The Channel | 2003 | September

24 / 48

By invitation
Afric
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Telev
George Twumasi, chairman of the African Public Broadcasting Foundation,
and vice-chairman of AIB member African Broadcasting Network, explains that
the myth of Africa being a radio-only continent is simply untrue
AA frica is the world’s last
untapped television market.
For broadcasters who
discover how to meet the needs of
the audience and build infrastructure,
it could become one of the most
important development areas.
There is already a massive and
growing demand for programming of
all kinds, including, sport,
entertainment, and public service.
There are almost 500m Africans in
sub-Saharan Africa, aroundhalf
under the age of 25. Current
television advertising revenues
outside South Africa are around
$400m and both logic and the
performance of developing television
markets elsewhere dictate that the
figure will grow towards the $1bn
mark over the next five years.
Latest evidence produced for the
African Public Broadcasting
Foundation by Graham Mytton,
the former head of BBC World
Service research and one of the
world’s leading experts on
broadcasting in Africa, shows that,
despite poverty, television has
already spread much further than
most people would guess (see
table right).
Television services, however, remain
mostly poor. Against this
background, it is vital to create
models for development of
broadcasting and programme
operations that are based on private-
public partnership - that marry the
expertise and resources of
broadcasters and manufacturers
with development funds. In that way,
there will be the injection of capital
and the generation of expertise that
will lead to robust and sustainable
business models.
In addition it will reinforce the fledgling
African production industry and bring
to the continent for the first time high
quality programmes made for Africa
by Africans. Strong effort is needed
to kick-start this development and
underpin it with the necessary
funding. In this context, many
agencies are being slow to wake up.
This is a golden opportunity not only
to create a robust broadcast industry,
but also to generate the sort of public
service broadcasting that the
continent has hitherto been deprived
of. Through it, there is the potential
to spread knowledge that will help in
the reduction of poverty.
Good television, more than any other
medium, has the power to change
lives. It is a shame that some
development agencies – such as the
Department for International
Development in the UK - do not yet
seem to have caught up with the
Who’s going to give me knowledge?
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