's broadband connectivity and will continue to enhance the service and increase the quality of the video it provides as connectivity improves.
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- South Africa’s migration from analogue to digital broadcasting has been fraught with delays and debates, the most recent of which centres around the use of encryption on free-to-air (FTA) channels.
- Tanzania: The government is looking for a way to scrap taxes on decoders to make the gadgets affordable to many people, as Tanzania switches to digital broadcasting technology from the analogue system. Speaking after opening the Sixth African Communication Regulation Authorities' Network (ACRAN), Communication, Science and Technology deputy minister Charles Kitwanga said: “We have started working on this matter to make all Tanzanians be able to enjoy the new digital era in broadcasting.”
more
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- The owner of Senegalese broadcast stations TFM (Television Futurs Medias) Youssou N'dour will run for President. "I am a candidate. I will engage in the presidential race," N'dour said in a broadcast late on Monday on his own radio and television station. N'dour enjoys huge popularity in Senegal for his music, which helped expose the country's unique 'Mbalax' drumming and singing styles to the mainstream, but it remains unclear if he will be able to translate his fame into votes.
- Domingo Corral has been appointed by Turner Broadcasting System Europe Limited to head up general entertainment content for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
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Méditalents 2: launch of the call for projects
CFI together with the association 1000 visages and the Quarzazate Film Commission launch the 2nd Meditalents call for projects.Its objective is to support young Mediterranean film makers / scriptwriters in the development of their first full-length fiction film through several writing and production workshops.
By sustaining the development of young film makers, the aim of Meditalents is to allow the emergence of new talents coming from the south of the Mediterranean, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt.
Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is one of CFI´s major lines of development through practical initiatives targeting the media, young professionals and local production.
The closing date for this 2nd call for projects is fixed for 10th of May, 2012.
Visit the website here:
Sundance Offers New Streaming Distribution Options
All Sundance-Stamped Films Eligible Giving Life To Buried Works
A piece lifted from a profile/announcement of the program in today's New York Times:Thanks to a recent arrangement between the Sundance Institute, which operates the festival, and the Manhattan distributor New Video, six Web homes — Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, YouTube and SundanceNOW — are making... any... eligible Sundance film, available for streaming online. The option is open to every film ever shown at the festival, or brought to a Sundance lab, or given a Sundance grant. Filmmakers don’t surrender their rights. They (17 so far, with thousands of potential participants) can opt to go with any or all of the half-dozen sites. They have, in essence, a guaranteed means of distribution.
Source: by Tambay
Opportunities in Sci-FiTwo years after her first feature film was released to critical acclaim, Kenyan Helmer Wanuri Kahiu is poised to make a splash on the international scene - and she's hoping the notoriety lets her challenge some of the lingering stereotypes about her homeland. Read the full story on Filmcontact.
Oberhausen will be in Jo’burg.
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen has posted its greatest ever response for the sixth edition of its short film tour "Oberhausen on Tour": 49 venues in 21 countries are taking part, more than ever since the introduction of the event in 2003. The tour kicks off on 13 January 2012 in Wiesbaden's Caligari Filmbühne, with the last stop at the Lichtspiel Kinemathek in Berne on 14 June. Between these two dates, the seven short film programmes will travel from Munich to Hamburg, Santiago de Compostela to Istanbul, and from Johannesburg to San Luisi Potosi.
