Can the NTAi channel be revamped?
Whenever I see the promo announcing the start of a new season of “Strictly Come Dancing,” I begin to sing, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” That’s because I have come to associate “Strictly,” as the show is widely known, with the festive season cheer as it runs from October through Christmas. But two weeks ago, that joy was thwarted when smack in the middle of episode two of the new season, my DStv subscription expired. No fault of DStv’s; I ignored the payment reminders thinking that the subscription would expire at midnight, so planned to pay the next day — a Monday.
As is often said, when there is competition, the consumer is the ultimate winner. I was torn between going back to the Netflix series I had paused to watch “Strictly” and renewing my DStv subscription; more so because my data plan offers free streaming on Sundays. I did the logical thing. I went back to Netflix, sticking to my initial plan to renew my DStv subscription on Monday — it was just the second episode of “Strictly” after all, and there was the option to catch up during the week.
But come Monday, I did not renew my DStv subscription. As such, I was left with the DStv promo channel (100) and NTAi (251). I decided to watch NTAi out of curiosity. A network show, “Nationwide,” which crisscrossed NTA studios was on-air. It began with an update from Abuja, then moved to Lagos and Makurdi. The Abuja and Lagos sets were fine, but the Makurdi set was dreary. The backdrop in the Makurdi studio was brown, whilst that of the Abuja studio was orange. Yet, the backdrop designs were the same. It reflected what public relations author Frank Jefkins describes as ‘multiple image’ whereby entities or branches of the same organisation ‘create a particular image which does not conform to a uniform image for the total organisation.’ As I scrolled through the electronic programme guide (EPG), I found “Revision Class,” “Jenifa’s Diary,” and an MTV Base music belt in the line-up. I didn’t know when I blurted out the most common complaint from Nigerian pay-television subscribers, ‘There’s nothing to watch,’ except that in this case, it was true. Needless to say what I did next.
My experience with NTAi was disheartening because “Strictly,” a show produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a public broadcaster like the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) was still fresh in my memory. After watching “Movies Week” on “Strictly” last night, I pondered what it would take for the NTA to produce shows on a grand scale such as “Strictly” with magical sets which transform to capture themes from “Avatar” to “Moana” to “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Spiderman,” captivating costumes and make-up, and breath-taking performances. An inclusive show with diverse contestants drawn from all works of life — business, entertainment, politics and sport, that people around the country and of all ages tune to. And although created for a local audience and airing on local BBC channels, can be exported abroad.
Just like BBC Brit, on which “Strictly” airs on DStv, NTAi was created for pay-television platforms. Sadly, its positioning is unclear. Does NTAi want to be positioned as a news, kids or general entertainment channel? If it is the latter — given “Jenifa’s Diary” and the music belt on the line-up, NTAi would have to transition from just selling airtime to independent producers or curating content from other channels like MTV Base to also creating original series to air exclusively on its channel.
This month, the FOX channel was removed from DStv. Interestingly, the number of African channels on DStv has grown from the five Africa Magic channels to include a suite of Maisha Magic channels catering to DStv’s east African audience, Akwaaba Magic for Ghanaian content, and Novela Magic featuring African telenovelas. This suggests an increasing preference for local content and a business case for the NTA to invest in local production.
Some might argue that the NTA does not have the funds to operate at the level of the BBC. Perhaps, but it can start with one 13-week show and scale up. For about a decade many Nigerian households tuned to NTA to watch “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” More importantly, advertisers follow the eyeballs — we have seen how much sponsorship “Big Brother Naija” attracts — and NTA has viewership. In a 2015 report published by The Cable, the former director-general of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Emeka Mba said only 37.3 million households in Nigeria have access to television. A news release on the MultiChoice Group (MCG) website states that as of 30 September 2019, the group’s overall subscriber base was 18.9m households ‘split between 8.2m households in South Africa (SA) and 10.7m households in the Rest of Africa (RoA).’ Following the MultiChoice tax brouhaha recently, The Guardian referenced an Andersen article, in which Andersen quoting the MCG audited financial statements for 2019, said ‘Nigeria accounts for 34 per cent of the group’s Rest of Africa (RoA), with the RoA accounting for 29.6 per cent of the group’s revenues.’
Revenues do not necessarily equate to TV households but assuming 30 per cent of the RoA 10.7m households are in Nigeria, and if StarTimes has as many subscribers, it implies that a potential 30 million Nigerian households could tune to the NTA network. The NTA should capitalise on these numbers to build a strong brand. That does not mean launching a new signature tune or logo but maintaining a consistent corporate image and devising a positioning for each of its channels. For instance, NTAi could be unbundled into different genres — NTA Kids for children’s programmes like “Revision Class,” and NTA Entertainment for shows such as “Jenifas Diary,” while the news content could be done away with since the NTA has other channels that serve that purpose. However, the NTA will need to hire top talent who understand marketing and content creators who know what makes many Nigerians watch shows like “Big Brother Naija” and become fanatics.
