BROADCAST & FILM AFRICA 2008: Mobile telephony the way to go

Mobile telephony is the next frontier for any broadcaster keen on staying relevant in the changing broadcasting scene as well as to attract significant revenues to the station. This was the key message during the afternoon session of the broadcast, film and convergence conference in Nairobi.   

Speaking at the advertising session of the conference, Mr Lenny Ng’ang’a, partner Saracen Kenya, a local media buying and advertising firm, said that mobile would be next frontier for content considering the number of mobile phones in the continent.

The comments were supported by Dr James Boyd McFie, a lecturer at Business School, Strathmore University, Kenya, who said that the broadcast stations as well as content producers should keenly look at ways of delivering content to mobile phones. “The fact that we have over 14 million mobile phones and only 4.5 television sets in country with a population of over 34 million means that the media should look at ways of how they can channel their content to these mobile devices,” said Dr Boyd.

Mr Joe Otin, media monitoring division director at Steadman Group, a regional research firm, urged delegates at the conference to build sustainable business models. “You need to build sustainable business models by thinking about those who are going to fund the various business models,” said Mr Otin adding that “global advertising trends currently show that only 1 percent of the total advertising spend comes to Africa.” He however added that the continent’s share of the total world advertising spend continues to record a relatively high significant growth of about 8.6 per cent which is higher than that of other regions.

He told the delegates that Kenya saw its advertising revenues increase by about 30 per cent in 2007, with the revenue figures being generated mainly by the telecommunications industry.

The country also realized the entry of new entrants into broadcasting scene, with most players getting into to set up radio stations. “Most players are getting into the radio scene as it is cheaper to deploy radio transmission equipment as well as the fact that most advertisers target it does not require very heavy capital like the television”, said Mr Otin.