Looking at the media evolution in Africa A Presentation by Amir Jahangir at the BBC Media Leaders Conference in South Africa

1. African TV
Evolution and Revolution
Amir Jahangir
Media Leaders, Johannesburg, South Africa
18-19 November 2019
Amir Jahangir | @amirjahangir | aj@mishal.com.pk Mark Kaigwa | @MKaigwa | mark@nendo.co.ke

2. Evolution of Television in Africa
WHEN TELEVISION
SPREAD
THROUGHOUT THE
WORLD, MANY
AFRICAN
COUNTRIES
ADOPTED THE
MEDIUM.
DURING THE 1950’S
AND 1960’S,
TELEVISION
SERVICES WERE
INTRODUCED BY
COLONIAL POWERS
IN, AMONG
OTHERS,
MOROCCO (1954),
ALGERIA (1956),
NIGERIA (1956),
ANGOLA (1962),
AND KENYA (1962)
BETWEEN 1960
AND THE 1980S,
AFRICAN
TELEVISION
STATIONS WERE
MAINLY
GOVERNMENT-
CONTROLLED,
WITH VERY LITTLE
INPUT FROM THE
PRIVATE SECTOR.
SOME AFRICAN
COUNTRIES HAD TO
WAIT UNTIL WELL
AFTER
INDEPENDENCE
AND ONLY
RECEIVED
TELEVISION IN THE
1980S, EVEN THE
1990S. NIGER
INTRODUCED THE
MEDIUM IN 1980,
A FEW YEARS LATER
LESOTHO (1985),
CAMEROON (1985)
AND CHAD (1987).
TANZANIA’S FIRST
TELEVISION
SERVICE, A PRIVATE
STATION, WAS
LAUNCHED IN
1994.

3. Africa’s Media from Analogue to Satellite
Efforts to remedy the situation began in
1985, when a group of South African media
companies, including Naspers (the parent
group of MultiChoice), converged and
launched M-Net, Africa’s first pay-television
channel.
M-Net then began providing television
viewers in South Africa with an alternative
that enabled them subscribe to a pay-
television service offering top-class
programming

4. Africa’s Media from Analogue to Satellite
To expand its operations beyond
South Africa, split M-Net into
two companies in 1992, with one
dedicated to delivering video
entertainment channels, while
the other focused on subscriber
management and signal
distribution. MultiChoice Africa
grew out as the subscriber
management arm.
By 1996, Multichoice established
operations in Nigeria (1995), Namibia,
Botswana, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda,
Kenya and Zambia, with franchises
launched in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Angola,
Ethiopia and Mozambique. It currently
operates in 47 countries.

5. Africa’s Media from Analogue to Satellite
In 1995, MultiChoice launched
DStv and by 1996, pioneered
wholly digital television
broadcasting in Africa. Through
digitization, it addressed issues
such as poor audio-visual quality
and patchy television signals
associated with analogue
technology.
Using its vast network of
satellites, MultiChoice was able
to reach most of the continent’s
remote regions with high-quality
broadcast and deliver a multi-
channel offering catering to the
diverse cultures and tastes
In 2003, it launched the Dual
View decoder, a world-first,
which enabled the viewing of
two different channels on two
different television sets using
one satellite link. Two years later,
it launched the Personal Video
Recorder (PVR), which allows the
subscriber to record, rewind,
forward and pause broadcasts

6. Africa’s Media from Analogue to Satellite
Next to follow were the
High-Definition PVR
decoder and HD
channels in 2008. The
same year, it introduced
Xtraview on DStv, the
first in Africa. Xtraview
allows the subscriber to
link two or three
decoders under the
same subscription
With the growing global
trend of viewing video
content on the internet,
MultiChoice, began
syndicating its content
for viewing on electronic
devices via the internet.
In 2008, it launched DStv
Mobile (the Drifta and
Walka) and in 2010,
launched DVB over IP
(Digital Video Broadcast
over Internet Protocol)
as well as the DStv On-
Demand service.
Through these,
subscribers could
demand and watch
programmes from their
DStv account via the
internet on their
phones, tablets and
computers
In 2013, MultiChoice
launched the DStv
Explora, a decoder that
enables the subscriber
record television
programmes for later
viewing, pause live
television programming
for up to two hours and
provides access to the
DStv BoxOffice and DStv
Catch Up

7. Future of Television in Africa
Ubongo Kids and Akili
and Me are the most
watched local children’s
programming in East
Africa. As of 2017, they
reach over 6.2 million
households/month in
East Africa
In 2015, there were nearly 55.34 million TV households in Sub-
Saharan Africa. This number which is expected to rise to about
75 million by 2021.
(Statista)
Angola, South Africa, Namibia, and Kenya have the highest
media penetration in Africa, based on an amalgamation of their
individual mobile, TV, radio, print and internet penetration.
(Nielsen’s Africa Prospects Indicators)
As of 2016, there were approximately 19.47 million pay TV
subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Revenue in the pay TV
market across sub-Saharan Africa has nearly doubled since
2010, topping $3.5 billion 2014, and could reach $6.2 billion by
2020. (Statista)
Video on Demand services are also on the rise in Africa, with
more and more people accessing TV shows through their
mobile and digital devices.
The user penetration for VOD was 5.4 % in 2017 and expected
to grow at 8.0 % by 2021.
(All Africa)

8. History of Private Media
While the private press played an important role in African independence movements,
the television media remained in government control. Governments throughout the
continent established dominations over radio and television broadcasting, and state-
owned news outlets became the primary sources of information.
Historical accounts consistently indicate low trust in government media during periods
of single party rules.
The media environment only began to change in the late 1980s when investors, donors
and financial institutions demanded economic reforms and activists insisted on greater
political and civil freedoms

9. TRUST IN PRIVATE VERSUS
GOVERNMENT BROADCAST MEDIA
The state-owned media have been
closely associated with past single-party
regimes and to this day are less critical
of serving governments than private
media are.

10. Trust in Private Vs. Public
Broadcast Media
In some countries of
Africa, private radio
helps to monitor
elections by
broadcasting the
results of precinct vote
counts as they are
completed, making it
far harder to steal the
election.
Most investigative
journalism and stories
of government
accountability originate
from the private press.
In general, the private media
are more responsive to the
public because they can not be
on tax subsidies and
government advertising alone..
They must generate their
revenue by being relevant or
entertaining.