TVAfrica

TVAfrica was a pan-African television network founded in 1998 by former advertising executive Dave Kelly alongside sports broadcaster Berry Lambert. The network relayed up to 80% of its content to private television stations in sub-Saharan Africa and also licensed the broadcast of sporting events (excluding South Africa due to licensing regulations) to interested broadcasters. At its apex, the channel broadcast to as many as 26 countries (up to 40 in licensed sporting events), the majority of them English-speaking and French-speaking states. There were separate versions, in English and French.

Funding problems led to the liquidation of the channel in 2003.

History

TVAfrica was founded in 1997 and started broadcasting in July 1998 (some sources say June 1998)"Think global, act local", ''Africa Film & TV Magazine'', nº. 23, November 1999-January 2000 from its operational base in South Africa. The founders were Barry Lambert and David Kelly, with funding provided by the Zephyr Management Group, the Africa Investment Group and the South Africa Enterprise Development Fund. Domiciled in Mauritius, the network's broadcasting facilities were located in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.

Initially it was a programme provider. Its programming division started off as dTb (Direct To Broadcast), whose concept was to buy free-to-air terrestrial rights of "quality programming" to attract viewers and advertisers. dTb had assisted in the upgrading of Joy TV, which used the frequencies of the second channel of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, in mid-1998, providing it with expansion to Bulawayo, up until that point the channel was only received in Harare. TVAfrica's programming packages were sent to the widest number of commercial stations possible. Affiliates would benefit heavily from the advertising money brought in from the attractive programming.

The programming model was similar to the American television network format, with affiliates across the coverage area. The network started with affiliates in four countries, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe before extending its reach to more than two dozen countries and over 40 affiliates. Uganda, one of the first affiliates, came from a reshaping of the line-up of Sanyu Television, Uganda's first privately-owned television channel. Similar to other programming barter companies, its model involved programming offered for free, with the advertising revenue being shared between TVAfrica (international advertisers), the local broadcaster (three minutes of local commercials) and network spots being split during the 10 minutes per hour. Programming packages were compiled in Johannesburg and encoded to Intelsat in order to prevent piracy.

In late November 1998, TVAfrica bought Sanyu TV from the Katto family, for the sum of US$5.5 million, "a considerable amount of money" according to Lambert, compared to other affiliates at the time. The station changed its logo to a modified version of TVAfrica's bearing the STV initials. TV Africa also managed STV in Kenya, whose coverage was initially limited to Nairobi and extended to Mombasa and Kisumu.

TVAfrica quickly became successful, owing primarily to two factors, convenience and high quality entertainment."TVAfrica: domination of East Africa", ''Africa Film & TV Magazine'', nº. 24, February-April 2000 Operations in East Africa were still branded as STV, but in 2000 a new generic name was considered for all of its operations.

The network stemmed out of a gradual process of liberalisation of television stations across the African continent in the 90s. Networks in individual markets were still touted as being propagandistic, leaning to their respective governments of the time, whereas the emerging private television sector was still facing heavy difficulties at the time, with many channels shutting down

Quentin Green left e.tv where he had a job as sales and managing director and joined TVAfrica in April 2001.

TVAfrica also faced competition from another syndicator, the African Broadcasting Network (ABN), domiciled in the United Kingdom, which tied in with state television channels in several countries.

2001 was a year of growth for TVAfrica. The network signed an agreement with Ethiopia Television's second channel to carry the whole schedule, as well as signing further agreements with SBC in the Seychelles and MBC in Mauritius (the country where its parent was registered) while an agreement with Eri-TV was on the cards. The company estimated that only 0.8% of the continent had subscription television services (46 million viewers), yet its coverage thanks to separate sporting agreements was higher. On 17 October 2001, Quentin Green, Chief Operating Officer of the network, sought for the creation of new terrestrial broadcasting partnerships, at the Broadcast World Africa in Johannesburg. Under this investment, TVAfrica sought to buy six to eight transmitters for satellite reception and giving coverage to 60 to 70% of a country's population. The network had projected that by 2007, advertising on sub-Saharan African TV would increase from US$160 million to US$410 million, adjusting to factors such as increased access to television sets and liberalisation of media.

The channel secured the exclusive rights to the African Cup of Nations starting from its 2002 edition in a deal that was valid until 2008.

The network boosted its potential viewership base upon purchasing the rights to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, having sold 90% of the potential sponsorship packages a month and a half ahead of the start of the tournament. The syndication formula had already become a win-win at the time. The network had paid $1.5 million for the rights in Nigeria alone.

TVAfrica moved to new premises in the Morningside suburb of Johannesburg on 17 May 2002, two weeks before the start of the World Cup. The new facilities cost US$1.8 million out of the US$22.5 million it had received in the first few months of 2002 alone, by developing the technological capabilities of the network to include two production studios, six editing facilities and four final control centres for the four feeds of the channel. The World Cup coverage was presented by South African sports journalist Louis Karpas from the new building, as well as an educational programme. The move also introduced a new version of the network's logo and a new slogan, "all round entertainment". Late in 2002, TVAfrica set up a new Namibian affiliate from scratch, partnering with local production company INTV, as well as holding 20% of the stocks of STV in Mozambique. Building on from the rebrand, the channel added two continuity announcers, George Munetsi Biza from Zimbabwe and Irene Ndlovu from Kenya.

Founder Barry Lambert left TVAfrica in 2002 to found LIM Africa, which in 2005 partnered with Setanta Sports to later set up an African version of the channel and licensing agreements with free-to-air broadcasters.

STV in Mozambique withdrew its affiliation agreement in early 2003 as the content didn't match local tastes.

Liquidation

Africa Media Group, the parent company of the channel, decided to put TVAfrica up for liquidation on 1 October 2003. A number of alternative solutions to keep the network afloat were considered, but neither of the options was suitable for its economic climate, prompting the station to go off air and liquidate, as the operation didn't meet expectations at the long term. Dave Kelly still showed belief in the idea of such a network, but it was complicated, on the grounds that its US investors did not apply the capital properly. He and Quentin Green left the network owing to disagreements ahead of its liquidation.

One of the factors that led to the collapse of the network was its affiliation with smaller television stations, almost all of them commercial, in opposition to the dominating TV channels in many countries that were under government control.

Affiliates also blocked the network's commercial breaks in order to insert their own ones, blocking commercials for clients already booked by the network. This caused problems in the advertising scheme, disabling TVAfrica from billing its clients.

The shutdown of the network exposed the fragile status of building a pan-African television network, as well as the status of media in Africa in general.

New channels and companies took over the frequencies and operations of TVAfrica in some countries weeks after its liquidation, in Namibia One Africa Television took over, while in Nigeria Proudly Africa Media replaced the activities of the former West African unit of the network to its affiliates. The new replacement company also expanded its local production activities in Nigeria and Ghana. All of its other operations were shut down.

Programming

TVAfrica's lineup consisted primarily of American and British television series as well as international sporting events, broadcast either on full-time or part-time affiliates (the latter affiliates only carried sports broadcasts). In its early years, TVAfrica lacked its own news programme, instead relaying a daily half-hour of news from BBC World and affiliates resorted to air their own newscasts. Thanks to initial agreements with the early affiliates, these carried five hours on weekdays and seven hours on weekends, including sports.

Most of the programming was in English, but programming in French was also carried, to cater affiliates in Benin, Burundi, Gabon, Niger. TVAfrica had the ability to sell time to local advertisers in programming packages sent to terrestrial broadcasters. These programmes were similar in nature to the ones carried by M-Net and other DStv channels. Local African programming primarily came from the Nigerian and Kenyan bureaux, but such programming was in short supply. The local affiliates were responsible for the production of news output for the service, where available.

TVAfrica sponsored and held boxing matches in countries where it had an affiliate in an attempt to create permanent fixtures, with three bouts in November and December 1999 in Swaziland and one in Botswana in January 2000. These events were, according to Barry Lambert, a "nursery" to train boxers to later develop their international careers. With the success of the boxing events, TVAfrica also equated the creation of other similar events with other sports, as well as equating the creation of a pan-African daily news programme.

TVAfrica in its beginnings carried a heavy amount of foreign (mostly American) TV series, such as Friends, Suddenly Susan, Malcolm and Eddie and ER, as well as sporting events such as WWF and the Premier League. There was no children's programming at first, but in 2000 it was announced that such a block would be added.

In 2001, ''Africa Business Tonight'' premiered, a daily 15-minute bulletin about business in the continent. That same year, TVAfrica lost the rights to broadcast the Premier League to SuperSport.

The biggest focus was TVAfrica's sports output, ''Premier Sport'', which complemented the sports offerings on the state broadcasters. The East African version of the network produced a "sharp" mini-series with assistance from the BBC, ''Heart and Soul''. Heart and Soul premiered on KBC1 in Kenya on 6 July 2002 and aired on the TVAfrica network two days later.

In May 2002, the channel introduced ''7 Days'', a weekly newsmagazine, with inserts provided by the affiliates, and the pre-existing ''Africa Business Tonight'' had its length doubled from 15 minutes to 30. Further plans for 2002 included a cooking show, concerts from artists from the countries where the network had affiliates and a gameshow.

Educational programming started in line with the move to Morningside. Titled ''African Learning Channel'', inserted in the children's slot K Club, this consisted of a pre-recorded curriculum slot followed by a second slot where teacher-presenter William Smith answered questions related to school subjects live by telephone. The five targets of the initial phase were Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Botswana. The pre-requisite for taking part involved access to a TVA affiliate and a phone line. Initially these broadcasts were aimed at Tanzania (East feed) and Botswana (South feed). A Tanzanian commercial company had signed an agreement to sponsor the telephones and television sets enabling children to phone to the presenter. The project followed a two-week experiment that started on 13 March.

The network carried the 2002 FIFA World Cup having spent $1.5 million.

A celebrity cooking show (''Taste of Africa'') was added in October 2002. The show was presented by Tich Mataz and filmed on location in ten countries, with each episode having a guest star from the specific country.

Overnight simulcasts of BBC World were added to the feeds (and subsequently its affiliates) in January 2003. At the time, the network covered seven million households.

On 11 August 2002, Guinness TV specials started on TVAfrica, aired on Sundays in the English feeds and Fridays on the French feed. The three-hour programming block aired from 8pm to 11pm and consisted of a mixture of documentaries and feature films. The first slot was given to biographical documentaries about success stories, the second slot covered current affairs docu-dramas and the third slot consisted of feature films, such as ''The Pelican Brief'' and '' The Bodyguard''.

In its last year on air, the network grabbed the rights to the Brazilian national football championship's 2003 season.

In July 2003, TVAfrica signed an agreement with Nigerian company Wale Adenuga Productions to distribute its series ''Odd World''.

After the closure of TVAfrica, ''Africa Business Tonight'' was outsourced to African Business Channel, owners of Summit Television in South Africa, and was carried by one of its successors in Nigeria and Ghana.

Affiliates

The number of affiliates varied constantly. When TVAfrica filed for liquidation in 2003, it had 39 affiliates in 23 countries. Another source claimed that the number was 34 affiliates in 24 countries. The highest reported number, around the time of the World Cup in 2002, was 45 affiliates in 26 countries.

TVAfrica was divided in three English feeds (East, West, South) and a French feed. Most affiliates relied on TVAfrica for live sports, others relayed the entire schedule.

The company's modus operandi also involved partial or total control of private television stations in Africa. In some countries, up to two channels were eligible, yet in Nigeria, the number was up to 20. Candidates for affiliate status should have a suitable broadcasting license, financial stability, apolitical programming and stategy and abidance to the national regulator. In most cases, TVAfrica wasn't responsible for investments in broadcasting infrastructure, leaving that to the affiliates.

The rationale behind the affiliate system was deeply rooted in the lack of money the affiliates had in acquire programming. By relying on the network's pre-packaged content formula, this gave audiences to advertisers and programming to affiliated broadcasters. The four feeds all had the same programming, disregarding the regions each channel was broadcasting to.

East

*Ethiopia: Ethiopia Television (sports); ETV2 (whole schedule)
*Eritrea: Eri-TV (sports)
*Zanzibar (Tanzania): Television Zanzibar (sports)
*Tanzania (mainland): Channel Ten
*Seychelles: SBC (sports)
*Uganda: Sanyu Television, Channel Television (whole schedule, stations renamed TVAfrica Uganda in 2002)
*Rwanda: Tele10
*Burundi: Tele10

West

*Nigeria: NTA (sports); NTA2, Minaj Broadcast International, Africa Independent Television, Murhi International Television, Galaxy TV, DBN (whole schedule), Channels Television, DITV, RSTV, ITV Benin, OGTV, Anambra TV, Broadcasting Corporation of Abia, Cross River TV, Imo Broadcasting Television, Kaduna State Television, Katsina RTV, Kebbi State TV, Ondo State TV, Rivers State TV, TV Taraba, Plateau TV''Africa Film & TV Magazine'', MIPTV 2001 supplement and others (48 as of the time of the 2002 FIFA World Cup)
*Ghana: Ghana Television (sports); Metro TV (contract revoked 31 December 2001), TV3 Ghana
*Cameroon: CRTV (sports), Spectrum TV
*Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, SLBS (sports)
*Liberia: LBC (sports)
*The Gambia: GRTS (sports)

South

*Angola: Televisão Pública de Angola (sports)
*Namibia: Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (sports); Desert TV (whole schedule, withdrawn in March 2002 because the company wanted "excessive shares of their revenues", moved to competing syndicator ABN in May 2002)
*Botswana: Botswana Television (sports); GBC TV (whole schedule)
*Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (sports), Joy TV (whole schedule)
*Zambia: Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (sports)
*Malawi: Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (whole schedule)
*Mozambique: Televisão de Moçambique (sports); STV (whole schedule)
*Lesotho: LTV (whole schedule from May 2002, replacing a former agreement with M-Net)

French

*Ivory Coast: La Première (whole schedule); TV2 (sports)
*Senegal: Radiodiffusion Télévision Sénégalaise (sports)
*Benin: Office de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Bénin (whole schedule)
*Togo: Togolese Television; TVG2 (both whole schedule)
*Burkina Faso: Radio Télévision du Burkina (sports)
*Mali: Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Mali (sports)
*Niger: TV+
*Central African Republic: Télévision Centrafricaine (sports)
*Republic of the Congo: Télé Congo (sports)
*Democratic Republic of the Congo: Radio-Télévision nationale congolaise (sports)
*Guinea: Radio Télévision Guinéenne (sports)
*Mauritius: MBC3 (sports)
*Madagascar: RTA

Controversies

Nigeria

In 2000, the network took the Nigerian Television Authority to court over illegalities in the licensing of UEFA Euro 2000, which had been taken over from Canal France Internationale. NTA was forced to remove its carriage of the championship, resulting in piracy issues. The NBC believed that TVAfrica wasn't registered to the regulator, causing Channels Television (which had obtained the rights from them) and other channels relaying its content to cease the relays or face sanctions by the Commission. Channels Television was also interested in Euro 2000, but also faced the same problems as NTA, under the grounds that TVAfrica was not registered in Nigeria. The NBC accused TVAfrica of beaming its programming without following "internationally acceptable standards", while the Association of Movie Producers of Nigeria probed the network in July. Moreover, concerns were raised about the lack of African programming. To offset these issues, TVAfrica planned to invest 30 million naira in local content all over Africa for a ten-year period, valid until 2010.

The 2002 African Cup of Nations held in Mali caused massive controversy over the lack of free-to-air television rights in Nigeria, under the grounds that TVAfrica was a content provider and not a television channel. In addition, TV channels in Nigeria would only air the matches without airing commercials for alcoholic beverages before 9:45pm, per local rules. TVAfrica gave the stations a package of foreign commercials that were sourced by the company with directives for the affiliates to not feature local representatives of brands or even local adverts.

Outside of sports broadcasts, affiliates of the Nigerian Television Authority, TVAfrica's main competitor, were strongly discourageed from broadcasting the output of the network, as NTA was long-established and had more priority.

Other countries

The effects of TVAfrica's win over CFI in the rights to carry Euro 2000 were noted in the French-speaking countries, where the matches carried by TVAfrica's affiliates in Francophone markets were shown in English. The CFI-backed satellite operator, Le SAT, had no sports channel in its offering. ORTB and CRTV, part-time affiliates of the network, relayed the matches in French, unlike the majority of the countries.

At closing time, the network was criticized due to its reliance on affiliation agreements with smaller television stations and programming that did not cater to the tastes of the viewing audience. Most of the content seen on the service was American, which many viewers didn't like. This also counterbalanced the amount of local programming, which would have saved the network from collapsing.

References

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Television channels and stations established in 1998
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2003
1998 establishments in South Africa
2003 disestablishments in South Africa
Mass media in South Africa
Mass media in Johannesburg
Defunct companies of South Africa
Insolvent companies