By Phesheya Mkhonta
Findings by the Eswatini Communications Commission (ESCCOM) have unearthed that the quality of content aired by local broadcasting houses is not satisfactory, and does not meet international standards that would make it attractive for international markets.
The findings which are contained in the Commission’s 2022 Annual Report, further observe that there is a significant gap between the local content that is being aired by broadcasting houses and the stipulated quota that they should be airing.
“Section 8 of the Broadcasting Guidelines requires that a minimum of 40% of the content for broadcast has to be locally produced and that 60% of the locally produced content must originate from independent producers”
Findings by ESCCOM, however, reveal that Eswatini Television Authority (ESTVA) meets and exceeds the minimum local content quarter with an average of 62% local content, but falls short of the minimum 60% of local content which should be produced by independent producers. Currently, independent producers account for only 26% of local content.
“Channel Yemaswati still meets and exceeds the 40% local content requirement as they are currently on 85% local content and only 15% international content. Unfortunately, Channel Yemaswati also fails to meet the 60% requirement of content from independent producers as currently about 72.7% of the local content is produced by Channel Yemaswati with only about 27.3% from independent producers”
Summary of Discrepancies In Broadcasting Houses
1.) Low Output
- Currently, the industry produces a minuscule amount of local content.
- Local TV channels currently carry less than 20% of local content on their programming.
- Alternative platforms, like the digital space, also have very little local content
2.) Poor quality
• The current menu of local content has very little genre diversity.
• A majority of the local content consists of talk shows, with very little drama, reality shows,
comedy, and many other entertainment genres.
3. Lack of quality skills training
- Graduates in film and TV production often lack the capacity to produce quality that meets international broadcast standards. Though these graduates have a strong foundation in film and TV production, the skills level they accumulate during training years does not allow them to produce at a high level of quality.
- There exists a gap between the quality that players in the industry can produce, and the quality the industry needs them to produce to be internationally competitive.
- An analysis of local productions revealed that there is a skills shortage in the following key areas of production: screenwriting, directing, editing, lighting, acting, sound recording, and understanding of production techniques and rules for different genres and content formats.
- Other lack of skills that were identified includes independent filmmaking, finance, broadcasting, management, and leadership.
ESCOOM notes that as a result of these discrepancies they facilitated and funded capacity-building workshops in the year under review to enhance high-quality productions, which is aimed at improving viewership and income generated within the sector.
“The overarching aim of the training workshops was to professionalize the broadcasting industry, enhance high quality in local content productions, and holistically transform the broadcasting industry by upskilling content producers with the necessary skills required to produce high-quality diverse content for local broadcast houses for the benefit of the people of Eswatini and potentially international markets” notes ESCCOM’s 2022 Annual Report.