The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
TALK about digitalisation is exciting. For many in the arts, and film to be specific, digitalisation comes with several opportunities and challenges. It comes with job opportunities for artistes and technical people. It comes with opportunities for those that want to invest in film and the arts sector. Digitalisation brings with it the opportunity to revolutionise local television itself. The picture quality and hopeful programming quality will improve. Local television will never be the same again. This is why there is so is much excitement in the air.
We have talked about digitalisation in other articles. So let’s pause a bit and reflect on our local broadcaster and local television in general. How many of us are still watching local channels? Dear reader, have you ever wondered how many viewers migrated from ZBC television to other stations and channels beaming from outside the country? It would be interesting to have the actual figures of people that are still watching our local channels. And will digitalisation bring those who migrated back to ZBC?
Before we can think of bringing back those who migrated let us also look at why they migrated in the first place. We all know that:
The majority of those that stopped watching local channels did so because they had reached a point of saturation.
Many had been bored to near death. Of course there is a limit to which anyone can take “abuse”. Many can testify to the “abuse” they suffered at the hands of the local broadcaster. Programming was just bad.
There is lack of diversity on ZBC, diversity of voices and style. Diversity of languages. Spend a week watching local channels and see if you can tell how many tribes/ social groupings exist in Zimbabwe. Everyone wants to see themselves once in while on the silver screen. The same people continue to tell their stories at the expense of others.
The technical faults experienced by ZBC have driven many mad. Poor sound, unclear pictures and poor reception.
The list is long.
There is no content by local independent producers simple because ZBC is not willing to pay reasonable prices for products. For those that have tried working with ZBC they never got paid.
We are told digitalisation is coming. But will digitalisation solve the above problems? Of course we have been assured it will instantly solve technical issues like reception problems and picture quality. After digitalisation showers on our screens will be a thing of the past. But will good reception and quality pictures alone bring back those who migrated to other channels? Will digitalisation change the negative perception our people have about their own local channels? I personally don’t think so. I honestly think two things may bring viewers back to local channels. The two things are:
Good and diverse content and quality programming. However, one wonders whether the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) who are heading the digitalisation programme are more concerned about bringing back viewers or just filling the coming channels with content, regardless of quality. I haven’t heard them talking diversity of content. I haven’t heard them emphasising on good content? I haven’t heard them stress on the issue of originality. So far their main concern seems to be getting as many films as possibly from filmmakers. I see big problems coming with this kind of an approach. I see the majority of submitted products being mediocre. I see big problems of intellectual property theft when the six channels start operating.
Six channels, all doing 24 hours programming is too much, which independent producers will provide that much content, with what equipment and with what resources? The current one channel ZBC television has no content as we write. Where will content enough for six channels come from? If truth be told four of the coming channels should either be six-hour channels or just be sold to private players. It will be near impossible to get them all going with content good enough to attract viewers.
