Scramble for African TV news

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

Full Profile

E-mail

THE TV news broadcasting industry in SA and beyond is investing millions of rands to increase the scope of operations radically, not only in SA but across the continent, in spite of the weakening global economic outlook.

On June 1 e.sat, the sister business to free-to-air TV channel e.tv, will launch a 24-hour news channel on MultiChoice’s DStv platform. In addition, e.sat plans to introduce a number of new channels for the DStv platform over the next few years.

E .sat and e.tv plan to distribute channels worldwide with a focus on emerging markets in Africa and the Far East.

The two companies will also focus on producing and distributing channels on the new digital terrestrial TV platform, which is expected to roll out in November this year.

The imminent launch of the news service follows the establishment of CNBC Africa in June last year.

The US-based global business news broadcaster set up bureaus in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Abuja, Lagos and Nairobi, and in this country is one of a suite of news channels offered by DStv including CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC World, SABC and Sky News.

CNBC Africa is also broadcast to the rest of Africa, where there are about 8-million decoders capable of receiving it.

At the International Media Forum conference this week, Al Jazeera Africa editor Andrew Simmons said his organisation also intended to expand in SA and the rest of the continent in the not too distant future.

Meanwhile, Telkom Media is still busy with the construction of a broadcasting centre in Centurion, near Pretoria, which it is building so that it can launch a 24-hour pay-TV news service.

A Telkom Media spokesman was not able to say when it intends to launch the service.

Telkom SA is considering reducing its majority stake in Telkom Media, which has caused some uncertainty about the outlook for some of Telkom Media’s planned investments.

State broadcaster SABC launched its SABC International news service last July, and the channel became a full 24-hour news service last month, SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said on Friday.

The news channel is being broadcast via the Sentech Vivid Satellite Digital Decoder, which broadcasts to sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Europe.

The news channel can also be viewed every day on SABC2 between 11.30pm and 5.30am .

In addition, the channel is being carried on Washington DC-based PBS Network, reaching 2,2-million viewers.

US channels have expressed interest and deals were being worked on with other African national broadcasters.

Kganyago says the launch of SABC International was important for positioning SA as a voice in the international media arena and for ensuring that an African voice also plays a role in defining global agendas .

“Internationally there has been a lot of interest and we are in the process of selling it to a number of operators,” he says.

So what’s all this about? Have the TV news broadcasters — within a time frame of 24 months — realised that the continent needs more in-depth and better news coverage?

Actually, as with all good investments, it’s got to do with spending one’s rands and cents at the right time.

Coronation Asset Management media analyst Gavin Joubert says a hunger for more and better news content is a characteristic of all emerging economies.

As disposable incomes rise, people want better access to news.

Unfortunately this has not extended to newspapers in SA, where circulation figures are static or declining.

Another factor driving the growing number of news channels is choice. People with better education want choice. Being able to offer choice is an important strategy of every pay-TV channel, says Joubert .

Another analyst points out that news content is also relatively less expensive to source and produce than, for instance, creating or sourcing drama series or movies.

Gary Alfonso, chief operating officer of CNBC Africa, says that the timing of the company’s launch a year ago was because “there is a specific time in the curve of the economic development of all emerging markets, which is the best time to invest. That is also why, I suspect, e.tv is also launching a 24-hour channel.”

CNBC Africa is a full partner of a global network between Asia, Europe and the US.

Alfonso says the channel is entirely advertising and sponsorship driven because globally the trend is towards free-to-air TV , and the model where consumers pay a broadcast platform fee of R500 a month for 20 or so channels is under review.

“We’ve invested because we understand that the African market is a growth story.

“I can’t tell you about our plans, but just as an example, we’ve been contacted by just about every Francophone country in Africa about the localisation of their business news.”

Alfonso points out that Africa’s gross domestic product growth was 5,7% last year, and the average is expected to be 5,9% this year and next year, even when taking the rising price of oil into account. Economic growth in 31 African countries is expected to exceed 5% over the next two years.

From a business news perspective, there are 19 stock exchanges, about 1900 listed companies, and 80 banks in four of Africa’s biggest economies — SA, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.

“The economic revolution in Africa is the next one … international media entities need to establish a presence in Africa if they want a relevant African context,” he says .

“We don’t do helicopter journalism, where the journalist flies into a story by helicopter and then leaves, or he sits in a bureau and writes a story about a country which gets published far away, once every three weeks.

“We make every country where we operate part of the global business news discussion, daily.”

He says CNBC Africa is already breaking even, no mean feat for any TV station.

Africa TV comments