An insatiable hunger for programming and digital technology has led to an explosion of Over-The-Top (OTT) channels. An African perspective.



By Paula Slier



Broadcasting in Africa has come a long way in the past 20 years. Before smartphones, wireless internet, small cameras and non-linear editing became mainstream, the industry relied on a somewhat messy fusion of then ground-breaking technology like satellite transmission and old-fashioned communication.



I remember working in television in Nairobi in 1998. The video editor and I were seated in front of the editing suite. At the far end of the corridor waited the cameraman; after him, the passageway turned sharply to the right and 12 meters further on stood the producer. Another sharp right turn, another corridor and in the distance was the satellite operator.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">According to Digital TV Research, at the end of last year, collective OTT revenues in Africa reached $392 million and are set to rise to $1.7 billion by 2026. The bulk of the market is, and will continue to be, Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) packages</blockquote>



“Now” shouted the video editor from some 40 meters away as he pressed play on the machine.



“Now” repeated the cameraman from his corner.



“Now” echoed the producer.



“Now” confirmed the satellite operator as he uplinked the video.



Fast-forward two decades and the industry has completely changed. The jobs of five people have amalgamated into one. Far from being the passive consumer of media, audiences are now producers and journalists in their own right.



“Gone are the days that the nuclear family would schedule time to watch something around the TV as a family unit,” says Christina Foley, Managing Director of United Kingdom-based Marvel Media Consultancy.&nbsp;



“Now you have an entire family watching different things in different rooms at the same time. We are digesting content in a very different way. We have a choice which gives us opportunity to watch when, how and what we want.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Christina-Foley.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50685" width="326" height="435" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Christina-Foley.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Christina-Foley-225x300.jpg 225w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 326px) 100vw, 326px" /></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Now you have an entire family watching different things in different rooms at the same time. We are digesting content in a very different way. We have a choice which gives us an opportunity to watch when, how and what we want.” – Christina Foley, Managing Director of United Kingdom-based Marvel Media Consultancy</blockquote>



The result is an insatiable hunger for programming and digital technology. This has led to an explosion in the last few years of Over-The-Top (OTT) channels through which content is delivered via an internet connection rather than a traditional cable or broadcast provider.



According to Digital TV Research, at the end of last year, collective OTT revenues in Africa reached $392 million and are set to rise to&nbsp;$1.7 billion by 2026.&nbsp;The bulk of the market is, and will continue to be, Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) packages that allow users to consume as much content as they desire at a flat rate per month. Revenues from such services like Netflix and Disney+ will grow from a current $299 million to $1.5 billion in the next five years.



“Absolutely OTT is the future everywhere, not just Africa,” says Foley.



“News and entertainment will use OTT. A lot of the mobile companies like MTN and Cell C are putting together their own content packages so when they sign up new customers they can offer them this on top for a fee.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50686" width="313" height="313" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann.jpg 800w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 313px) 100vw, 313px" /></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We believe that the growth of digital streaming services in Africa means that the continent is primed for the democratization of content.” – Dr Amadeo Rahmann</blockquote>



But the&nbsp;switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting has been delayed in many African countries because of low internet penetration rates –&nbsp;the continent has a total internet penetration level of just under 40% compared with penetration in the rest of the world at 63.2% – limited WiFi and the high cost of data.



Martin Brasg, a broadcast consultant who’s worked with clients across the continent for the past three decades, blames this on internal politics.



“Traditional broadcasters hold monopolies over internet services and are not willing to let go. In South Africa, for example, for years they’ve been putting the brakes on cheap internet. Until a few years ago, Telkom, the country’s biggest provider of communication services, was the only company that could install fiber broadband connection. This was until the second network operator Neotel came on board. Since then a number of fiber-to-the-home operators started being more prolific in South Africa, enabling more consumers to have broadband at home.”



The potential for Africa is huge. According to Internet World Stats in December 2019, more Africans (526 million) accessed the internet than North Americans. But whereas Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria are ahead of the curve and have taken advantage of good quality internet and a deregulated internet industry, other African countries are lagging behind. Several are listed among those with the lowest internet speed and yet the most expensive communication and internet costs in the world.



“Things in South Africa started to change around three-to-five years ago,” reflects Brasg.



“Consumers have also been moving away to free-to-air operators like OVHD (open view HD) that offer a library of TV shows, films and original programming.”



The lack, and theft, of infrastructure in Africa has also set up OTT to expand enormously over mobile networks, points out Joanne Raphael-Katz, Managing Director of South African-based Exceptional Rights. Katz has been delivering OTT and VOD content to mobile and TV customers for the past two decades.



“Consider that in South Africa there are approximately 14 million TV households but 53 million smartphones. This makes OTT via mobile a force to be reckoned with,” she says.



“Mobile is so accessible and payment is by time, making it ideal for the underbanked. Phones are upgrading and always improving – a smart phone with a rich media screen doesn’t have to be the latest iPhone or Samsung. There are plenty of devices to suit all brackets of income and allow for OTT via mobile.” Africa is on record as having the fastest growing mobile telecommunication market but when it comes to content via mobile there’s still a long way to go.



User-generated content – content created by people rather than brands – like TikTok have become popular overnight.



“Apps and concepts like this will always change and shape the world and how we use our mobile. The spectrum is being opened and auctioned and will change the amount of content we consume. Content providers can also now supply their channels to DSTV via IPTV [internet television] to their platform, doing away with expensive satellite expenses,” says Katz.



But inevitably as more players enter the OTT market, competition is growing.



Dubai-based mobile technology company, Mondia, is one of many penetrating the market. In the last three months, it launched its time-based entertainment platform, Monsooq, in South Africa and Nigeria. Utilizing time as currency, users can buy entertainment time just as they would mobile airtime and use it to consume any content they choose. At the moment, the platform offers over 20,000 hours of entertainment.



“We believe that the growth of digital streaming services in Africa means that the continent is primed for the democratization of content,” says CEO Dr Amadeo Rahmann.



“Covid-19 has had such a dramatic impact on economies globally, deeply affecting consumers’ disposable income. We believe this model will have huge appeal in emerging markets.”



With a population set to double to 2.5 billion over the next 30 years, Africa also offers a vast and growing youth demographic for broadcasters and content producers. As the world of entertainment continuously evolves, consumers too will benefit greatly, accessing information as rapidly as they want – on demand and on the go.

TV remote control in the foreground, Video on demand screen in the blurry background

The Three Letters Driving Entertainment

A deep horn blast was used in a slice of history at Africa’s biggest stock exchange. It was from the lungs of Rakesh Wahi, founder and vice chairman of Africa Business News (ABN), signaling the opening of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), as CNBC Africa crossed a new frontier in business broadcasting on the continent.
CNBC Africa – the sister of FORBES AFRICA in the ABN stable – became the first African broadcaster to beam shows from the JSE. It came on the eve of the company’s seventh anniversary.
“It’s an exciting time; I haven’t stopped smiling since yesterday. It is to the credit of the people around you who have all done a fantastic job,” says Wahi.
CNBC Africa is emulating the example of CNBC in the United States (US), which has broadcast from the New York Stock Exchange since 1995. This move is all part of a bigger plan.
“Our vision is to be in all 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We have to be in all the major exchanges and report from the smaller ones. We need to be able to integrate all these exchanges through information flows. We need to be able to go out and educate people about what markets are,” says Wahi.
The new studio is state of the art. It includes an eight cube video wall, six interview positions and robotic cameras &#8211; which will be fully controlled out of the gallery and will minimize additional camera crew. The main anchor desk, resembling a star, is a copy of the one used both in Europe and the US.
It will host Open Exchange, Power Lunch and Closing Bell, with regular crossings to Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Botswana, Gabon and Ghana.
Jean Landsberg, the head of technical and operations for the ABN Group, traveled to New York and Singapore to check out the latest technology.
“When I traveled to the SGX in Singapore and New York, I got an idea how they put their infrastructure in place… whereas Singapore still link in to their [stock exchange], from the main studio, we will be actually running everything and all the operations from the JSE studios. So it’s a little more advanced than what Singapore is doing,” says Landsberg.
LED technology will be used to reduce the power consumption by the studio lights and the video wall. Landsberg says, as time goes by, small technological frills will be added.
The new technology is in the interest of keeping business people better informed about what’s happening inside Africa’s biggest bourse.

On The Pulse Of The Markets

Nostalgia is a thing of the future as far as one of the newest old radio stations in Africa is concerned. The breezy sound of LM Radio in Mozambique is back with a vengeance, with plans to broadcast across the whole of Southern Africa.
LM Radio was about the dream as much as the sound. Hopeful songs of love and laughter from LM, Lourenco Marques—as Maputo was known in those days—the city of palm trees, prawns, piri piri, sunshine and sand. The Monte Carlo of Southern Africa where smart yellow taxis ferried holidaymakers through the wide pristine streets of the city to the aroma of ground coffee and fresh bread.
This was the Mozambique of the 1960s and 70s where LM Radio made its name. There is a generation of boardroom executives in Southern Africa who grew up listening to LM Radio, under the bed sheets or in a boarding school dormitory. LM Radio had that allure of the underground as it played records the national broadcasters of neighboring countries refused to touch. Out of the African night came the sound of the Beatles—banned in South Africa after John Lennon said they were bigger than Jesus—The Who, Herman’s Hermits, Pink Floyd with a sprinkling of home-grown pop. Many who were youngsters in that era can’t remember exactly what the national broadcasters were playing, but recall it was difficult to dance to.
<div id="attachment_656" style="width: 228px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-656" class="wp-image-656 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Gerry-Wilmot-in-Office-during-seige-218x300.jpg" alt="" width="218" height="300" />Gerry Wilmot with a shrivelled orange in the wake of the seige</div>
It was this frustration with the establishment that led to the birth of LM Radio in 1936. Advertising man, GJ McHarry, from Durban in South Africa, wanted to hear jazz on the radio. The South African Broadcasting Corporation refused to touch it, so McHarry headed north to set up a station at Radio Clube de Moçambique.
The new station hosted big band music and variety shows before studio audiences. It brought the sparkle of tinsel town, with Latin dash, into the dowdy farms, barrack rooms and mining camps of Southern Africa. It prospered in the 1950s and became hip in the 1960s and 70s. Heavens, even young Cliff Richard paid a visit to the station that played his records. By 1969, it was estimated nearly nine million people, in South Africa alone, were tuning in.
A symbol of its success was that, in 1972, the SABC bought LM Radio for a massive R60 million—a fortune back then. The National Party government was twitchy about independent radio stations broadcasting from outside South Africa’s borders. The station struggled on through the turmoil of Mozambique’s painful independence before it closed on October 12, 1975 with a simple announcement on air saying: “For us it has been 39 happy years.”  The new government in Mozambique took over the station to air educational broadcasts.
Fast forward to September 21, 2010 and radio engineer, Chris Turner, and his team were putting the finishing touches to a radio transmitter fixed to the top of a 10-story concrete block in Maputo, ahead of the first full broadcast of the revived LM Radio.
The tiny studio was also in the tower block, but has since moved to small offices in the basement of Hotel Cardoso.
“The lifts in the tower block didn’t work very well,” says Turner.
LM Radio is Turner’s dream and radio is his life. He grew up in Cape Town with one ear fixed to the radio and was an avid fan of LM Radio.
“They played Elvis, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and you didn’t hear it anywhere else. Everyone in my age group has a memory,” he says.
Turner started a pirate radio station from his bedroom by the time he was 12. The police came to his home and closed down the station three times, but that didn’t deter Turner who grew up to train as a radio engineer.
To follow his dream, Turner and his wife sold property to raise the $3 million capital to open the station. It wasn’t easy; there were hours spent poring over Mozambique’s often pedantic bureaucracy.
The reward was that LM Radio is expected to break even in its first year, ahead of forecasts. The target is to achieve R12 million ($1.5 million) turnover in five years. It is taking advertising from South African supermarket chains to corner shops.
“We are about quarter of the way there,” smiles Turner.
LM Radio is banking on a large English-speaking population in Mozambique, largely South Africans; plus it broadcasts on medium wave in Lesotho, the Free State and in Johannesburg through community station Radio 2000. The station claims between 55,000 and 75,000 listeners a week, with a target of 125,000. Turner plans to apply to broadcast in Zimbabwe and Zambia, followed by the rest of Southern Africa where he thinks there is an even bigger pool of people who want to listen to Elton John and Abba.
“I think there is something in the music of the 1970s. It is feel good music, happy music. A lot of people write and tell us that our music lifts them up,” says Turner.
When LM Radio was reborn, in keeping with the theme of the station, there were blasts from the past. DJs, who were veterans of the original station, went back on air as if it where yesterday, rather than the last century, that they signed off. Reg de Beer, a veteran presenter who died in January, came back as did Nick Megens, a Dutch national, who had got into broadcasting at Radio Clube while working at his father’s company in Maputo.
Megens, who lives in Johannesburg, survived one of the most fraught chapters in the LM Radio story. It all began one spring morning with a frantic phone call from station manager, Gerry Wilmot, telling him to come into Radio Clube as soon as possible.
Megens was living on Catembe Island, just off the coast, and took the ferry over to Maputo. As he jumped into a taxi he knew this was no ordinary day as thousands of people running in panic through the streets of the capital buffeted the vehicle. This was September 7, 1974. I Shot the Sheriff by Eric Clapton was number one on the day Portugal signed the Lusaka Accord handing the liberation movement, FRELIMO, control of Mozambique within a year. It was a shock to many of the white Portuguese after more than four centuries of colonial rule.
“People were giving away the keys of their houses on the streets and later that day I saw people at the airport, holding one suitcase, weeping,” says Megens.
When Megens got to Radio Clube he found it bristling with guns. Armed white militia had taken over the radio station because they feared the Portuguese, or FRELIMO, may use it for propaganda. The show went on; for 10 days Megens broadcast with a couple of gun-toting militia men at his back.
“All I could think of was, ‘what happens if one of these guys goes to sleep and his gun goes off, the bullets are going to fly around the room?’”
The militia brought in supplies to their prisoners on air. The only problem was that it was just oranges and cigarettes and Megens didn’t smoke. His stomach rumbled while cartons of cigarettes piled up against his wall. Station manager, Wilmot, demanded the newspaper photograph him holding a shriveled orange in protest.
When the Portuguese Army ended the occupation by storming the radio station they lobbed in a couple of hand grenades.
“It is not a nice sound,” says Megens.
Nearly 40 years on, LM Radio is a nice sound and that is maybe why it has overcome closure, political chaos, civil war and scores of desperate men with guns.

Guns Could Not Silence The  Romantic Voice Of The African Night

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Sometime in 1987 on the streets of the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, Joe Kusaga had his two feet planted firmly on the ground, but his head was as much in the clouds as Mount Kilimanjaro. The 21-year-old barely had two shillings to rub together, but dreamed of making a vast fortune by getting his fellow Tanzanians dancing to his beat.
More than 20 years later, Kusaga has the ear of East Africans; a multi-million dollar turnover; three radio stations; a magazine; two music ventures; and a promotion company which employs 170 people. His company, Clouds Media Group, turns over $3 million annually and plans to expand beyond East Africa. In a recent national survey, KPMG ranked the company 17th in the top 100 best-performing mid-sized companies in Tanzania.
“In a few years, this turnover should read double digits,” says Kusaga.
Kusaga made his fortune from the liberalization of the Tanzanian airwaves, in step with the freeing up of the economy after decades of socialism, in the 1990s. He decided Tanzanian radio was far too conservative and started to recruit young, funky broadcasters at his tiny
studio in Dar es Salaam in a bid to take the airwaves by storm.
“It was not easy at first. It’s a risky business, and sometimes we had to invest our little funds at the time to make things happen without any sponsorship,” he says.
In 1998, Kusaga took a deep breath and borrowed just over Tsh40 million ($24,660) to start his company with a business plan aimed at reaping the advertising dollars that came with the growing young and affluent middle-class. He founded Clouds FM in the same year and in 2002 added Choice FM, an easy-listening English radio station, and Coconut FM, Zanzibar’s first commercial radio station which is dedicated to Zanzibari music and culture, to his repertoire.
“We offered a platform for our young people to create employment for themselves. It was a take-off for many things musical in this country,” he says.
It was the bend in a long road that began in 1987. “I had just finished school and I began by managing some nightclubs, organizing theme nights,” says Kusaga.
He graduated to promoting shows as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo in a risky business that took timing, perseverance and passion—a perfect grounding for his foray into the tough radio business.
As the new century dawned, there came Clouds TV, which is projected to have coverage across the entire country by the end of this year.
Since then, Kusaga has founded the first digital music recording studio in the country, from where he manages the Smooth Vibes record label in Dar es Salaam and is responsible for authorizing music from Tanzanian artistes for iTunes.
You could say this media group has shaped how Tanzanian youths look and listen to the world. In the last few years, he has brought names like Eve, Fat Joe, P Square, Shaggy,  50 Cent, Kevin Lyttle, Koffi, Jay Z with MTV Base, Ja Rule, Hugh Masekela, Mya, Miriam Makeba and Youssou N’Dour to the East African country.
A little stardust from an entrepreneur with his head firmly in the clouds can go a long way.
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Tag: Broadcasting

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Three Letters Driving Entertainment

On The Pulse Of The Markets

Guns Could Not Silence The Romantic Voice Of The African Night

Ear For Profits