Creative sector upbeat
The creative sector is upbeat about the establishment of three new channels by the state-owned broadcaster, Btv. Minister of State President, Kabo Morwaeng launched Btv’s 24-hour news channel as well as Btv 1 and Btv 2, entertainment and information and educational channels respectively on Sunday. The new channels were launched following the long-anticipated migration of Botswana from analogue to digital transmission.
While there has been outcry from the creative sector over lack of local content on local screens, at least the new channel dedicated for entertainment could be key to unlocking the potential of the creative sector in the film, music and television space.
The industry has been for a long time starved of opportunities due to the lack of more channels, while competing for slots with government programnmes on the single Btv channel. Industry captains have expressed optimism that the sector is likely going to benefit from these developments and open doors for local content producers.
Meanwhile, serial entrepreneur with business interests in music, entertainment, film and multimedia, Seabelo Modibe said the commissioning of the new channels will create more opportunities for diverse content on the stations.
“For me this is an opportunity for government to invest serious funds into the creative industry and fuel employment of the unemployed youth who need jobs,” said Modibe.
He also said the move will also bring and showcase the diversity of Batswana as a nation. However, Modibe said it is about time creatives stopped playing victims and get down to work. He said this is the opportune time for the creatives to position themselves for opportunities. “My advice is that as creatives we must stop being victims but rather reposition ourselves as front runners as an industry with a potential to employ multitudes of people,” he said.
Botswana Screen Society Chairperson, Jonhson Otlaadisa said the new developments have given the industry renewed hope as they bring about an opportunity for the local content producers. “It brings new hope for us as the industry that we’ll have an opportunity to get content of locals and growth of businesses of the industry,” said Otlaadisa. He further said the industry is
anxious and awaiting the specifics in terms of timelines and what is expected. “I think that is really where the industry is having a bit of an anxiety. We need to get the timelines from government, the commissioning of content, when can we expect call for content, when can we start seeing content on television. That is the feeling of the industry,” he said. Otlladisa said the current state of the industry needed a channel dedicated to entertainment and committed to commissioning content from local producers in order to unlock the sector.
He said the unbundling of Btv could go a long way in changing the fortunes of the industry players and changing their lives. He said there will not be competition for the primetime slots with government priority programmes. He explained that the new arrangement could see sponsors coming on board to support the creative sec- tor because there is return on
in- vestment as the current system always placed producers on bad light with sponsors. “We have been competing with government for primetime slots and finally we can have it back,” he added.
Otlaadisa stated that the industry is ready to seize the opportunity, adding that the challenge has been with the model in which content was acquired from producers, which led the industry to ultimately produce too much quantity versus quality productions. He said it was wrong that the broadcaster acquired content through a model called unsolicited programming, which he said was too risky for content producers. “The industry has crushed, families are breaking, people are under too much financial distress right now because of that model. It has been the primary source of acquiring content locally and I believe that finally government has listened to our pleadings to say we need commissioned content done on a good budget. Definitely we will see more good quality content,” he added. He said they are currently engaging a lot with broadcasting authorities, which has given them hope for a better future.