On October 31, 1959, when the Western Nigerian Government built the first television station in Ibadan, Sub-Saharan Africa, like other sub-continents and regions around the world, began broadcasting its own news and programme contents. Since then, governments, private individuals, and communities have focused on the creation of broadcast stations (radio and television) from Johannesburg to Nairobi, Lagos to Dar es Salaam, as well as Accra, with the goal of disseminating constant information to people for personal development and making significant contributions to society in terms of effective participation in civic activities.
According to several sources, the broadcast industry is thriving in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt, owing to constant changes in people’s preferences for content and governments’ interest in disseminating developmental information to the people. Information has it that private individuals and organizations are interested in establishing broadcast media establishments as a result of technological advancements that are making content development and transmission easier and more accessible to the general public.
There is no doubt that technological advancement and rapid adoption are creating favorable conditions for the usage of television and radio as information providers. Radio, in particular, has a reputation for reaching people in both urban and rural locations more effectively than other forms of mass communication. The increased use of radio as a source of information in many African countries can be attributed to a number of factors. Nigerians in the north, for example, have long been known to be enthusiastic about listening to radio because of the abundance of local content and production of news and programs relevant to their daily needs.
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Starlink and the New Dawn for Radio Broadcast
Despite the fact that the Federal Government’s early 2000s transformation policy facilitated the establishment of digital-oriented stations (radio and television), as well as creativity in content production and ingenuity in content dissemination, many audiences still find it difficult to access content due to factors such as low internet penetration, high costs of purchasing internet systems and data subscription. However, since the Nigerian government approved Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite, a lot of professionals in the ICT industry and others have been discussing and revealing potential opportunities that firms and individuals could pursue. The discussion has centered on the fact that Starlink facilitates fast internet connection because it “Rather sending internet signals through electric cables, which must be physically laid down to reach far-flung places, satellite internet works by beaming information through the vacuum of space, where it travels 47% faster than in fiber-optic cable.” While the swiftness of the product is highly recognised, the high cost of subscribing to it remains another issue to majority of Nigerians in the rural areas.
Our analyst points out that with the approval of the product, rural residents with Internet-enabled phones will be able to listen to urban radio stations that have been restricted by the government’s regulatory bodies due to limited frequency modulation bandwidth ranges assigned to them via social media, particularly Facebook (which remains the most used social medium for live streaming radio content in Nigeria).
In recent research, our analyst and another researcher, it was recommended the deployment of 5G network and installation of more network masts with strong bandwidth due to weak Internet broadband connectivity, which is threatening the sustainability of Facebook-radio convergence in Oyo State. However, according to our analyst, the coming of Elon Musk’s product is a mixed opportunities for broadcast stations and audience in Nigeria.
While listeners in urban regions would be able to easily access radio content due to the Starlink satellite’s rapid nature in facilitating effective Internet access, listeners in rural areas would be unable to do so due to the high cost of subscription. Listeners in urban areas, particularly those with a high level of economic power (income), would be able to afford the $99 monthly subscription and $499 for the Starlink kit, and enjoy the convenience of listening to radio material quickly. For urban broadcast stations, having Starlink means reaching a larger audience in rural areas, especially for those who can rely on financial assistance from family members and friends in urban areas.