Tag Archives: Digital Play

Nigerian media heads to MipTV in force

News, , , , , , , , , , ,

MipTV is set to hold another edition of its programme market in Cannes, France in April, this time with a big delegation of Nigerian TV executives in attendance.

The four-day event features masterclasses, screenings, exhibitions, panel discussions and workshops. At the MipFormats sidebar event, there will also be a panel session dedicated to the issues surrounding the development of TV formats in Nigeria.

To be held on April 8, the session will be titled The Producers Toolbox: Will Nigeria Host The Next Format Boom? Four speakers will address the topic, discussing the TV industry in Nigeria and the efforts to develop original TV formats and content for domestic and international markets.

The speakers will include Chichi Nwoko, CEO of Hey, What’s On?; Olasupo Odebiyi, creative director of Pixelator Multimedia; Neil Oyenekan, CEO of Lighthouse Television & Filmwork; and Duncan Irvine, CEO of Rapid Blue.

More than 10,000 TV professionals will represent their companies and media organisations at the event. Some of the Nigeria companies that will be buying and selling include Digital Play, National Broadcasting Commission, Rapid Blue, StarTimes Media, Screenshot Media, Pixelator Multimedia and Lighthouse Television & Filmworks.

Chineye Nworah, chief operating officer and head of content at Screenshot, told Content Nigeria about the company’s MipTV plans: “We attend various content markets annually. Content is what we are about, from feature films to reality TV shows, we aim to sell this content and distribute it. Though we would not be exhibiting at MipTV, we have meetings scheduled with other companies who have indicated their interest in our content.”

MipFormats will take place in Cannes from April 7 to 8, while MipTV runs from April 9 to 12.

tagged in: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Subair: take back control of our TV

News, , , ,

Toyin Subair, exec chairman of media company Digital Play, has called out to the federal government to regain control of Nigeria’s TV industry from foreign companies.

Toyin Subair

In a recent interview with newspaper The Nation, Subair said Nigeria has the biggest creative industry in Africa but is unable to monetise its content because of the invasion of foreign TV companies. These control the TV infrastructure and dictate what is broadcast, he claimed.

According to Subair, home-based infrastructure is what is needed to help the industry thrive. “We need to fight the infrastructural battle. We need to own the platforms. We need to get the right kind of funding,” he said.

“We need to ensure that our stories are told the way we want them to be told and that they are not bastardised by the ones controlling it. Somebody else is deciding what goes on and what doesn’t, when it should go out and how it shouldn’t go out. You don’t want that; you don’t want people to take our creativity out of the country.”

Subair, former CEO of now defunct Nigerian pay TV outfit HiTV, said the digital switch over (DSO) transition will be instrumental in the nation’s control over its content, with the advent of set-top boxes ensuring content creators have access to more than 24 million TV households.

However, he pleaded with the Nigerian government to ensure that DSO is not taken over by foreign companies.

He also claimed that while DSO is lucrative it needs to be funded. “They say there is no money, but how can you say there is no money? The very essence of DSO is that you free up spectrum that people can use to go and sell data and make data cheaper via LT 4G 5G.

“So, 16 analogue TV channels find that if they move to digital, they will only need a fraction of it and then you can take the rest and sell it. With regards to the funding of DSO, we are sitting on it ourselves with no transaction being done properly to free it. It’s like a chicken and egg situation.

“You are sitting on the money but you need to monetise it. You just need a few smart people in one room, create a model where it is used as security to fund the rest of DSO, and then once it is funded and you remove the people, you use the asset and sell it off to monetise the investment. Now, what I just said looks simple; we make it difficult for ourselves.”

tagged in: , , , ,