Are Nigerian TV stations prepared for the future?

Before we ask about TV stations, we could first ask whether Nigeria as a country is prepared or even preparing for the future? And you wouldn’t have to go too far for examples that appear to disprove any claims about Nigeria actively planning for the future. The other day I saw a newspaper headline about some newspaper vendors calling on the federal government to ban online newspapers because of dwindling patronage and readership of (print) newspapers or something to that effect. I actually had a laugh-out-loud moment when I saw that headline as in: What will they think of next?

Still, I couldn’t say was surprised. For good or ill, there’s the government’s land border closure from 2019 to 2020. That closure arguably had worse effects in the Southern part of Nigeria perhaps because its enforcement was stricter in the South. Many reasons were advanced for this closure. In fact, at some point, it seemed that all of Nigeria’s problems were going to be solved by the border closure. However, the oft-touted reason was that the border closure was necessary for local rice farmers to improve their production. Over a year later, the federal government reopened the borders. Was anything significant achieved in the rice-producing chain by this ‘policy’? Depends on who you ask but skyrocketing cost of rice, local and foreign, tells an irrefutable story of failure. Yet, banning the foreign to promote the local was the recommendation of Nollywood actor and lawmaker Hon. Desmond Elliot when he tasked the government on Nollywood: “The federal government needs to consciously and intentionally focus on improving this industry. Treat it like you’re importing rice, ban all foreign content and make it difficult for all foreign content to come in, so the local content can grow.” No, that’s not the worst idea the man representing (APC) Surulere in the Lagos House of Assembly has ever espoused. Just before the Edo State governorship election in September 2020, he was waxing lyrical over godfatherism which was just before his #EndSARS antics. But I digress.

What I’m trying to do here is show a pattern of how we as Nigerians, whether as individuals or government, instead of embracing progress/change, frantically seek ways to impede it. It doesn’t matter if, more times than not, it’s a losing battle. I mean, look at the recent cryptocurrency ban by Nigeria’s Central Bank. Defenders of the CBN’s “with immediate effect” directive are hoarse with talk about the dangers of cryptocurrency, how fraudulent cryptocurrency dealings are, bla bla. I’m no cryptocurrency expert but at least I wouldn’t ban it as a first response.

Anyhow, since we like to ban things so much and with immediate effect no less, how come no one has thought it expedient to ban generating sets? Wouldn’t banning the importation of generators help our abiku NEPA- National Electric Power Authority (or is it PHCN-Power Holding Company of Nigeria?) improve on power generation and distribution? Or banning government officials from foreign medical trips to help our health system grow? This was an actual election promise never fulfilled. What about fixing our schools? Why has no one banned government officials from sending their kids to schools abroad? I’m relatively certain not even officials directly responsible for education in Nigeria feel duty-bound to send their children to Nigerian schools.

If you’re wondering what all this has to do with Nigerian TV stations, it’s the fact that the way TV is consumed is fast-changing and our TV stations can’t seem to keep up. Or don’t seem interested in keeping up. Television has since moved on from traditional platforms and avenues. I got thinking about this the other day while searching for channels and streaming apps on my new Roku TV. I was surprised to find only Channels TV there. Where’s NTA, the largest TV network in Africa (?) which used to crow about its 30 million viewers (according to their ad back in the day)? Not sure if there indeed were 30 million Nigerians watching NTA then or if there are more or fewer viewers now. But I’m certainly not one of NTA’s viewers. You’d think every TV station would be interested in reaching even more viewers around the world. With the internet, with smart TVs like Roku and co., the space is wide open to discerning TV stations to harness viewers from almost anywhere.

So, why aren’t more TV stations in Nigeria taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities offered by technological advancements? TV stations ought to remember that they are in the business of broadcasting and dissemination of programmes to their target audiences. Getting to these people should be the goal and they shouldn’t be focused on and bogged down by platforms. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind continuing to watch TV the good old-fashioned way. Not too far back to pre-deregulation days though. At home in Abuja, in addition to cable TV, I also have a TV antenna to watch terrestrial TV channels. The idea is to be prepared just in case my subscription expires suddenly, or rain, DSTV’s worst enemy strikes. I used to also used to have a Roku device…plus, one of my TVs is a smart TV so I can connect directly to the internet…But now, I have all kinds of streaming subscriptions and I’m resisting the temptation to add a cable subscription.

Anyway, let’s say for the sake of argument being on a Roku TV is not feasible or it’s too much of a hassle for Nigerian TV stations, what about Youtube, the video-sharing platform? Again, on Youtube, Channels TV is one of the few who have been consistent in maintaining 24/7 live streaming. Quite a few stations have been hit and miss. Stations like Galaxy TV, MITV…Ran into Silverbird News 24 on Youtube while searching for stations. The programme that was showing was the 2015 Man of the Year Award where late Chief Gani Fawehinmi was posthumously honoured. I’m not sure how to feel about that archival footage but I’ll be on the lookout to see what the rest of their programming is like.

Still talking about hit or miss, this basically means one day stations are on Youtube, next time you check, you might find that their most recent video was posted several years ago. Africa Independent Television, AIT used to be one of such hit and miss stations. It’s taken them some time, but the station appears to be making some effort in being consistently live ‘on-air’ on Youtube. I love watching AIT to balance out Channels TV and TVC. But then I couldn’t always be sure of getting live streaming 24/7. At least now, ‘Kaakaki’ is on live every morning. It serves as an alternative and a good break from Channels TV’s ‘Sunrise Daily which runs around the same time, especially if there’s an Adamu Garba-like guest.

Speaking of which, Adamu Garba is fast becoming the darling of AM TV shows. He was on Channels TV (‘Sunrise Daily’) last Friday. I was happy not to listen to him on AIT ‘Kaakaki’ Tuesday, February 9^th morning. There wasn’t much to be worried about as he had more than a match in Ann-Kio Briggs, environmentalist and human rights activist who was contributing from Port Harcourt. TVC News now also runs live streaming although this is separate from the TVC channel. From what I see, this other channel only uploads of some programming every couple of hours and isn’t live. Arise News has also now started streaming live on Youtube although I always somehow manage to miss all the riveting interviews from Peter Obi and others. Plus TV Africa which also has a dedicated Youtube channel goes one step further in sending out daily newsletters to subscribers about their programme highlights. In all, when I think of watching Nigerian TV on Youtube, Channels TV is the most reliable.

Needless to say, whether it’s Youtube or smart TVs, there is a gap that TV stations need to fill in reaching critical audiences. And in doing this, some creativity is required. At this point, I’m not looking at programming but just TV stations’ presence and visibility. There is so much (they) TV stations can learn from Nigerian Radio stations who are doing far better in terms of their presence online. But that’s another story.

Nwabuikwu, AIRTIME columnist is a renowned TV/Film critic, and Film scholar. She also has experience in Advertising as a senior Copywriter and Corporate Communications as a Communications consultant.