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[HCDX] Ethiopia: Country Liberalises Radio And Television May Follow
Ethiopia: Country Liberalises Radio And Television May Follow, Supports
Thriving Local Film Culture
Russell Southwood
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200901080648.html
8 January 2009
London - The Ethiopian Government is best known for the tight control it has
exerted over the political process of the country.
Therefore it comes of something of a surprise to learn that it has made the
development of media a priority and with a certain amount of external
prompting has liberalised the radio sector. Two new private radio stations
have been launched (more will follow) and community radio stations have
also started broadcasting. Well-informed sources say that there will be a
new private free-to-air television channel within two years. Against this
backdrop, the country is also sustaining a significant local film culture in
Amharic.
Based on figures from the last census, there are probably between 1-2
million television sets and around 8 million radio sets in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Radio and TV Agency has overall responsibility for the state
run channels but radio and TV have their own organisation and
management. ETV is completely supported by Government money and
advertising. There is no licence fee. Two channels: ETV1 which carries ads
and ETV 2 which does not. ETV1 covers about 47% of the population
whereas ETV2 covers only the capital Addis Ababa. The programming
schedule is built around new bulletins throughout the day. Each channel
shows around 16 hours programming a day.
The majority of programming is in Ethiopia's most widely spoken language
Amharic and the majority of programmes are made by ETV which has its
own studios. A standard quality 20 minute programme would cost between
50-70,000 birr an hour. There is a small independent production sector but it
has little chance of growing in current circumstances.
Advertising is very cheap at around 1,000 birr a minute. The main
advertisers are cleaning products and government organisations like the
Anti-Corruption Agency. As the country still has a monopoly phone company
(ETC), there is not the volume of mobile phone advertising found in other
African countries. That said, ETV has been able to buy some of the premium
sports rights by attracting sponsors.
The transition to DTT is at an early stage as there is no plan from the
Government specifying when and how it will happen. The Ethiopian
Broadcasting Authority has done a study which has been submitted to the
Government, which needs to create a Task Force to tackle the when, how
and what technology issues. Given the overall approach of the Government
in other fields, it is likely to opt for a planned approach. However, the issue
of subsidy will require considerable resourcing.
ETV has made some progress in digitalising its production processes and
parts of its archive. For although the Government has declared that the
development of the media is a priority, there is a shortage of professional
people and resources. Furthermore, ETV as state media is very clearly
tasked by the Government to help promote its policies and the
implementation of its strategies and that does not always make for
interesting viewing.
There are two Pay TV companies - GTV and Multichoice - who between
them probably have between 6-7,000 subscribers, 75-80% of whom are in
the capital Addis Ababa.
Community radio development is being funded by a combination of the
World Bank (US$18 m), the Ethiopian Government (US$5 million) and GTZ
(US$3 million). The regulator, Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, has two
ways of defining community radio: either by geographic region (with a range
of up to 25 kms) and/or addressing a particular community (young people,
women or the disabled). 5 community radio licences have been issued by
the regulator EBA.
One of the country's universities runs a radio station in partnership with an
international NGO with a 3 KW transmitter with an 80 mile radius. Makele
University in Tigray is developing locally produced antennas and
transmitters.
One of the conditions of World Bank funding was that the Government start
offering private commercial licences. There are currently two private FM
radio stations (Sheger FM on 107.3 and Zami on 90.7) and a third radio
station focusing on English and French programming (Afro FM) will be
launched next year. In addition, there are two Government radio stations and
Radio Fana (see below). However, there is a considerable thirst to launch
stations as there were over 45 applicants for the current round of licences.
Critics of the liberalisation say that too few stations have been licensed and
that they are all in the capital, Addis Ababa.
One of the most dynamic of the new private sector radio players is in fact an
already existing station, Radio Fana. It came out of the military struggle
against the Dergue and had its origins as a clandestine radio station in the
bush. As a result, it has remained broadcasting after the current
Government came to power. It broadcasts in Amharic, Afar, Oromo and
Somali and is expanding its number of stations, launching new transmitters
in Jimma in the south and Gonder in the north. It transits on FM in the urban
area and on short wave in the rural areas. In the next two years it will have
10 stations with increased local programming. All together the company
employs 254 people and before too long it will move from its current "hut-
like" premises to a new multi-storey office block it is building next door to its
current offices.
It is supported by three different kinds of advertising: conventional
advertising, mainly on the FM stations (30% of revenue), programme
sponsorships (15%) and programme partnerships where an organisation will
fund a programme. The latter category includes Government Ministries and
international donors like UNICEF and Save the Children. Programmes
include community discussions on health and sanitation issues and talk
shows in the urban areas.
Advertising rates vary between 10,000 birr for three spots in an hour for
programme sponsorship to six thirty second spots for 690 birr for a more
conventional national ad on a premium programme. There are reductions for
the three non-Amharic languages. Advertising for non-commercial
organisations goes as low as 35-40 birr a minute.
The losers in the struggle for radio advertising have been the Government
radio stations. Whereas they used to have a 40%+ market share with Radio
Fana taking the lion's share, they are now down to 18-20%. Radio Fana has
more or less kept its market share with Sheger taking 25%. Radio Fana
takes a very bullish view of competition, believing that it helps them sharpen
up the delivery of everything they do and grows the market.
Radio Fana would clearly be one of the contenders for a free-to-air TV
licence as and when the Government puts one on the table. Well-informed
sources told us that it's "in the pipeline". New elections are only 18 months
away and the decision could be taken after the elections.
Ethiopia has a large and thriving film culture which is unusual given the
history of cinema in the country. Emperor Menelik II was in conversation with
Stevenin when the latter mentioned cinema and how he had abandoned
importing a projector because of opposition from the country's priests. The
original cinema was opened by a Frenchman and was quickly dubbed Satan
Bet' (The devil's house) by the public. The cinema went bankrupt and its
projector passed to the Emperor who used it to watch films with a spiritual
theme with his officials and priests in the Grand Palace. It was not until
"talkies" came into being that cinema really took off in Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa has ten cinemas where many African capitals only support one
or two venues. Of these, four are privately owned and the rest are
Government-run venues. The smartest of these cinemas is in the Edina Mall
and was built by a local millionaire a year ago. Outside of Addis Ababa, films
get shown in big general-purpose halls. There is a strong audience for
locally made films and almost all screenings are crowded, often requiring a
police presence for crowd control. Interestingly, people pay a premium to
see local films: 15 birr (US$1.53) for a locally made film as against 5 birr
(US30 cents) for seeing two Hollywood movies.
The Ethiopian International Film Festival takes place in the country's capital
Addis Ababa at the end of November each year. In 2008 it showed 24
Ethiopian films and 28 African and international films: the Ethiopian films
shown are all competition entries. Its director Yergity Teshome is promising
that this year's festival will be even bigger than last year's and he wants to
do a pre-festival training workshop for 10 people, 3 of whose short films (of
between 5-7 minutes) will be shown at the Festival.
Last year 33 feature films were made in Ethiopia by independent
filmmakers, all shot on Betacam HD and in country's most widely spoken
language Amharic. Because they are in Amharic, they tend only to be shown
in Ethiopia or to the diaspora in Europe and North America. Ethiopians have
their own popular music which is widely used in the films made but no-one
really knows this music outside the country.
According to Teshome:"Our neighbours like Kenyans and Ugandans don't
know Ethiopian music and Ethiopians are not globalised in a cultural sense."
Recent entries to the film festival have been shown at the Amakula Film
Festival in Kampala and at ZIFF in Zanzibar and on the international festival
circuit but this has bought critical acclaim but not audiences.
Prize-winning entries to last year's Ethiopian International Film Festival give
some idea of the types of stories involved. Operation Agazi is an action
movie that looks at a jailbreak mounted during the Dergue regime to release
political prisoners. Best Man is a comedy about two couples: one male
partner wants to marry, the other does not. The rise of the current film sector
dates back to the end of the Dergue regime and probably one of the first
films to be made was Aster. After the collapse of the regime, the film sector
simply blossomed.
The budget needed to make films is raised from box office revenues or initial
capital is loaned by the families of film-makers. Most of the film makers are
very young and the industry is not, according to Teshome, either
"institutionalised or industrialised." But as he acknowledges for the sector to
become more sustainable, a system needs to be built and one with its own
institutions. The country has its own film stars but each needs to make
several films at once to survive and they supplement their income with TV
and radio ads.
In revenue terms, filmmakers rent cinemas (that range from 700-1,500
seats) for around 3,500 birr and sell tickets for 15 birr per person. On this
basis, the filmmaker can get around 50,000 birr (US$5,100) or more
revenue from a film. Some films are high budget and one has run to 3.5
million birr. The maker of this particular film was the person who launched
one of Ethiopia's first ad agencies and is a prolific film-maker. In terms of
post-production, there are no facilities houses and each individual film-
maker makes their own edit. However, the volume of films being made has
seen camera hire go from 100 birr a day to 700 birr a day.
After the film has been shown at the cinema, it will then be distributed on
VCD by local distributors but this raises very little money as copies are
almost immediately pirated. However, what income does get made is split
50/50 between the distributor and the film-maker. Again renting local films
commands a premium: it costs only 2 birr to rent a Hollywood movie for
three days but 5 birr to rent a local movie for one day.
Films are not screened on television. The only explanation is that ETV is
state-owned. For as Teshome sees it:"That's our big problem. They don't
want to give air-time to a private person. ETV has its own dramas but they're
not very good."
Some of the difficulties with the uncertain relationship between independent
producers and ETV is illustrated by the recent changes in access to the
channel.
Wizzkids Workshop is a small company supported by donor commissions. It
produced four 7 minute animation features on childrens' health, the
environment and recycling water. ETV agreed to show them for 300 birr
(US$30.64) a minute.
But buying airtime is now no longer possible because of two factors. Firstly,
inspired by the Government's anti-corruption approach ETV is now
commissioning programmes one year ahead and not allowing programme
makers to share advertising income. Secondly, there is a new bill covering
CSOs which says that only local organisations can address issues of rights.
To be an Ethiopian NGO defined as local you must get 90% of your funding
from Ethiopian sources. Programme makers have to bid to make
programmes and this means this type of programming may no longer be
aired.
UNESCO has organised a film and development workshop as part of the
Ethiopian International Film Festival looking at how development issues can
be incorporated into films. Paul Hector of UNESCO says:"We'd like to do the
equivalent of product placement where an issue becomes part of the plot."
He is also trying to organise an event this year involving the Ethiopian
diaspora that would involve them in making productions.
There's a film school at Addis Ababa University but according to one source
it's of a fairly low standard because many of those teaching the subject do
not have a wide experience of film-making. In addition, there are three
private film-making schools, one of which is a complex run by the company
that owns Radio Fana.
Please read and distribute this 15 year research article
http://tinyurl.com/5vzg7e
Please read my article on SINPO at http://tinyurl.com/yt7qjd
________________________
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........
Zacharias Liangas , Thessaloniki Greece
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