[kictanet] Kenya to rival Nigeria in local content production

Wed Sep 30 17:20:21 EAT 2015

Bwana Walubengo has written a good piece on local content and it's
regulation in his popular Op-ed pasted below.

For avoidance of doubt Walu, I've included here the definition of Local
content as laid out in statute. Its very clear from the regulator's
perspective on WHAT local content is.
Another issue you raise is the quality of local content. Well, my answer
would be, let us try and try and try until we get it right. Nollywood grew
from not giving up.

KENYA INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS (BROADCASTING) REGULATIONS, 2009
“local content” means the total of all television or radio programmes which
fulfil any five of the following conditions—
(a) the production is made in either Kenya’s native languages or official
languages of Kenya;
(b) production was done in Kenya;
(c) the content deals with issues that are unique and relevant to Kenyan
audiences;
(d) at least twenty per centum of the share of the production company are
owned by Kenyans;
(e) a majority of the artistes are Kenyans;
(f) the location of shooting, in case of audiovisual programmes or
performance was in Kenya;
(g) the author thereof must be a Kenyan national and in case of
co-authorship or multi-authorship fifty per centum or more of the authors
must be Kenyan;
(h) the production is made under Kenyan creative and technical control, but
does not include news and commentaries;

35.
Local content
(1)
The Commission may require a licensee to commit the minimum amount of time,
as maybe specified in the licence, to broadcast of local content or as may
be prescribed from time to time by the Commission by notice in the Gazette:
Provided that where a broadcaster is, unable to comply with the foregoing,
the Commission shall require such broadcaster to pay such an amount of
money, as may be prescribed by the Commission into the Fund.
(2)
The Commission shall from time to time prescribe a minimum local content
quota for foreign broadcasting stations that broadcast in Kenya.

Kenya Information and Communications Act, 1998

“Kenyan programme” means sounds or vision or a combination of both whose
content comply with the classification of local content as may be required
by the Commission from time to time.

46K. Regulations on broadcasting
The Minister may, in consultation with the Commission, make regulations
generally with respect to all broadcasting services and without prejudice
to the generality of the foregoing, with respect to—
(a) the facilitation, promotion and maintenance of diversity and plurality
of views for a competitive marketplace of ideas;
(b) financing and broadcast of local content;
(c) mandating the carriage of content, in keeping with public interest
obligations, across licensed broadcasting services;
(d) prescribing anything that may be prescribed under this Part.

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/walubengo/-/2274560/2890270/-/y4ede4z/-/index.html

Recently the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) announced that
broadcasters would be required to allocate 40 per cent
<http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/CA-demands-60pc-local-TV-content-within-four-years/-/539550/2782078/-/w76jn8/-/index.html>
of
their programming to local content.

This is just the beginning. Within four years, the broadcasters are
expected to scale this up to 60 per cent.

What this means, essentially, is that local radio and television stations
must find local content to fill up the space, currently dominated by
Mexican soap operas on TV and foreign music on radio, across their 24-hour
programming.

There are two views regarding whether this is a good or bad idea.

>From a government perspective, the push for regulation is meant to force
media owners to invest in local production, rather than opt for the easier,
cheaper option of buying third-rate soap operas from Mexico.

In order to meet the 40 per cent local content quota, there must be
significant production of local movies, documentaries, music and interviews
among others, yet the ecosystem to support local production is not as cheap
as most people would imagine.

*HEAVY INVESTMENTS*

For example, producing a movie requires heavy investments in both equipment
and technical expertise, ranging from scriptwriters, actors and stage
designers to editors, producers and distributors, among others.

Furthermore, a 30-minute production may actually take three weeks to put
together. Now think about producing such a series, once per week, four
times per month and forty-eight times per year, and you will realise why
most local stations may avoid sustaining local productions.

It’s obviously cheaper to buy Mexican soap operas and fill up our airwaves
rather than invest in local production. What the government is saying here
is that cheap is eventually expensive, in terms of lost opportunities to
fruitfully engage the youth within the creative industry.

The alternative view to the local content policy is that current
productions are of such poor quality that they would not merit any airtime.

Furthermore, forcing stations to broadcast 60 per cent local content
contravenes the liberal nature of our broadcast industry.

Broadcasters want the liberty to choose what content to serve their
consumers.

*WHAT'S LOCAL CONTENT?*

If consumers prefer Mexican soaps, so be it — after all it's their taste,
their choice.

No one should therefore purport to dictate what is good for the consumer by
subjecting them to the so-called local content quotas. Besides, what
exactly is local content?

Would a film such as *The Lion King*, with its African theme, or *Out of
Africa,* with its Kenyan theme constitute local content?

What of the movie *12 Years A Slave*, in which our very own Lupita Nyong’o
played a leading role?

What about those documentaries on Kenyan wildlife that dominate NatGeo Wild
on satellite TV? Do all these films qualify as local content despite their
overwhelmingly foreign production?

How are we going to determine what is local content, in other words? Will
the decision be based on the theme, the script, the cast, the location, the
production crew or mixture of all of the above?

*MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS*

Whatever the case, how will we stop Kenyans from simply switching
channels — away
from the local broadcasters whose content maybe deemed too local — and
subsequently continuing to watch their preferred foreign content on other
channels?

This might effectively mean local stations will lose "eyeballs" and the
associated advertisement revenue to the foreign competition, which in turn
may mean we are losing rather than creating local jobs within the creative
industry.

Clearly, there are more questions than answers in the local content debate.
However, one must remember that you can come up with local content without
necessarily creating local jobs.

The government and regulators must therefore think through the local
content policy in order to ensure the job creation intended is actually
achieved rather than frustrated.

*Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya's Faculty
of Computing and IT. Twitter:@jwalu
<http://196.6.203.2:8010/studio/#> email: jwalubengo at mmu.ac.ke
<http://196.6.203.2:8010/studio/#>*
______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya

"There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on
higher ground in that lifetime." - Maxwell Anderson
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