NIGERIA-ONLINE TELEVISION Inside Ndani TV, a Nigerian web-based channel telling African stories online.

Record ID: 227303

  • Title: NIGERIA-ONLINE TELEVISION Inside Ndani TV, a Nigerian web-based channel telling African stories online.
  • Date: 9th September 2014
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JADESOLA OSIBERU, HEAD OF NDANI TV SAYING: "I think to be honest, first of all the way the media business and TV business is structured in Nigeria is flawed in that the people who have the platforms are not necessarily concentrating on content and even content that consumers want to watch. They basically want to survive as a business so because of that they will sell airtime to whoever has the money to buy it and so because of that the programming is crap and there's no content. Now there are pockets of content producers all over Nigeria and all over Africa that already produced decent and of great quality content actually but they don't have the resources to put it on traditional media channels. Now, over the next few years what will happen is because the internet is a democracy basically, they're gonna put up all their content on the internet and viewers will be bale to access that content."
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA79Z5X2I30FY8LD079MN80YV4W
  • Story Text: Nkiru Banlowo has just walked into a small non-descript office in a suburb in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. Nkiru is the CEO of Spinlet, the country's largest digital music platform.
    This is the creative hub of one of Nigeria's newest and most innovative production houses, Ndani TV. Nkiru is here to film an interview for one of Ndani's shows.
    Ndani TV is a web-based channel, creating content for a pan-African audience.
    Sponsored by Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank), Ndani TV was launched in 2012. What started out as a digital marketing project to attract a more youthful customer base has grown into a full fledged media company.
    Jadesola Osiberu who heads Ndani TV says they were looking for an innovative product to tap into the online market but struggled to find cutting-edge content.
    "We looked around for premium content in Nigeria even in Africa and it was very hard to find, tailored towards our target market premium and also done at a certain level of quality so we decided to build our own team and build our own resources and basically, it has grown from a small project that GTB into this you know media platform online," explained Jadesola.
    Ndani TV currently has 21 programmes including drama series, entertainment, business and travel shows as well as exclusive interviews with celebrities.
    The channel has more than 33,000 subscribers and views from over one million people with the numbers climbing daily.
    Jadesola says they were also inspired by the need to tell authentic African stories that challenge stereotypes about the continent and its people.
    "We were passionate about telling this contemporary African and lifestyle story so it wasn't just the traditional but even who are we right now, whose the young African and how do they live, how do they solve the problems that affect them in this Africa? How are they innovating, businesses and ideas that they're selling to each other and making money from and changing so that this story about Africa in the media about us being reliant on aids and being you know basically, a continent of darkness, we can counter it with this message that we are telling so I feel like Ndani has succeeded also in projecting this new contemporary African, that is an ambitious Africa that is looking to tell its own you know its own stories, added Jadesola.
    Nigeria, a nation of 170 million people has over 60 million internet users. Africa's largest economy has been growing at an impressive rate of over 6 percent over the last few years.
    The mobile telecoms market which allows users to access the internet has also expanded rapidly not just in Nigeria but across the continent.
    According to a report by Ericsson, there will be 635 million subscribers in Africa by the end of 2014 with up to 930 million by the end of 2019.
    But as Jadesola points out size isn't everything. Ndani TV's success depends on the quality of those mobile phone connections, subscriptions and surrounding infrastructure.
    Internet connection in Nigeria is often slow. The number of expensive smartphones that can run sophisticated applications and stream video is also low.
    Not only that most broadcasters are unwilling or unable to fund bigger, more expensive productions.
    Being a non-profit venture, funded by a bank, however has helped Ndani TV stay focused on creating quality content.
    "I think to be honest, first of all the way the media business and TV business is structured in Nigeria is flawed in that the people who have the platforms are not necessarily concentrating on content and even content that consumers want to watch. They basically want to survive as a business so because of that they will sell airtime to whoever has the money to buy it and so because of that the programming is crap and there's no content. Now there are pockets of content producers all over Nigeria and all over Africa that already produced decent and of great quality content actually but they don't have the resources to put it on traditional media channels. Now, over the next few years what will happen is because the internet is a democracy basically, they're gonna put up all their content on the internet and viewers will be bale to access that content," said Jadesola.
    The word "ndani" means "inside" in Swahili. Through their online platform, the team at Ndani TV offer their audience an insider's look at the African continent.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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