Nairobi — Fast-paced changes on the local television scene point to one thing- growth.

Players in the industry must rise to the occasion or miss out on the growth dividends looming in the horizon.

Recent studies show that television ownership in selected 40 countries, Kenya included, is set to grow at an average pace of 17 per cent annually.

The study, dubbed African Broadcast Markets and published by Balancing Act and InterMedia, found that growth of the radio is not only strong, but also more widespread geographically.

The drivers of all this, according to the report, are the youth segment and technological changes. The two factors are the key determinants of the decisions that TV players will make to shape the future of the industry. "A key demographic is the very young average age of these populations," says the report.

In Ghana, 38 per cent of the population is aged under 14. This compares favourably with Nigeria's 42 per cent and 45 per cent of Mozambicans. In the European Union only 16 per cent of the population are aged under 14.

In Kenya, media owners have used this demographic information to come up with a number of television programmes geared towards attracting the youth.

There is Skika, a programme on Kenyan music and youth culture featuring on M-Net's Channel O, The Beat on NTV, Straight Up and even MTV Base, which conducted a VJ search in East Africa last year. Popular programmes like Tahidi High, the teen drama that airs on Citizen TV and KTN's Better Days are very common, especially among the youth.

The battle for control of youthful viewers is growing stronger that even programmes targeting the more mature audiences bear the hip touch, either in the way they are presented or even in the presenters.

An example is Afrodizzia whose name and hip presenter easily appeals to the teenagers. Television screens are getting more current by the day because audiences are hungry for this kind of stuff.

In media circles, the youth are considered to be more open to new ideas and constitute part of the market that drives content preferences for sport, music and action movies.

The youth also represent immense growth opportunity because they constitute the group that is just about to enter the job market.

In Africa, one other important finding is that there is a huge appetite for entertainment television. "Africans, both in the sub-Sahara and North, surround themselves with music in cars, public transport, shops and homes," says the Balancing Act report.

This explains the huge investment by MTV Base and even MultiChoice in youth entertainment programmes.

The looming digital shift, which has been the talk of the industry, is also fast tracking change.

While majority of African countries are yet to start rolling out their digital transition plans, let alone scheduled a deliverable timetable, Kenya has already set up a committee to midwife the process.

As Kenya's deadline for the transition draws closer, the more scheming producers like Nick Hughes, Lenny Juma in collaboration with Alison Ngibuini are hunting for local programmes ready to release them into the market when demand hits the optimal level.

Television stations are also positioning themselves as the inheritors of the foreign soap opera market that has dominated local screens in the past two decades.

International production companies have also sensed the looming boom in Kenyan and revved up their activities in the country.

One of these is Endemol International- a South African production company- that has lately been involved in a number of television productions in Kenya and Nigeria.

The head of Endemol Commercial Business, Sivan Pillay, says that these two represent an Africa that is on the rise economically." These markets, he added, are also more sophisticated than the rest. "In both countries, there's a sense of ambition from people. The broadcasters want to be on the same level with international broadcasters," he added.

Even with these projections, there is still very little international investment in this creative sector. The Balancing Act report says the absence of international players (except in the pay-TV market) has meant that Africa is not being viewed as a single potential market.

"Whilst there is an increasing level of international interest, the likely players remain regional or even sub-regional," says the report. This is attributed to restrictions on foreign ownership in the industry. Most multinational investors are unable to gain direct control of these entities and are therefore unwilling to invest.

Another growth area for Africa is airing local content to Africans in the diaspora that continue to grow in size. The community still remains interested in what is going on back at home. To deliver this content, broadcasters either use satellite or IP-TV, but vary enormously in scale.

So far, Ken TV and NTV on You Tube have already attracted a lot of interest from Kenyans in the diaspora.

Though Mobile TV has been slow to take off across the world, Kenyans are already able to access some stations on their cellphones.