Film chief says market to determine broadcasters’ airtime sharing

By Fredrick Obura

The Government will let the market forces determine how broadcasters’ share airtime between local and international content.

Kenya Film Commission Chief Executive Officer Peter Mutie told an International conference on broadcasting, film and music in Nairobi that given the choice between intervention by government and market forces, his commission would choose the latter.

“We believe the 40 per cent local content requirement for local broadcasters is sufficient for now. In fact, we have seen from evidence and viewer ratings that broadcasters with the heaviest local contents have the biggest viewership in Kenya,” he said.

Instead, Mutie said the producers have to develop content of high quality to get the airtime they need. He observed that some of the content on the market was of low quality and could therefore not compete effectively.

Industry meet

Mutie was speaking during a continental conference on broadcast, film and Music organised by AITEC Africa where the Government has been challenged to block prime time slots in local broadcasters for local contents.

The conference dubbed Broadcasting, Film and Music Africa (BFMA) had brought together broadcasters, music producers, content developers, technology suppliers, financiers and regulators to reflect on the progress in the industry.

Issuing the challenge, Gregory Odutayo, a Nigerian TV and Radio producer with Royal Roots Communication said a similar move to allocate all prime time slots in Nigerian Media had been responsible for the production boom that gave birth to the Nigerian movie industry.

“We have to deal with the challenge posed by the Mexican soaps on our TVs.

 Part of the reasons the Mexican soaps have flooded our screens is because they are acquired cheaply. Some of the series will be accessed at a price of $100 (Sh8,400) per episode. In Nigeria, because of advocacy by producers, we had the Government setting aside all prime time slots to local contents. This move forced the Nigerian broadcasters to move the soaps to earlier slots in their programming, “said Odutayo.

Odutayo who is the chief executive officer, Royal Roots Communication that produced award winning drama series Edge of Paradise for Mnet said the business of independent TV and Radio production faces serious challenges.

 “One of the causes of these challenges is the fact that most broadcasters do not want to invest in quality production. As an independent producer, you have to raise funds for production, seek advertising and then buy airtime from broadcasters through revenue sharing agreements,” said the producer.

Odutayo also said that African producers also have to contend with Reality TV production such as Project Fame, and Idol, which have sucked up most of commercial sponsorship.

“Commercial sponsorship for drama and movie productions have virtually dried up. In such a scenario, movie and drama production is largely endangered,” he said.

Speaking at the same event, Ann Overbergh from Balancing Act-Africa said broadcasting was changing rapidly in Africa and challenged players to be dynamic in order to survive.

“The audiences are being fragmented in to the various channels of distributions of contents. This is a serious challenge and an opportunity as well. A challenge because it is difficult to monetise some of the audiences and an opportunity because the producer can target specific audiences,” she said.

She said producers and broadcasters could reap the benefits if they broadcasted on multi-platforms and also adopted multimedia approaches.