[kictanet] Kenya to rival Nigeria in local content production

Wed Sep 30 17:57:59 EAT 2015

The government is Dog-fooding the Media industry in my opinion. If they
cant produce local content then whats their purpose? Just regurgitate
whatever foreign media produces?

I think its a good idea but seems too targeted to one industry.

I still don't understand why we allow Mtumba clothes, Chinese furniture and
more relevantly foreign software to dominate our market.

For the Local content the money will create the skill-set and attract the
right people in.

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 5:20 PM, Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> 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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-- 
Regards,

Mark Mwangi

markmwangi.me.ke
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