Y Okoh Aihe
16 July 2008
Lagos — Close to the tipping point of his involvement in broadcasting, chairman of Daar Communications Plc, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi last week gave little snippets to some select media editors on the shape of things to come, explaining that his organisation was at the verge of unleashing a new dawn in the country's broadcast sector.
Lavishing praises on Nigerians for backing the company in its troubled days and, also again, for demonstrating faith by giving full subscription to the company which is the first broadcast concern in the country to successfully go public, Dokpesi said Daar will respond by putting in place a broadcast outfit with the best facilities in the entire continent. And in fact the meeting was partly to explain the journey so far.
The hybrid offer of Daar Communications Plc and Daar Investment and Holding company was hundred per cent subscribed, thus demonstrating the level of confidence Nigerians have in the former private set up which is now publicly owned. But that wasn't the reason for the media meet.
As it turned out, Dokpesi wanted a most auspicious opportunity to inform that even before the results of the offer were released, the organization had started carrying out enough transformation to put it on the path of history, be at par with the best broadcasters in the world, or by sheer massive investment and patronage of "breaking technologies" be just one of the few best in the world.
But this has totally not obliterated the pains of the past which Dokpesi captured in the following words: "For some of you, you will recall that the development aspect of Daar Communications faced a lot of challenges about year 2000 when we had receiver managers take over the premises of Alagbado in Lagos. But thanks to your support at that time, thanks to the support of millions of Nigeria, we were able to weather that storm; we managed to get ourselves back on the track. And like I said at that time that the issues that Daar Communications were confronted with, were not economic issues but political. It was out of the desire of the government at that time to really bring Daar Communications and private broadcasters to their kneels.
That was why we found ourselves in the situation that we were in. But if God has fought for one, you don't start wearing gloves and start looking for a ring! You can only glorify, thank God and everybody that saw us through the challenges at that time."
But God having fought for the organization, Daar is embracing a new dawn where it is in a position of new realities that will make the country proud and unleash a capacity never before seen in this part of the world. Daar is no more struggling but it has become the super bogey of the broadcast industry, a new power house that will very soon dictate how the business is done in this part of the world.
At the Kpaduma Hills in Asokoro Abuja which houses Daar broadcast headquarters, there is cock tail of projects going on simultaneously all running into several billions of naira. He has refused to put a price to that massive capacity build out for the simple reason that he doesn't want to scare those who would dare follow his imprints on the sands of history.
But in that plethora of developments will come a capacity for a hundred high definition pay TV channels but which will however start with a test run of forty channels by month end; digital terrestrial and satellite TV stations that can broadcast to nearly all the ends of the earth, and of course, an immediate readiness to expand to about twenty new locations across the country.
This is the picture that Dokpesi is painting, that having started TV broadcasting before any other country in the continent that Nigeria ought to be in position to show leadership in the sector, although that is presently not the case. But AIT, he said, will have something to hold out to the world when the country celebrates 50 years of television by 2009.
Promising to use the offer proceeds judiciously, Dokpesi pointed out a roadmap for Daar Communications. "We are going to be coming up with multi-channels, pay-TV platform which we hope will be taking off from Abuja. We are also looking at totally transforming and upgrading the facilities in each of the stations across the country from analogue television broadcasting to full digital TV platform.
Not only in terms of the studio facilities - cameras, switchers... but in actual fact, the whole entirety of broadcasting for all our stations across the country. We also look at the issue of building a film village in Lagos to enhance our capacity to undertake some productions, not only movies for sale to other people, but also for our own television consumption. We are looking at TV consuming content and enhancing, uplifting the standards for us to come at par with modern day television broadcasting in any part of the world.
Especially, next year will be the Nigeria's 50th anniversary of the coming of television to Nigeria. We are looking forward very strongly to bring Nigeria's glory in broadcasting back to its proper place. Nigeria, in the continent of Africa, started TV broadcasting in October 1959, but today, we have to depend on South Africa and other African countries for modern day television broadcasting. We want to play our small role in ensuring that Nigeria's honour and glory is fully returned and also reestablish the leadership role we ought to be playing in TV broadcasting in the continent," Dokpesi promised.
Specifically on the Pay TV platform Dokpesi explained: "For the multi-channel project, we are looking at starting test-transmission on August 1, 2008, and the official take-off on September 1. The equipment for that is already on ground. Some of the facilities are at testing point, while installation is still on going. But the good point is that every item that is required is already on the ground. We are starting with 40 channels. It is going to be transmission on High Definition. It is quite challenging. We are launching broadcasting at different pedestals."
However, talking about the content that will feed the channels, Dokpesi informed that the platform will be strong on entertainment, sports and news. A number of channels have been sourced in Hollywood, Bollywood, and the rising profile of the Nigeria's Nollywood has also been added. Moreover, there will be very strong news most of them emanating from the Daar stable, that is plus the primary news channels that are being imported to the platform.
His efforts to empower his organization to be the primary news channel emanating from the continent has also reached an advanced stage. "About the eight channels, from DAAR Communications, we have AIT News, which is a 24-hour news channel with correspondent in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, together with US Bureau and UK Bureau," Dokpesi said.
But the interesting thing is that in each place of operation in the continent, which will have a full broadcast station, able to uplink and downlink at any time. His approach to sports programming is also very fascinating. Instead of emphasis on foreign works, Dokpesi told Vanguard that he is motivated and encouraged to aggressively push sporting development in the continent so that in no time Africa will have something more positive to contribute to the rest of the world. This perhaps is the reason that Daar put a hefty N250m into the NFA property, which is the biggest ever in the history of the association.
Among the staff, Daar is also building capacity sending most of the officials abroad to master the operations of digital and high definition facilities. But he also believes that broadcast operators should support the efforts of local training schools like the TV school, Jos.
"The long term measure as regards training is to collaborate with the training institutions we have here in Nigeria. They are two - TV College in Jos and Radio Training school in Lagos. It is easier and better for us to strengthen what we have than every individual wanting to start something new every time. At the two centres, there are buildings and lecturers.
They may not have been exposed to all this level of sophistication; we can bring in people from time to time to assist in the training. The structures are already there, even if you have to donate some equipment, it is better and easier to take off from that ground than to start a new school on your own. The days of one man, one organization have come and gone. It is highly capital intensive," Dokpesi said.
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