According to the study, music drives local content, followed by religious shows, comedy and movies. Others include sports shows, youth and game shows among others/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 14 – Do your run home every evening to catch your favourite local program? Do you intently schedule time to watch a particular music, talk show or program that is produced locally?
If you are, you are part of the 77 percent of Kenyans who say they are satisfied with local content, according to a report by the Communication Authority of Kenya.
“Since Kenya kicked off the process of digital migration, Kenyans have excitedly been opting to watch locally produced content, which is very encouraging,” said John Omo while releasing the report which surveyed over 60 local TV stations and interviewed 1,187 respondents.
According to the study, music drives local content, followed by religious shows, comedy and movies. Others include sports shows, youth and game shows among others.
This excludes news and advertisements.
Broken down, national broadcaster KBC leads in the airing of local content at 42 percent, followed by KTN at 38 percent while K24 comes in third at 35 percent. On the other hand, Citizen TV leads in airing of international content at 31 percent, followed by KTN at 28 percent and NTV at 27 percent.
Emerging stations are not left behind as far broadcasting local content is concerned at 54 percent.
As far as production is concerned, K24 leads at 87 percent, followed by KTN at 85 percent then KBC at 78 percent. On the other hand, Citizen TV leads in airing local content produced independently at 44 percent, followed by NTV at 30 percent and KBC at 22 percent
However, data gathered shows that there is a lot of repetition of these programs.
“Off our respondents, 39 percent said they dislike local content citing low quality of programs. Others said they dislike local programmes owing to short time allocated to them. Advertisements and frequent repetition of programmes contributed to the dislikes,” said Yvonne Katambo, from Globetrack Kenya – the company contracted by CA to conduct the study.
– Issues of concern among Kenyans –
The issue of most concern among Kenyans was influence on children and the possibility that they may initiate them.
For instance, strong language and swearing on radio took lead at 93 percent, followed by strong language and swearing on TV at 88 percent.
Other issues of concern include music lyrics and videos at 78 percent, which tied with sexual content on TV and intrusion into people’s private lives. Violence on TV and sexual content on radio were also matters of concern.
As far as what trends are getting worse and which are improving, stereotype in broadcasting media is getting worse at 76 percent followed by portraying of sex in broadcasting at 74 percent.
