Been a long time coming…
I’m happy to now resume the TVE APN weekly newsletter that I started circulating mid last year and then took a break before our annual meeting in Kampala. This newsletter is a digest of general news related to the fields and regions we are working in. I do not have a software managed mailing list, so I literally run an old fashioned system where I plug in wires, turn knobs and crank wheels to get it going. In this case then, if you would not like to continue receiving the newsletters then you have to come over to Nairobi in person and tell me why not… or you could send me an email and I will pull a few wires to get you off this list.
The main objective here though is to feed you back information about what you are all doing so I would also appreciate you sending a homing pigeon once in a while with current updates or press information you would like me to publish. This Newsletter is also published on the APN Blog - http://tveafrica.blogspot.com/ If you have missed any newsletters, be sure to visit the archives.
This first issue is a quick update on what has been happening around the African media scene and, of course, the usual environment push. I look forward to a year of close communications - Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator for Africa
Media News
Namibia: Hundreds Audition for Local TV Drama Series
Some 500 first-time, established and would-be Namibian actors have auditioned for Namibia's first fully fledged 26-part television drama series soon to be shot on location in the capital. The series to be known as 'Things that Bind Us' is to be produced before the end of June by Optimedia of Abius Akwaake, who was also involved as a producer in the making of the feature film, Namibia: The Liberation Struggle.
"The response has just been overwhelming after my company had advertised extensively in the local print and electronic media during last year. This gives me hope for the future of the film industry in our country," said Akwaake, the producer of the series to be screened on NBC-tv by June this year.
The series was part of the NBC's commissioning television film system in 2007 and was given to Optimedia. "We are well on our way in completing the episodic scripts of which the first ten have already been submitted for final approval to the NBC commissioning editor. We are confident that the scripts will be accepted, after which time shooting on the serious will commence in and around the capital," he said.
According to Akwaake, the final character selection process has not gone very smoothly. "White character roles are still wide open due to the fact that so few white Namibian actors showed any interest and responded to our public call. This can be ascribed to the fact that white Namibians do not watch NBC and the fact that the series is produced and will be screened by the national broadcaster”.
(New Era (Windhoek), 1 February 2008)
Uganda: Museveni Criticised Over CNN Deal
The Democratic Party (DP) has criticised President Yoweri Museveni for allegedly playing a key role in the $1million (Shs. 1.7billion) six-month deal with CNN to market Uganda as a top tourist destination in Africa.
Party President John Ssebaana Kizito said on Tuesday that Museveni's alleged involvement in the deal discredited the Office of the President. "Giving contracts to relatives and friends is President Museveni's tradition especially when there is a juicy deal which is wrong," Ssebaana said.
Ssebaana's remarks follow a revelation by Ministry of Trade Permanent Secretary, Dr. Sam Nahamya that President Museveni pushed him to flout procurement laws to seal the deal.
Source: The Monitor (Kampala)
South Africa: Icasa may shut new free broadcaster
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) warned on Friday that it could block Free2View's satellite signal, or take other action, if the UK-based free-to-air broadcaster continued operating without a licence. Free2View launched its satellite broadcasting services last week, which will provide consumers with access to a variety of channels; such as live news programmes and documentaries for free. Consumers will only make a once-off payment of R1,400 (US$194) for a decoder and a satellite dish. Icasa, which regulates the broadcasting and telecoms sectors, has not issued Free2View with a licence or permission to operate. Any entity that planned to provide a broadcasting service in South Africa requires a licence and any attempt to provide such service without one constituted a criminal offence, Icasa said. If Free2View continued operating, Icasa could approach the court for an interdict to stop its operations.
Kenya: Pay-TV Firms Plan More Content At Reduced Rates
Local Pay-Television viewers will enjoy more content at reduced prices as competition for subscribers among two players hots up. The protagonists- MultiChoice Kenya and GTV- have unveiled their game plan for 2008 that will see them improve packages and offer lower prices, a move that sets the stage for a bruising battle for control of the local Pay-TV market that has remained sluggish over the past decade.
Now, both players are dangling the pricing card as a way to stir up the Pay-TV market, which for long has been considered a luxury in most homes. This, besides expanding their number of channels, notably with more local content, is emerging as the best bet to crack the lucrative although difficult Pay-TV market.
The latest entrant, GTV, is promising to cut its rates to below those charged by market leader MultiChoice Kenya as it races to maintain a foothold in the local market. GTV maintains that the penetration of services in the Pay-TV arena has been held back by high installation fees and monthly charges.
Earlier, GTV was talking of a price drop of up to Sh700 (US$10.35) per month, over a period they did not specify. MultiChoice Kenya, on the other hand, is working on another round of price cuts as it seeks to grow and defend its market turf from GTV and Oxygen Digital Television.
The Pay-TV scene has witnessed a number of price cuts in the past six months since GTV entered the local market, prompting a shift in the market structure where MultiChoice had maintained a monopoly.
MultiChoice was the first to lower prices to Sh1,750 (US$25.88) for a bundle of 33 channels before the entry of GTV that arrived with two bundles of 15 and 13 channels selling for Sh2,750 (US$40.67) and Sh1,750 (US$25.88) respectively. The GTV entry forced MultiChoice to unveil another lower cost bundle of 27 channels for Sh1,350 (US$19.96). Another round of price adjustments is aimed at stirring up the sluggish demand for Pay-TV products.
In Kenya, despite booming growth in telecommunications such as the online and mobile phone sectors, few Kenyans subscribe to TV services that charge a monthly fee. Of three million households in the country with TVs, fewer than 30,000-or one per cent - subscribe.
This compares poorly with the two per cent penetration levels in Africa, 93 per cent penetration in the United States and Europe whose penetration levels range between 15 and 36 per cent. MultiChoice is working on a strategy that will see it increase channels with more local content. GTV is also promising new channels and "better content" in 2008 and beyond.
(Business Daily (Nairobi), 28 January 2008)
South Africa: Cape Town backs 'film city' with R30m
The City of Cape Town is making R30-million available to restart the development of the Dreamworld Film City project, which is still hoping to turn the eastern suburbs of Cape Town into a southern-hemisphere Hollywood.
Simon Grindrod of the Independent Democrats, mayoral committee member for economic development and tourism, said on Wednesday, after the spending was approved by the city council that his department has spearheaded efforts to make available the city's R30-million contribution -- in terms of the provision of bulk infrastructure for the Dreamworld film studio.
"This project represents the single biggest opportunity to secure billions of rands' more income for the city in terms of film production and associated industries," he said. "The Cape Town film industry is estimated to be worth R20-billion."
South African film producer Anant Singh was chosen to build the country's first major Hollywood-style film studio in Cape Town four years ago. It was to be built on the Vergenoegd Farm in Faure off the N2 just outside Somerset West.
That decision came four years after the construction of a mega film studio in the city was first proposed by the Western Cape provincial government.
South Africa: State Plan for Digital TV to Go to Cabinet
The communications department says it will give the cabinet its long-awaited proposals on the move from analogue to digital terrestrial TV by the end of March. The strategy will include government recommendations on subsidising the set-top boxes required to receive digital signals and on whether the boxes would be made in SA or imported.
"In order to continue viewing TV using the current analogue TV sets, the public will be required to use set-top boxes, which convert the transmitted digital signal to analogue," Deputy Communications Minister Roy Padayachie said last week at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation conference in Sandton. "Otherwise it will be necessary to acquire digital-enabled TV sets.”
"Efforts should be made to explore developing capacities to manufacture set-top boxes locally to meet the local demand rather than importing them from abroad," Padayachie said.
Last year the cabinet approved the strategy to switch on the digital signal from this November. There would then be a "dual illumination" period until the analogue signal was switched off in November 2011. This would be four years ahead of international recommendations.
Sentech, the state-funded telecoms group responsible for rolling out the project, has said the cost of supplying SA's 7- million TV viewers now without set-top boxes could be R2,8bn-R4,2bn -- depending on the cost of the boxes. SA has 8,2-million TV watching households, 1,2-million of them on MultiChoice's DStv digital offering.
Three newly licensed pay-TV operators -- ODM, Telkom Media and MultiChoice, which was operating until now without a licence -- are awaiting a decision on the interoperability of the boxes. This enables multiple digital broadcasters to be received on any set-top box, regardless of who distributed it.
It is understood that some of the new operators were keen for the boxes to be opened up as this would let them use MultiChoice's existing network. MultiChoice, however, was not as keen as it believed this would make upgrading the boxes' software difficult. It was up to the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) regulator to decide whether the boxes could be interoperable.
Icasa chairman Paris Mashile indicated that interoperability would make sense. Introducing "a common box with different encryptions is the most logical thing to do", he said. "It is key, from an Icasa point of view, that these boxes are inter-operable."
(Business Day (Johannesburg), 31 January 2008)
Google Starts Recruitment Plan to Up Clout in Africa
Internet search company Google Kenya's Nairobi office is searching for five senior executives for its African operations, laying the foundation for a looming market share battle on the continent.
The Nairobi office serves as the company's African headquarters. The five senior managers are expected to complement nine other senior level appointments who are already working in the continent.
Advertisements posted on Google's website indicate that the company is looking for people with local expertise in marketing, logistics as well as technical support. Google is also searching for office leads in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria and Senegal.
Some of the positions were advertised and filled early last year, but the company says the current recruitment should help strengthen the company's operations. The move comes amid increasing finding that emerging markets such as Africa are poised to become the next frontier of growth for global Internet companies.
Less than five per cent of the African population is currently hooked on the Internet.
Locally, Google appears to be pursuing a low key strategy, with its most notable achievements so far being a partnership with tertiary educational institutions to support students. It has also entered into an agreement with mobile phone service provider Safaricom to offer e-mail and data services to Safaricom's subscribers.
The service is expected to offer the first formal Internet experience for millions of rural Kenyans. This partnership has also offered Safaricom a platform to launch a local version of Google Maps to add to its growing portfolio of Internet based services.
Google Kenya will be looking for Associate Product Marketing, Geographic Consultant, Office Associate, Strategic Partner Development (SPD), Local Markets, and Technical Support Associate.
(Source: Business Daily)
Nigeria: Much scepticism about OPLC project
One Lap Top Per Child Project has been putting a brave face on the pull-out of Intel from its project. However, the tide of scepticism is growing about the project as it seems to have failed to gain traction in terms of sales to developing countries that must be the acid test of its success. The analysis below a journalist from Nigeria’s This Day summarises many of the reasons – both rational and irrational – that the project will find hard to overcome.
With the expectations built around the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project initiated by Nicholas Negroponte and the recent hiccups/challenges it faces following the pull out of Intel, Efem Nkanga of This Day assesses the viability of the project for Nigeria and other developing countries
If you embark on a tour of public schools in Nigeria, your senses will be assaulted by the level of decay and rot in the schools. Many places of learning in the country today have become obsolete centres with no chairs and tables for the children to sit, the buildings are dilapidated and it is not uncommon to see children in some parts of the country taking lessons under trees and in some other places they take their own chairs to school.
All these in a major oil producing country in the world, a giant of Africa ,with over 140,000,000 million people and still counting, a country that cannot be described as poor, a country blessed with enviable natural resources, a country referred to by some as the headquarters of the Almighty, filled with highly religious people, yet engulfed by decay, corruption and lawlessness.
This is why when Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the "One laptop per child" visited Nigeria to solicit for the participation and partnership of the Nigerian government in the project sometime last year, many stakeholders wondered where the initiative that would have cost the Nigerian government over US$200 million would lead to. The project would have made laptops available to about one million Nigerian children. But since that visit was broadcast with Negroponte shaking the hands of President Obasanjo in a seemingly conclusive way with assurances on both sides for money and laptops to change hands, nothing has come out of the deal. Now the recent announcement by Intel's rival body that had joined the OLPC project after initially criticising Negroponte has in recent times not only raised doubts about the initiative but called to question the viability of the project for Nigeria.
Stakeholders see the action of Intel, which has its own rival laptop for children called the classmate PC as a pointer showing that the OLPC project might after all be a dream that cannot fly. Intel joined the OLPC board which began production of the laptops in China less than six months ago in a collaborative effort that will make millions of the laptop available in some developing countries. The questions begging for answers at the moment is why did Intel really pull out? While some are of the view that Intel pulled out after getting information about the inner workings of the project team, others are of the view that Intel might have stumbled on a managerial and technical error within the OLPC project management team that showed that the project was going no where soon or a clash of interest that will negatively affect Intel's own initiative could not be resolved. Though Intel's boss came out a few days ago to clarify that Intel pulled out because the OLPC team wanted it to stop the promotion of its own Classmate PCs, many are still nonplussed and not sure of what really went wrong.
What effects will the pull out have for Nigeria, given the fact that the country had shown interest in the project in 2006? Stakeholders in the information technology sector have diverse opinions as to the viability of the project for Nigeria. In the first place, because of the rot in the education system in the country in recent years, a lot of people are of the opinion that there are other critical areas begging for attention in the sector that the US$200 million could solve. The laptop in question, a green and white coloured XO machine designed specifically for children has a hand crank that the children can pull when it runs down. It's a rugged laptop said to have been built with the harsh conditions in developing countries in mind. The laptops initially expected to cost only $100 though now costs $188 due to increased production cost and would no doubt translate to double costs that would be borne by the beneficiaries.
Nigeria's interest in the initiative raised questions in some quarters given the fact that in most public schools, amenities are totally lacking and most students don't even have chairs to sit on. They don't have books, and other basic ingredients that make learning conducive and attractive, so how can a laptop make a difference when the main substances required to make the right pudding is not there.
Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachuku, Nigeria's Minister of Education is one of the many Nigerians who are skeptical of the project. He once remarked that the education ministry was more interested in laying a solid foundation for quality, efficient, accessible, and affordable education and wondered "What is the sense of introducing One Laptop per Child when children don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?"
Many Nigerians would have been more receptive and tolerant of the one laptop per child initiative if the project promoters were offering these laptops free to Nigerian children. Then and only then will people really believe that they are really out to better the lot of the children, but a situation where you seemingly give with one hand and take back with the other is not acceptable to a people already struggling with several challenges that impede their development.
Some also see the laptops as toys that would not stand the test of time. Children are notorious for using their toys for a short while and discarding them and what happens when it gets broken or malfunctions, where do they take it for repairs and who pays for the repairs?
Going forward, the reality is that such an initiative for now is not the solution to the educational quagmire that the nation is presently battling. Other things that are more pressing in the sector should be tackled first before such funds is wasted on a wide goose chase leading nowhere and ultimately benefiting no one, certainly not the Nigerian child.
(Source: This Day)
Environment News
Business Daily (Nairobi): Company executives are increasingly viewing environmental concerns as an integral part of their strategy making efforts, a new global survey indicates. The renewed interest comes against the backdrop of a recent tilt in climate change debate in favour of activists, who have for nearly two decades been warning about the negative impact of human activity on the global climate. The McKinsey Quarterly survey found that the majority of executives now view environmental concerns as important for their companies seeing both opportunity and risk. In Kenya, a number of companies have integrated environmental concerns in their daily activities pointing to ties between the national and global economy. Companies that have gone big on environmental conservation include Kenya Airways and Kenya Airports Authority - which are most exposed to the impact of any initiatives to curb global warming. To shield themselves from exposure to the ongoing drive to curb aviation industry's contribution to greenhouse gases that are being blamed for global warming, KQ and KAA have started tree planting projects that they hope will help absorb some of the harmful emissions from the planes. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802111073.html
Tanzania: Dar Gets Mercury Contamination Warning
The East African (Nairobi): The unregulated use of mercury by small-scale miners in Tanzania is a standing danger to both life and the environment. According to Prof Okey Ibeanu, special rapporteur for the UN on toxic waste, while the government has the mechanisms in place to deal with issues of chemical management, the high incidence of unregulated small-scale mining around the country is a cause for worry. Prof Ibeanu says he has witnessed first hand small-scale miners using mercury in the mineral extraction process without proper safety equipment. In some cases, the miners do not have adequate information about the effects of mercury on their health nor about the dangers of improper disposal of tailings and effect on their lives and the environment. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802111560.html
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