Africa’s very own MTV, known as MTV base, launched with abundant aplomb, glitz and local celebrities last week. With MTV being one of the top 10 most-recognised consumer brands in the world, the African music industry is in for a facelift.
“We’re very excited and hoping that it becomes an international platform to showcase our talents. We’ve already achieved this with established artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but this is really an opportunity for younger artists,” confirms Sipho Sithole, deputy CEO at Gallo Music.
At the launch, Bill Roedy, president of MTV Networks International, predicted “success and a centre of influence” for his company’s 100th channel; and Alex Okiri, general manager of MTV Networks Africa, announced “the first music channel for Africa, by Africa”.
However, going on their “business strategy of having a local approach to building a global business”, MTV base faces a number of challenges if its measure of success, according to Okiri, is based on “distribution growth, increasing local music content to 50% [and the] introduction of more localised programming”.
Currently, MTV base offers 30% African music content, a market penetration of 1,3-million households in 48 countries, and localised programmes including MTV base Spotlight, Artist Hitlist base, MTV base Request Show, MTV base Chart, Legends and Trevor Meets….
Production and transmission of the channel is based in London, although local production companies are being used to create the programming. No local presenters are being used yet but MTV promises a huge hunt for the first African VJ.
HIV/Aids programming is also a hot topic for MTV base, with the MTV international network already recognised with kudos by UNAids.
Says Okiri: “A good deal of our existing Staying Alive content is already produced in Africa — and broadcast to a global audience. This includes MTV’s Staying Alive concert in Cape Town [2002], Meeting Mandela and the 46664 concert in Cape Town. However, we are planning to develop specifically African-based content for MTV base in Africa.”
He says that it is too early to reveal further details of the latter.
Not denying that Africa certainly has the musical talent and creativity, the music industry — despite being unquestionably enthusiastic about the channel — is itself not very developed. Many artists are self-released, suffer at the hands of poor production values and would never before dream of making a music video, for where would it be aired? MTV base has taken heed.
The channel promises, according to its press release, “a commitment to encouraging and developing grassroots African music talent”. The channel has appointed talent and artist-relations representatives in eight countries in Africa, set to liaise with and identify potential musos. These representatives will work with musicians to bolster their profiles.
Okiri distinguishes between events on the channel and ground events.
“For example, we have been working closely with Lebo Mathosa, 2 FACE [of Nigeria] and Nameless [from Kenya] to showcase their talents at our high-profile media-launch events touring Africa at the moment.
“Their association with such a high-profile launch has already borne fruit for African artists — with Lebo Mathosa appearing on the front page of The New York Times, unique exposure that only MTV can bring.”
These ground events are also important in the African market where satellite pay-TV platforms are at a relatively early stage of evolution, says Okiri.
Okiri denies that music videos will be the only ticket on to the channel, with local programming and ground-event promotion equally important.
However, he recognises the need to develop this industry to meet the channel target of 50% local African music content.
“The only limiting factors are a potential scarcity of high-quality music videos, but we see this as part of an educational process that we will be undergoing in our conversations with labels and artists. Creativity is the key — high quality does not have to equate to high cost in an era of DVC [digital video computing].”
MTV base is also considering turning the process of making a high-quality music video into a television show.
As for the locally produced African music channel, Channel O, Okiri says: “MTV base and Channel O sit next to each other on the DStv dial but our content will be very different, and appeal to different audiences.
“And while Channel O has clearly made a place for itself in Africa, MTV base plans to secure much broader distribution via our pay-TV platforms [FSTV, CTL and Trend TV already secured] as well as terrestrial distribution. We believe that MTV base will have broader appeal to mass African youth, given our specific editorial policy and focus on urban music genres.”
DStv representative Thembi also confirmed that MTV Europe will continue to be broadcast on DStv, with no plans for it to be phased out.