Into Africa

AFRICAN TELEVISION: Kicking off a series of articles about African television, Canis Media CEO Ed Hall tells Martin Buxton that despite the global downturn Africa is a place where TV is set to grow.

The television landscape in Africa is changing and changing fast. As the free market gains a stronger foothold, television across the continent is being forced to adapt and at a speed that may at times seem bewildering.

Until fairly recently, Africa has on the whole been thought of as a single market in TV terms. When acquiring pay-TV rights to a particular programme, for example, it has not been unusual for a company to licence continent-wide rights rather than territory by territory.

However, recent years have seen the growth of national broadcasters, and multiplatform offerings have become more powerful, and in turn rights-owners are starting to see the benefit of viewing Africa as the 50-plus separate countries it actually is. “The whole of sub-Saharan Africa is twice the size of the UK market, in terms of TV households. So it wasn’t so odd to see it as a single market if you were sitting in an America studio exec’s office,” explains Ed Hall, CEO of digital TV management specialist Canis Media.

Hall adds that while the rest of the world may be facing a downturn in its financial fortunes during 2009 to 2010, the picture for the television industry in Africa is quite different. “In Africa, we’re going to see sustained growth for the next five years, both in the breadth of what’s on offer in the number of channels, but also in new platforms, the launch of digital terrestrial television and the number of TV households.

According to research from the World Bank, the number of TV households in sub-Saharan Africa will soar by 30% from 44 million to 58 million between 2008 to 2013. And as that critical mass grows, some countries are starting to see the launch of effective commercial television networks. Two of the most prominent African multichannel providers that have risen up are satellite TV operators HiTV of Nigeria and the recently closed pan-African pay-TV service GTV, targeting West Africa.

Hall says GTV’s funding problems and subsequent collapse reflected the current economic climate and its shareholders’ reluctance to part with cash, rather than a sign of weakness in the African TV market. “It leaves the African multichannel market looking strong for MultiChoice’s pay-TV service DSTV but also opens up opportunities for HiTV or another new player to expand,” he explains.

But while the market is set to grow, it is by no means going be a uniform development. “There currently isn’t a consistent broad picture, but once you get into the larger economies, you start to get private television, for example, places where there has been entrepreneurial radio and people are now starting to look at the same options in television,” says Hall.

“The structure of the market includes some significant economies, such as South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, which have really significant growing middle class populations with real disposable incomes and access to TV. At the upper end of that group, there are people with DSTV, a subscription to a satellite operator or some form of multichannel TV, much like the US or Europe.”

And the growth of the African middle class has been made possible by the disappearance of the political constraints caused by regimes and systems such as apartheid in South Africa, allowing for growth in economies and generating the need for advertising. “A lot of the existing television business models only make sense if you are prepared to advertise,” says Hall.

“There’s always been a middle class in Africa, but the growth of the black middle class in Africa with real economic power is something we’ve only seen in relatively recent times. Probably only since 1994, really. There’s been massive inward investment. China has spent billions and billions in Africa, in terms of commodities and massive investment in mines and infrastructure. A lot of people are making money there, and once you become economically significant, with money to spend, people want to advertise their products to you.

“In Rwanda, you’ve recently seen the first supermarket chain open, the first cinema opening there, you’re seeing private radio stations doing well. There isn’t a private television station yet, but I don’t think it would be too big a risk to say that over the next five years there will be one.”

Another big driver of growth of African television is the advent of cable. There are currently two fibre optic cable pipelines making their way down the continent’s east coast, which will boost the countries’ connectivity to the rest of the world. “Most people in Africa don’t have internet delivery as part of their mindset at the moment because it’s so bad, but that’s going to change. There’s currently no extended quick surfing, and clicking on hyperlinks is a real challenge. There’s not much bandwidth, you can’t deliver anything by IP, and IPTV is just pie in the sky. But as that connectivity to the rest of the world gets better, the simple fact of next door-type delivery will open a lot of these markets.”

As well as having the potential for economic development, the growth of television across the continent is also bringing another aspiration to Africa. African viewers are also hoping the industry will give them access to information and democracy. And as television in Africa moves away from what Hall describes as “Mr President TV”, it seems television has already proved it has the power to spark change.

“Talking to small broadcasters in Kenya is very interesting. They believe they couldn’t have the problems they had two years ago if the media had been as free as they feel it is now. So it has a role in policing democracy, which we believe we have here.”

Hall also describes how Rwanda has dug up almost all of its streets to allow for cable networks to be put in place, with the work being carried out by those that actually took part in the 1994 genocide. “They have spent their time in prison and are now out in the community, serving community sentences. Their job is now helping to build a new Rwanda,” says Hall. “It’s a stark image of both the dark side and challenges facing Africa, but also how exciting the changes and the future are.”

Produced in association with NATPE’s DISCOP AFRICA