allAfrica.com: Nigeria: The Mobile TV Challenge (Page 1 of 2)

Television has come a long way. By every standard, this contraption which can enable people view moving, talking images, represents a veritable milestone in the march of human civilization.

And it is a credit to the never-ending march of technological progress that from the single television set first invented in 1942 to the handful that adorned the homes of the noveau riche soon thereafter, today, television sets are to be found in the homes of millions of people across the world, rich and poor. Advances in technology have been such that key components of the television set are progressively cheaper and yet more effective.

But the advances have not just been about components but also about aesthetics and functionality. The earliest television sets were massive and indeed were only capable of black and white functionality. Today's television sets are exercises in imaginative ingenuity.

They come in a multiplicity of sizes, colour images are crystal clear and may even be hung on the wall in much the same way as a painting.

In the years since its invention, television has quickly come to occupy a slot as one of the defining forces of our age. The sheer capacity to inform, educate and in particular, entertain multitudes has spawned immense advantages for purveyors - including owners of broadcast studios, sponsors and television personages - of the television set.

Many would be able to recollect the pivotal role television played in bringing the Cold War to an end. What about its role in creating great brands? How iconic would such events as the World Cup, the Super Bowl or brands like MTN and McDonalds be today if they didn't have a promotional tool like television?

Any wonder why CNN and BBC are among some of the leading influencers of the day?

In Nigeria , television history began with the inauguration of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation of the then Western Region of Nigeria in 1956. Headquartered in Ibadan , that television station is by some accounts the premier television station in Africa .

It is perhaps a symbolism of sorts of the fact that television may not have exactly delivered of its promise in Nigeria that there was no celebration in 2006 of 50 years of television in Nigeria . Nobody remembered. If they did, they hardly cared.

Though over 50 years old the progress of the television institution in Nigeria , certainly leaves much to be desired. There are hardly any iconic television stations to be looked upon as models of professional and entrepreneurial excellence as at yet.

The public television stations are just in the process of shaking off an image of unabashed government mouth pieces, after decades of an inevitable pandering to government whims in the years of Nigeria 's military dictatorship. They have hardly grown in size and influence. On the other hand the sprinkling of private television stations is in a perpetual struggle for survival. For many of them, regular payment of staff salaries is the exception. Staff are routinely owed salaries for months.

So what could be responsible for the situation in which local television stations find themselves? Why has it not been able to create icons the way the medium has done in the civilized world? Why for instance would a talented actor of the caliber of Joe Layode (Teacher Garuba in Village Headmaster), a man who spent the larger part of his life on television, live and die almost in penury?

In the area of pay television a combination of insufficient financing and unsustainable business models has combined to drive many to the edge. Many pay TV stations are today bankrupt or exist mainly in name.

But if the television industry is in dire straits in Nigeria , it is certainly not for want of creativity in the populace. It would appear rather that a key problem is a continuing constriction of sorts of the television space. It would also appear that fundamental to the problem is the poor management of creativity.

Nollywood has been a silver lining on the horizon for a number of years, a savior of sorts of Nigeria 's television industry. Rising gradually from initial spurts and starts, initial disdain and cynicism, Nollywood is gradually amassing respect for itself. Its practitioners, including its most prolific and visible actors do not yet command anything near the mega incomes of their counterparts in Hollywood . But their faces are slowly amassing for them brand_status and Nigeria 's actors and actresses have become the country's best known ambassadors.

Nollywood and television continue to benefit each other. Even though the Nollywood movies are scripted and recorded in sundry locations, far away from television or movie studios, it is on television sets that the majority of people in Nigeria and elsewhere on the continent have come to experience this unique Nigerian phenomenon.

Plenty of credit must go to local Nigerian stations for the support with which it has availed the Nollywood industry. With the evolution of many local TV stations to 24_hour daily broadcasts, Nollywood movies became a regular daily feature on these stations, helping the stations meet the need of filling valuable airtime with good content, and in so doing, further promoting the movies themselves. DSTV's Africa Magic took this even further by dedicating a channel almost exclusively to Nollywood. Though the channel is known as Africa Magic and features a sprinkling of movies from Ghana and other parts of Africa once in a while, there is no doubt that its defining face is Nollywood. The vast majority of movies shown therein are Nollywood movies.

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