16
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the
channel
F
M
broadcasting
has become central to the delivery strategy
of the World Service in Africa. One third of its global worldwide
measured audience of 150 million adult listeners actually live
in Africa and it is easily arguable today that a large and growing
chunk of these BBC listeners on the continent do so via FM relays
or FM partnerships. This trend is likely to grow in the coming
years, even if new or recent delivery technologies, such as
WorldSpace or DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), become significant
in time. Even if they do, new receivers will have to become available
at the right price!
For now and for the foreseeable future, FM is truly the buzz word
all over Africa. What we have witnessed over the last ten years or
so is the phenomenal growth of the FM market in Africa. This is
exactly the same pattern that occurred in Europe in the 70s and
80s. Similar issues of deregulation and competition were tackled
in various ways, but most African countries today have set up
systems of control and allocation of frequencies in line with ITU
guidelines, that are generally efficient and technically adequate.
State monopolies have, on the whole, ended and private operators
thrive not only in the capital cities but also in most of the important
towns around Africa. National and state radios which sometimes
used to rule the waves in splendid isolation find themselves facing
a new dynamic competition and have to rediscover the values and
strengths of radio and of sound commercial management! Times
are a changing…
FM delivers good sound quality, is ideal in urban environments
and is relatively cheap to set up and operate. FM has thus become
an attractive proposition for commercial operators, but also for
NGOs or religious organisations.
However, World Service’s short wave transmissions to Africa will
continue for many years to come and for obvious reasons because
they secure the geographic reach that FM will never deliver. FM
has a fairly limited reach, typically 50km, and it is also vulnerable
to power breaks or political upheavals and it needs constant and
sometimes costly maintenance.
The new impetus really started at the beginning of the 90s with
the wave of democratisation and the calls for multiparty systems
that swept many countries. Increased media freedom came along
naturally and different regions liberalised at various speeds. This
communication revolution was of course helped by the increasing
availability of reliable technologies and cheaper European
transmitters, plus digital studio operations. Last but not least,
the development of better and increasingly cheaper satellite
coverage of the continent from 1995 has also contributed to the
FM revolution. Technological change, as well as the online
explosion, have fed and underpinned the momentum for the
liberalisation of the sector.
West Africa was probably quickest to deregulate: Senegal, Mali,
Burkina Faso and then Ivory Coast followed by Ghana and Nigeria.
Uganda was at the forefront of deregulation in East Africa, soon
followed by Tanzania and Kenya. South Africa remodelled its
broadcasting landscape after 1994, introducing the original concept
of community broadcasting which has since grown side by side
with the revitalised public service and commercial sectors.
Most countries today have an open field with more or less easy
access. Even Ethiopia, Morocco or Angola are now in the process
of either planning or introducing deregulation. All this is naturally
extremely beneficial for listeners: it increases their choices and
opens up a better circulation of ideas and information in Africa.
Radio has re-established its pre-eminence as the main medium in
Africa, even where television is more and more available
terrestrially, or through satellite or micro wave distribution.
Before talking about the role of international broadcasters in this,
it is useful to note that the real winners, apart from the listening
public, have been local stations and staff – a growth sector for
jobs and opportunities and advertising in these difficult times for
African commercial interests. Surveys show that it is always local
media houses who lead in audiences on FM, and the role of
international broadcasters – who do not advertise and therefore
take nothing from the local advertising base – is smaller and needs
to be seen within that greater view.
These new trends have,
however, radically
changed the context of
i n t e r n a t i o n a l
broadcasting to Africa.
The main operators
such as BBC, RFI, VoA
or Deutsche Welle have
answered these new
challenges with various
degrees of success.
The first approach was
indeed
obvious:
securing a local licence
from the regulatory authority to be able to establish 24 hour relay
stations in your main target areas. This is the policy that the BBC
and RFI have successfully implemented over the last ten years or
so. The VOA is beginning to follow suit.
As for the BBC, its clear strategy in Africa from the start was to
establish an FM presence in every capital city of the continent.
Ambitious perhaps, but so far thirty capital cities of Africa can
tune in to the World Service on FM and the network of dedicated
BBC relays (40 at the latest count) is growing all the time. Rather
than ‘rebroadcasting’, this is indeed direct broadcasting, the BBC
feeding its FM relays by satellite just as it is delivering signals to
its main short wave relays in the world.
In countries like Nigeria, Uganda, DR Congo, Kenya, Tanzania or
soon Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal, the reach of FM is or will
be even wider, reaching the main urban centres beyond the capital
cities.
From Freetown to Maputo, Dakar, Nairobi, Kigali or Khartoum, the
BBC is now well established on the FM band and traditional short
wave listeners happily convert to the better sound quality that is
now available everywhere.
Short wave broadcasting is far from redundant and it will remain one
of the fundamental building blocks of audiences in the years to come.
The World Service is also available on the MultiChoice digital TV bouquet
over Africa, but it requires expensive decoders and subscriptions that
only small minorities can afford. BBC is also on the WorldSpace bouquet
and the number of users of the new digital receivers is growing as
cheaper sets become available. One day perhaps the DRM project will
allow such wide reach with FM sound quality via affordable receivers...
That may remain the winning equation for the future.
In some countries, foreign broadcasters are not allowed as such
to apply or secure broadcasting licences of their own. Where this
The real winners have been
listening public, local stations and
staff – a growth sector for jobs
and opportunities
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