Govt to sponsor productions by independent producers

THE Government will sponsor productions by independent content producers and then buy some of the material in a move aimed at motivating and growing the industry, a senior official has said.

Local budding film makers, production houses and artistes involved in filmmaking for 12 broadcasting channels that will be established once the country fully digitalises are set to receive a major boost from the expected content production programme.

This was said by Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary Mr George Charamba during the Zimdigital Broadcast Content Creators meeting in Gweru on Thursday.

He implored independent content producers to embrace digitalisation and produce content that will be bought without hesitation by ZBCtv which will have six channels as well as new players who will get the remaining six channels.

“The government is going to sponsor the production of the first three contents and will also buy the material. At the same time if you have already produced your content, your expenditure en-route to the final product will be considered. We will also give you cameras for making the content. We are preparing for more programme diversity. We will have more programming and that’s why we called this meeting. We have a lot of work to do in terms of content production. Channel capacity is going to increase and so demand for programmes will also increase,” Mr Charamba said.

He said they were also working on changing laws so that content producers get what is due to them.

“We want to change laws so that the content producers benefit. Gone are the days when broadcasters had their way and manipulated the content producers. So the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) will be your weapon to use in negotiating with broadcasters. BAZ is now the police for artistes because if you are not paid, you can’t go back and produce. Therefore there is need for a win-win situation between content producers and broadcasters,” Mr Charamba said.

He said content producers should bear in mind that they need to use all the 16 official languages in the country for diversity.

“Zimbabwe should be a market hub that sells programmes. We will create a body to take the programmes abroad,” Mr Charamba said.

Apart from creating employment for thousands of people in the country, he said, digitalisation was also going to drive socioeconomic development.

“The film industry is an important driver of the country’s culture and ideology. It can be used as a vehicle through which the country packages and delivers national ethos and values,” Mr Charamba said.

“Apart from providing clear visuals and better sound quality through the use of high definition television quality standards, digitalisation will lead to the revamping and revitalisation of the local film industry. That will create competition and prices will respond to the market demands as opposed to artistes being forced to take what is on the table because they have nowhere to take their productions to.” — @pchitumba1