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CNBC extends its reach across the continent with terrestrial and non-terrestrial deals

This week CNBC Africa launched its new-look schedule to include cluster-style programmes aimed at seamlessly integrating Africa-focused content with CNBC's international offering, as well as a breakfast show 'with a difference'. Launched just nine months ago, CNBC Africa’s COO Gary Alfonso talked to Russell Southwood about progress so far.

In issue 26

Content

African Winner of the 2008 Tiburon International Film Festival

Africa: ESPN to Screen Black Magic

Cameroon: Journalist Produces Documentary On Marie Lumiere

Nigeria: Green World Accuses AIT of Rights' Infringement

Broadcast

Kenya: 10.7 Million Homes Own TV Or Radio

Nigeria: Lack of Funds Stalls FRCN FM Projects

Uganda: Vision to Start Luganda FM Radio

DRC: Rural Women Launch Their Radio to Improve Welfare

Distribution

Africa: Cash-strapped WorldSpace considering sale & leaseback

South Africa: M-Net's Power-Cut Solution is a special prime-time repeats channel

Investment

South Africa: Telkom ditches its big Pay-TV Plan and goes back to telecoms

South Africa: State Gets Behind Local TV and Film Industry with tax incentives package

More

Regulation & policy

Technology & convergence

Events

People

Opportunities

Top story

CNBC extends its reach across the continent with terrestrial and non-terrestrial deals

This week CNBC Africa launched its new-look schedule to include cluster-style programmes aimed at seamlessly integrating Africa-focused content with CNBC's international offering, as well as a breakfast show 'with a difference'. Launched just nine months ago, CNBC Africa’s COO Gary Alfonso talked to Russell Southwood about progress so far.

Q: Who’s behind CNBC Africa?

The station was launched on 1 June 2007 through an investment vehicle with 70% backing from Dubai-based investors and 30% from IDL. The Dubai-based investors had already successfully launched CNBC franchises in Dubai, India and Pakistan. What CNBC and ABN did was to bring rights to distribute CNBC content in Sub-Saharan Africa. It invested US$20 million in studio facilities for broadcasting and we have bureaus in Cape Town, Nairobi, Abuja and Lagos. We started with 140 people and that’s now gone up to 150.

So the CNBC content is the base from which we make the pizza. We get rolling programming from CNBC in the USA, Europe and Asia and we have introduced programmes from regional stock exchanges. We’ve targeted the primary economic activity hubs on the continent: Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Other countries are now calling us and Uganda and Zambia want to be on board. Also we have a terrestrial deal in Ghana and Port Harcourt as a result of peer pressure in those markets. But we’d like to go where there is commercial viability for the story, not to do a deal with a parastatal to pump out Government propaganda. The banks who sponsor us get the opportunity to showcase their logo on our daily markets programmes. We need a sponsor to make it work in new markets. We want to roll out in Angola, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and the DRC. We look at it almost as an investor would by asking what’s the political risk in the market

Q: How’s the channel distributed?

It’s rebroadcast by DStv across Africa using Sentech on PAS-7. It’s a Free-To-Air Signal and a whole range of decoders can pick it up except in Senegal. In addition, we’ve started doing lots of other terrestrial and non-terrestrial deals. We have about 14 deals with country broadcasters like the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation, Capitol Broadcasting in Kenya, Trend TV in Nigeria and Net2TV in Ghana. What we like about these deals is that they provide out of the home content during the day when people want to switch to watching a TV in their office.

Q: What’s the USP of the channel?

We’re coming from stock exchanges around the continent for a full 10 hours a day and we’re taking live feeds from CNBC in Europe and the USA for another 10 hours as markets close. We know that viewers want to see Martha Barti Romo doing the closing markets commentary. The one thing that makes me wake up every morning is this continent’s commodity and resource story and in the future, this will be a global story. We are localising the global business guy in Africa.

Q: Who’s your competition?

We did a survey of viewers last November and from that it would appear that CNN and BBC World are our two main competitors. Of course, there’s Bloomburg but they’re not actually physically present on the continent for business coverage.

Q: What’s the audience for the channel?

According to TGI in July last year there were 200,000 ABs watching DStv’s output on PAS-7. In Kenya, we can reach 90% of the 12 million people in Nairobi and we reckon that 5-10% of that figure is our market.

Q: Are you hitting your advertising targets?

We are on target to be cash-positive by the end of the year and on present performance that would be about R70 million. Our target is to exceed that.

The banks are a large part of our revenue through advertising and sponsorship. After that it’s leisure goods. The advertisers are those trying to appeal to the 9 and 10 LSM groups with also aspirational people amongst the 8 LSM group.

Content

African Winner of the 2008 Tiburon International Film Festival

The Tiburon International Film Festival awarded Best Film to The Yellow House, directed by Amor Hakkar ofAlgeria. In the arid landscape of Algeria's Aurès mountains, Mouloud and Fatima are farmers whose son was recently killed in an ambush. In the middle of the night, Mouloud gets on his makeshift tractor and travels more than 100 kilometres to bring his son's body home. When he returns, Fatima is already plunged into debilitating grief. With help from his daughters, Mouloud (played by director Amor Hakkar) is determined to elicit the hint of a smile from his wife's forlorn face.

Inspired by the emotions he felt while mourning the death of his own father, Amor Hakkar travelled to the Berber mountains and worked with non-professional actors, surrounded by a majestic landscape never before captured on film. In the cinematic virginity of those mountains, the film becomes a controlled and compassionate look at life's continuity despite the most horrific of miseries -- Mouloud tries everything to bring a smile to Fatima's face, refusing to give up.

Africa: ESPN to Screen Black Magic

Sports channel ESPN will this week screen 'Black Magic', a film narrated by Academy Award nominee actor Samuel L. Jackson, jazz great Wynton Marsalis and NBA basketball star Chris Paul. Screening will be on DStv's channel 230 on March 19 at 7pm while Part II will be repeated on March 20 at 10am.

Telling the story of injustice, which characterised the Civil Rights Movement in America, 'Black Magic' is told through the lives of basketball players and coaches who attended and worked at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Scheduled to be screened in two parts, 'Black Magic' will be presented commercial free by Russell Athletic Group and State Farm.

(The Herald (Harare), 20 March 2008)

Cameroon: Journalist Produces Documentary On Marie Lumiere

Michelle Laure Pela, a journalist, has produced a 1 hour 2minute documentary titled: "Marie Prophetess de Lumiere."

The documentary, which was presented to the press at the Goethe Institute in Yaoundé on March 17, dwells on the life of Marie Rosine the successor of Pere Soffo, the legendary prophet of the Carriere neighbourhood in Yaoundé.

She investigates into the subject by tracing the life of the prophetess through testimonies from formers family, her mother in Banjoun, her children and journalists, amongst others.

She justifies her interest in Marie Lumiere by the fact the Bureau Lumiere, having attracted researchers and journalist, no one thought Marie Lumirere would succeed Pere Soffo given that she was more in the background. She identified the problems between the two prophetesses Maala and Marie Rosine and how the Catholic Church intervened to send away Maala.

Though an encouraging move, she was criticised for allowing too much time for testimonies and that some pictures appeared more than once. She was advised to include the views of sociologist and theologians given the context of the documentary.

On her part, Laure Pela argued that theologians were not available to comment, evoking the mute position of the church on certain topics.She hopes to produce part two with more inside on the prophetess and certain contradictions around her and attempt to prove practically the miracles the people claim the prophetess has performed.

(The Post (Buea), 24 March 2008)

Nigeria: Green World Accuses AIT of Rights' Infringement

As Nigeria continues to celebrate the U-23 Olympic ticket, a battle of authority is about to be witnessed by Nigerians over the rightful owner of the broadcast rights of the match between Samson Siasia's team and the Amaglu-glu of South Africa.

The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) had called a world press conference to announce Green World Communications Ltd as the official exclusive broadcast rights owner of the match. But the Chief Executive Officer of Green World Ltd, Greg Anobili last week cried foul that some organisations infringed on his exclusive rights without due process. Anobili pointed accusing fingers at the African Independent Television (AIT) for broadcasting the Nigeria/South Africa match without permission thereby infringing on his exclusive rights.

"They marketed the match, had sponsors and made money from it to the detriment of our company," Anobili fumed as he called on AIT to seek the way of peace before he heads to the law courts. "We all bidded for the match but Green World came out tops and the NFA gave me exclusive rights for the match. What that means is that other companies should go through me if they want to air the match. "AIT approached me but their asking price was not okay but instead they threatened me that they would show the match. And, indeed, they went ahead to broadcast the match after making so much money from so many clients without due permission from Green World.

"We are only asking them to come and settle with us amicably before we move ahead to seek redress at the Law Courts which has proved to be the last hope of the common man. We know that AIT is going public and we want them to prove their integrity by settling with us. We do not want to be forced to report them to the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) and embarrass them. We want peace and they should come and settle with us," Anobili emphasised.

(source: This day)

In brief

Byron Bay Film Festival in Australia opened its annual festival to international submissions this year and announced South African feature film Heartlines among competition winners on Saturday March 8th 2008 at a Gala Event sponsored by the SAE Institute.

Broadcast

Kenya: 10.7 Million Homes Own TV Or Radio

At least 10.7 million Kenyan homes have access to either a radio or television set. According to a research whose findings were released Tuesday, 7.5 million homes possess radios while 3.2 million others have television sets. The research by the Steadman Group, showed that of the homes with radios, 5.6 million are in the rural areas while 1.9 million in towns.

On the other hand, 1.8 million television set owners are in the rural areas while 1.4 million live in the urban centres. These are the homes targeted by 14 television and 63 radio stations as clients and advertisers. It also emerged Tuesday that as the media outlets have been on the rise, so has been the advertising budgets. The research established that advertising expenditure to television, radio, print and cinema has been on a steady rise since 2003 when it stood at Sh6.6 billion to last year's 17.4 billion.

"In 2004 the expenditure was Sh8.4 billion which grew to Sh 9.3 billion the following year. It was in 2006 when it was to hit a double digit of Sh13.6 billion from where it has been growing," said George Lutta, Media Initiative managing director.

And of the households who own television sets, 51 per cent have coloured ones, 43 per cent black and white while six per cent own both types.

Steadman Group managing director George Waititu who released the results, said out of a base of 8.4 million households, 71 per cent have at least one radio while 13 per cent own two. On the other hand, four per cent have three radios and one per cent four sets. Eleven per cent of the population has no radio set.

But despite this, 16.7 million Kenyans listen to radio. But the figures vary from urban to rural settings. Interestingly the rural populace, by virtue of the number constitutes a bigger constituency of radio listeners (12.4 million) while only 4.4 million in towns.

(The Nation (Nairobi), 19 March 2008)

Nigeria: Lack of Funds Stalls FRCN FM Projects

Inadequate fund has grounded the 32 FM radio stations initiated by the FRCN nationwide in 2000. The stations were conceived by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to cater for the states that had not yet benefited from the national station policy. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that only 18 of the stations have been inaugurated while the 14 others were in limbo.

The uncompleted stations include Harmony FM, Ilorin; Prime FM, Lokoja; Highland FM, Jos and Atlantic FM, Uyo. Others are Creek FM, Yenagoa; Paradise FM, Calabar; Charity FM, Asaba; Bronze FM, Benin and Jewel FM, Gombe. Horizon FM, Dutse; Equity FM, Birnin Kebbi; Royal FM, Sokoto; Gift FM, Jalingo and Sunshine FM, Damaturu.

A report submitted by the Committee on the operations of the FRCN, however, stated that the 18 operational stations had no back-up transmitters. Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, explained that some of those inaugurated stations were facing operational constraints. "Some of these stations are located in remote areas, far from state capitals, thus creating additional constraints, " he said.

Specifically, the five-man committee suggested to government, to review the FM stations, especially on the possibility of converting some to Short Wave (SW) and Medium Wave (MW) broadcasting. It said while the SW and MW could render largely social services, the FM stations should be commercialised, to generate funds for FRCN operations. "FM stations, where appropriately cited and efficiently managed, should be profitable ventures, " the committee said.

(Vanguard (Lagos), 23 March 2008)

Uganda: Vision to Start Luganda FM Radio

Vision Group is to launch a new radio station to broadcast in Luganda, the chief executive, Robert Kabushenga, announced on Friday. Based at the company headquarters in Industrial Area in Kampala, the radio station will broadcast on 100.5 FM. Kabushenga said the company had so much information for Luganda readers that could not be published in the 24 pages allocated to the Bukedde newspaper.

"For the past 14 years, we have been serving Luganda readers through Bukedde. We think it is now time to switch our experience from Bukedde to broadcasting in Luganda," he said. The station will be on air in the next four months. The company's other radio station, Vision Voice (94.8 FM), hit the airwaves in October last year.

(New Vision (Kampala), 30 March 2008)

DRC: Rural Women Launch Their Radio to Improve Welfare

A group of rural women in DRC’s South Kivu has launched a community radio station to promote the welfare of women and girls.

Radio Babusa FM first hit the air in January 4. It was an initiative of a group of women called Sauti ya Mwanamke Kijijini (SAMWAKI), 'the voice of rural women.'

SAMWAKI's vision is to turn Radio Babusa FM into a genuine space of encounter and exchange of information and experiences by and for rural women and young girls. The station broadcasts the local language Mashi, Swahili and French.

A report by the World Association of Christian Communication (WACC) said the radio will be used to break the silence around issues such as the discrimination and marginalisation faced by rural women and to share and exchange visions and information that will empower village women to be active agents of sustainable development.

It will also be a tool for forging new alliances with other members and sectors of the community in order to seek commonly agreed solutions to the problems facing women.

Launched in 2002, SAMWAKI is a women's organization active in the rural areas of South Kivu. Its mission is to ensure that rural women are empowered by access to information, training and communication in a country that has seen endless generalized violence in the last years.

SAMWAKI is a founding member of the Network of Community Radios and Television of Congo and the Association of Community Radios of Congo.

In brief

- Even after receiving petitions from disappointed and unhappy listeners crying foul over the decision by the management of Radio 2000 to change the station's music format and rebrand it, the SABC-owned radio station has gone ahead with its plans to position itself as a fully fledged public service station ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

- One of South Africa provinces will have a new community TV station - Mpumalanga Broadcasting Television (MBTV) - which will be fully operational by the end of the month. By Simon Shabangu

Distribution

Africa: Cash-strapped WorldSpace considering sale & leaseback

Cash-strapped satellite radio broadcaster is about to have its annual accounts “qualified” by auditors Grant Thornton, “expressing doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern based on its current financial resources”. WorldSpace is still scratching around for cash to stay afloat, and one option now under consideration is the sale and leaseback of its pair of satellites. It has also abandoned plans for the time being to launch its back-up satellite for Europe.

WorldSpace is out of money. Its Q4/2007 revenue numbers are pitiful, earning just $3.8m in subscriber and miscellaneous income. The end result was that it had cash (and cash equivalents) in its bank of just $3.59m, plus another $6.3m in securities ($27m and $143.7m same period 2006) as at Dec 31, and yet it is spending cash at a rate of almost $40m per quarter. Q4 saw an overall loss of $46m. In January this year it negotiated an emergency “bridging loan” of $40m from Yenura Pte, a company controlled by WorldSpace’s CEO (and Chairman and President) Noah Samara. However, $10m of whatever cash Samara actually doled out to WorldSpace had to be paid to preferential debt-holders, who are expecting another $17.5m to be paid this coming May (and another $17.5m in 2010).

The balance of this fresh $40m amount has not been fully “paid” over to the broadcaster. Samara, in a conference call on March 20 said “about half” had been paid across to WorldSpace, and the balance would be made available “in the next few weeks”. WorldSpace’s cash position and lack of progress in securing fresh funding means that the company’s accountants (Grant Thornton) will this week be qualifying their overall end-of-year accounts for WorldSpace and “expressing doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern based on its current financial resources”. WorldSpace had total operating expenses of $39.6m during Q4 (down on 2006’s $57.2m) showing that belts are being somewhat tightened.

South Africa: M-Net's Power-Cut Solution is a special prime-time repeats channel

To ensure that sporadic load shedding and power cuts do not hinder viewers from enjoying all their favourite television shows, pay-television operator M-Net is now rebroadcasting its prime-time series on a dedicated DStv channel called M-Net Extra on weekends.

From this week Saturday, 22 March 2008, DStv subscribers can tune into M-Net Extra, channel 103 on DStv, on Saturdays and Sundays from 2pm to catch up on all the M-Net shows that they couldn't see during the week. M-Net's director of channels, Jan du Plessis, says that M-Net has been playing around with the idea of introducing such a repeat channel since load shedding started earlier this year, but a viewer outcry this week, following confirmation of more erratic power cuts due to cold weather conditions finally clinched the deal.

"We've been keeping a close eye on the effect of the power cuts on our viewing patterns and after receiving many requests from viewers to review our repeat schedule, the decision was made yesterday to commence with M-Net Extra with immediate effect," says du Plessis. "It's important for us that our viewers' needs are met and we trust that M-Net Extra will give them another opportunity to enjoy the magic of M-Net."

M-Net Extra will broadcast all international and local series that are on the M-Net schedule after 7pm on weekdays. As such, the schedule includes audience favourites such as Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, Ella Blue, The Coconuts, Private Practice and Desperate Housewives. The Sunday night game show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? will also repeat on M-Net Extra, but this won't apply to the soap Binnelanders, for which M-Net and kykNET have already scheduled a repeat pattern.

(Biz-Community (Cape Town), 19 March 2008)

In brief

- Cote d’Ivoire’s La Maison de la presse has received US$50,000 dollars from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa to carry out capacity building with community radio stations.

Investment

South Africa: Telkom ditches its big Pay-TV Plan and goes back to telecoms

Telkom stock fell earlier this week after the company said it was slashing its proposed investment in a pay-TV division and rejecting an investment proposition by Saudi operator Oger Telecoms. Instead of pumping R7.5bn into the highly speculative field of pay-TV, Telkom will invest heavily in boosting its voice and data networks, and may also buy into a foreign cellular operator.

The market has waited months for clarity on Telkom's future direction as it reviews how best it can combine both fixed and mobile voice and data services to shore up its traditional income. But yesterday's announcement lacked the excitement that analysts had expected, and its share price fell 10.14% to close at R131.20.

Plans that have been assessed and dismissed during the review included selling a stake to the Saudis, selling its entire fixed line infrastructure to MTN and selling its 50% stake in Vodacom. "The share price is down because people were expecting bigger news, like they were selling Vodacom or had decided to list it," said one analyst. Instead, the most dramatic move is to "substantially reduce" its investment in Telkom Media, which won a licence to enter the pay-TV market last year.

Three other firms also won licences, raising concerns that the audience was too small for them all in an arena already dominated by MultiChoice. Telkom owns 66% of Telkom Media and earmarked R7.5bn for the venture, but it is now trying to sell most of its stake. "It looks like they will sell the majority of Telkom Media and that's positive because a lot of people were questioning that investment," the analyst said.

"That business will continue, but I'd guess they will retain less than 10%. The question is who is gong to buy it." Telkom's CEO, Reuben September, told analysts yesterday that media companies had long pay-back periods, and alternatives offered faster returns. Telkom must focus on its strengths as competition increases, and so it would retain the smallest possible stake.

Strengthening its core business of voice and data services will see it invest heavily in new networks using both fixed and wireless technologies, but September did not specify how much would be spent.

He said an offer from Oger Telecoms to buy into its business had been declined as not in the interests of shareholders. None of its operations would be sold without "a compelling strategic rationale," he said. Yet Telkom implied it would disinvest from Vodacom if it could sell for a decent profit and invest the cash more profitably in a mobile operator in another emerging market. Last year Telkom was prepared to end its ties with Vodacom only if it could team up with MTN or Cell C. "Now it may sell Vodacom if it can find another mobile asset, which doesn't have to be in SA," the analyst said. "They said they had identified a number of attractive opportunities."

That would not help Telkom bulk up its local network, but it could work with any cellular player in SA to offer a combination of fixed and cellular services, the analyst said.

(Business Day)

South Africa: State Gets Behind Local TV and Film Industry with tax incentives package

The trade and industry department has announced a production incentive for the film and television industry, to boost the generation of local content and improve location competitiveness for foreign film productions in South Africa .

The incentive, which replaces a previous rebate introduced in 2004, forms part of the comprehensive national industrial policy framework, and will benefit both local and foreign producers.

Significantly, the department has lowered the qualifying threshold for foreign-based producers, and opted to increase rebates available to local producers, in a bid to stimulate the local film industry. Previously, foreign-owned productions with a qualifying South African production expenditure of R25m and above could receive a rebate of 15% of that expenditure for the production of feature films, TV movies, TV drama series, documentaries, animation and short-form animations. The threshold has now been lowered to R12m.

The department said the reduction of the threshold would make the bundling of productions unnecessary for producers. It has also introduced the South African Film and Television Production and Co-Production Scheme -- a scheme aimed at local producers to provide financial support for locally-owned productions and co-productions.

Under the incentive scheme, South African productions with a total budget of R2.5m or more qualify for a 35% rebate for the first R6m, and 25% for the rest of the qualifying expenditure. The value of the rebate for all qualifying productions is capped at R10m.

The department said the provisions of the incentive should encourage transformation of the industry, but should also provide "necessary impetus" to grow the South African film and television production industry. The department is to take other steps as part of a broader sector development strategy. These include: capacity development for emerging production companies, encouraging writers and editors through the enterprise development programme and establishing five pilot programmes in different locations to address distribution infrastructure, local content and audience expansion.

(Business Day (Johannesburg), 26 March 2008)

In brief

- Mauritius media group La Sentinel (owners of l’Express) are investing in newspapers and radio stations in Madagascar.

More

Regulation & policy

UN Expert Says Media's Rights Being Violated By All in Conflict

The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (EHAHRD/Net) and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) welcomed a report by Dr Ghanim Alnajjar, the UN Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia which he presented to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) last week in Geneva.

According to EHARD/Net, this report reveals once again Dr Alnajjar's commitment to shedding light on the general human rights situation in Somalia, his particular concern for issues which are fundamental human rights and his persistent use and reliance on factual information to provide a detailed picture of the current situation. The report confirms the urgency of the situation and the need for the international community to give human rights in Somalia the attention that it deserves.

The report starts off by describing how the already dire general human rights situation in Somalia has been rapidly deteriorating in recent months. It reveals that all parties in the conflict have committed human rights violations and have not been held accountable for their actions.

The report concentrates on certain key themes and violations. On the issue of violations being committed against internally displaced persons in Somalia it reveals that approximately 60% of the population of Mogadishu have been forced to flee from the capital and has subsequently been subjected to "threats, intimidation, looting, assault and sexual and gender-based violence" during their flight. The report documents how the civilian population as a whole has had to face a "wave of arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions". It also reports on the increasing number of cases of gender-based violence.

Of particular importance is the exposure which Dr Alnajjar has accorded to the current curtailment of independent media and the deliberate violations being committed against journalists. The report reveals that these violations are being carried out by all actors in the conflict and are largely being used as a means of silencing the very few voices speaking out against the abuses being committed against the civilian population.

The report highlights the degree of impunity currently reigning in the country and the fact that perpetrators are largely getting away with denying these human rights violations or defusing them under claims to be fighting a 'war on terror'.

(National Union of Somali Journalists (Mogadishu), 24 March 2008)

Zimbabwe: Country Bars South African TV Station From Polls

The Zimbabwean government banned South African private television station e-tv from covering last week’'s general elections.

According to a statement from the government, e-tv, South Africa's only commercial terrestrial station, was not accredited for the joint parliamentary and presidential polls as it had previously breached media and security laws in a report on diamond smuggling last year. The station's Zimbabwe-born reporter, Peter Moyo, was fined by a court at the time for operating without a licence from the Media and Information Commission (MIC) However, the government has cleared the public broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to cover the elections.

International organizations still able to work in Zimbabwe include: Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press (AP), Reuters and al-Jazeera. Those which have been banned include MSNBC, BBC, CNN, The Guardian and The Telegraph.

(The Zimbabwe Guardian (London), 26 March 2008)

In brief

- Police in the Senegalese capital of Dakar assaulted a reporter who was covering a violent anti-government protest on Sunday, according to local journalists and news reports. They later raided the reporter’s station and confiscated footage. Walf TV reporter Ousmane Mangane told CPJ that riot police used Tasers on him as he was attempting to interview an opposition member of parliament, Mously Diakhaté, on live television. Police spokesman Alioune Ndiaye said 24 arrests were made on Sunday after police dispersed the demonstration, which was led by consumer advocacy groups who were protesting against price hikes in food, fuel, and other basic staples. The group’s Wal Fadjiri newspaper claimed that this was the first time that a local Senegalese TV station had carried footage of a demonstration against the Government.

Technology & convergence

South Africa: Stream Your Favourite SA Radio Station Live

Relying only on two new media tools, viral marketing and blog posts, to inform the masses about AmaRadio, South African developer Gary James says his free online live radio streaming program was downloaded more than 500 times in just five days of going live.

Created by the Cape Town-based developer, the small (4MB) and easy-to-use app allows users to listen to their favourite radio stations over the Internet. Explains James, "AmaRadio is considerably easier to download than other comparible software, such as iTunes or Windows Media Player. It's less than a tenth of the size of these tools, so downloading it takes far less time and bandwidth."

In terms of bandwidth consumed while using AmaRadio, James says, "Most ISPs provide broadband clients with 2000 or 3000MB of bandwidth per month. Listening to AmaRadio will use up roughly 10MB of your bandwidth per hour." According to James, it started out as an idea to help his wife listen to her favourite Australian-based radio station and so he built a small software program using his company's audio engine.

"I announced AmaRadio on my blog, and within 24 hours I received emails from users who loved the product. Not bad considering that we haven't done any advertising, because my company cannot afford to spend a lot of time on a project that won't generate income," comments James.

"In just 12 days, the product had received plenty of attention, mainly through several South African blog and technology enthusiast sites, and over 500 people had already downloaded the software." AmaRadio was also publicised on local social bookmarking site www.muti.co.za and the word spread via http://twitter.com.

The latest version, AmaRadio 1.07, which was only released on Sunday, 16 March 2008, allows users to play 38 South African radio stations. It also enables users to record the live streams directly to a hard disk and saves them in MP3 format. As of Friday 21 March, AmaRadio will begin supporting international radio stations such as BBC Radio.

James says at the moment there isn't a budget to advertise the product but he is trying to get companies to advertise on AmaRadio so that it can generate an income, rather than be funded by consumers. Currently AmaRadio only runs on Windows 98, XP and Vista but "if there is enough interest, we will look into building other versions to support Mac and Linux," concludes James.

(Biz-Community (Cape Town), 19 March 2008)

Rwanda: Campaign to Switch From Analogue to Digital Broadcasting Advancing

Rwanda like most countries in the world has stepped up the campaign to move from analogue to digital broadcasting. To fast track the switch to digital, a guidance document titled 'Managing the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting' has been published.

"Though the project is still in its early stages of implementation, we are trying hard to create awareness among key players," Andrew Kisaka, an ICT expert hired to help the country move from analogue to digital broadcasting said.

The Geneva based International Telecommunication Union set 2015 as deadline for all countries to adopt terrestrial digital broadcasting. The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) has communicated to all broadcasters about the transition and intends to start a public awareness campaign.

Kisaka cited some of advantages of digital broadcasting as:- high quality pictures, editing is much faster and safer as compared to analogue. "Copying a 60 second analogue spot takes 60 seconds while 10 megabyte file takes only some few minutes," Kisaka. And one frequency of analogue can operate one television while in digital broadcasting a frequency can accommodate four to ten programmes, but although at the larger end of that range, the quality of pictures may be compromised.

"This is purely ICT and as the government considers ICT to be the backbone of the economy, digital broadcasting is a key drive and it will bring a revolution to ICT because of its powerfulness to reach many people at a go," Kisaka said.

When Rwanda goes to full digital broadcasting, people will be able to watch the 2008 World Cup in South Africa through their digital video broadcasting handheld mobiles and vehicular television receiver that can be fixed in the car.

To prepare Rwandans to shift, government has stopped issuing licences to investors intending to broadcast using analogue. And, more than 138 digital channels are now ready to be rented out to investors interested in starting digital broadcast television stations in the country. The country also imported 100 digital-to-analogue set-top converter boxes.

(The New Times (Kigali), 25 March 2008)

In brief

- Mobile TV has come to Mauritius. The Island’s second largest mobile operator Emtel (a joint venture with Millicom) is now offering 10 TV channels (3 local and 7 from CanalSat) to its subscribers via its 3G service. Payment per download is approximately MR10 for five minutes of programming. Aproximately 3,000 subscribers have used the service since its inception.

People

South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC will not try to recover any money from former Lesedi FM

presenter Thuso Motaung. Motaung was recently acquitted by the Johannesburg commercial crimes court after being charged with defrauding the corporation of R32million, allegedly committed while he worked for the SABC.

Pierre Marie Djongo has been appointed Administrateur Exécutif of Cameroon’s Sky One radio station. Joly Koum has become the new Directeur de l'information of Cameroon’s Canal 2 International.

Jobs & Opportunities

Africa: Artists' Television Access calls for submissions for its third ATA Film and Video Festival!

Experimental Shorts 20 mins and under

Video, Super 8 and 16 mm

Preview on VHS, miniDV or DVD

Deadline: May 15, 2008

Entry fee: $10

http://www.atasite.org/festival/

The ATA Film & Video Festival was founded in 2006 to showcase some of the best short works by independent and experimental film and video artists exhibiting locally, nationally and internationally. The festival includes several nights of screenings and installations in our Mission District storefront gallery and a lunch for the filmmakers. Throughout the year, work from the festival is broadcast to the San Francisco community on ATV, ATA's weekly cable-access television show, and screened in other national and international venues.

Artists' Television Access is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer, artist-run, experimental media arts gallery that has been in operation since 1984. ATA hosts a series of film and video screenings, exhibitions and performances by emerging and established artists and a weekly cable access television program.

Artists' Television Access
992 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110

http://www.atasite.org

Events

Angola: Luanda Film Festival

November 22-29, 2008

The event is intended to stimulate cultural cooperation, particularly in the field of cinema, between local and foreign producers and directors and re-launch the system of production and distribution of cinema in the country. Addressing the ceremony of presentation of the festival, Miguel Hurst added that Angolan Government intends to award prizes to films screened in Angola, both local and foreign, seeking to increment the production of movies in the country. With the expected participation of local and foreign movies, the festival will comprise competitive, non-competitive categories and parallel activities.

Morocco : Tetouan hosts the 14th Mediterranean Film Festival

From 29 March to 4 April, Tetouan (Morocco) will host the 14th Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival which, since its inception in 1985, has continued to actively promote Mediterranean cinema. The creation of the Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival Foundation in 2006, headed by the Minister for Communications, was aimed precisely at ensuring the continuation of the festival.

In 7 days of screenings at 5 different venues, almost 100 films from Mediterranean countries will be shown, together with 10 feature films, 15 short films and 10 documentaries which will be in competition. More than 10 countries will be represented, 200 special guests are invited and 50,000 spectators are expected.

This year, the Festival will have a special focus on Tunisian cinema and the 3 Continents Festival of Nantes. They will be the special guests of honour, with a retrospective that will look at films produced over the last 20 years.

Festival events will also be open to the public at large, including those scheduled as part of the “Special Youth” programme. Two roundtable discussions will be held which will examine synergies between film exhibition, distribution and festivals, as well as the link between cinema and literature.

With the aim of supporting and paying tribute to Moroccan writers, this year’s Festival will see the launch of a special section which will enable the general public to interact with filmmakers and writers. Moroccan novelists and writers will participate in a roundtable discussion and provide their contribution to the debate on literature and the possibilities for film adaptations of the literary works presented in this section, which works will - at the same time - be brought to international attention.

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