For example ,Dakar is to have seven television stations, not including  three Pay-TV channels. Lagos has 13 television stations and three main Pay-TV channels. Kinshasa has over 40 television stations, ……. while Pay-TV may seem a very modest presence in most countries, its audience reach is understated by its subscriber numbers as it is widely watched in public places…….piracy means that a large number …subscribers goes uncounted for.

……. radio has exploded and the number of radio stations is exponentially larger than for television stations as many of them are much more local. Uganda has 150 stations and Kenya over 90. ….the fragmented nature of the radio networks make it a less effective tool  for advertisers to reach their audiences.

According to one of the contributors to the Yearbook, Russell Southwood: “African broadcasting is undergoing a profound transformation and the transition to digital broadcasting will add even more broadcast channels to the mix. As a result, themed channels, as we already see on Pay TV, will begin to emerge”.

Middle class Africans are using a growing array of devices. Laptop use is growing as sales of this kind of computer begin to equal those of desktop PCs. High-end smart phones like Blackberries and iPhones are increasingly visible. One African carrier has 800,000 high-end phones on its network.

These devices are not just for doing work or making phone calls. They have become media in their own right. Recent surveys show that in North Africa 3-7% of the population cited SMS as one of their most used daily information sources. Likewise the Internet is set to have a much greater impact with the spread of broadband subscriptions.

According to Alexa.com, Facebook and You Tube are already amongst the Top 10 sites in the African countries that it analyses. Again based on survey work, between 1-8% of the population used the Internet daily across a range of very different countries. With cheaper international bandwidth, these figures will increase slowly but surely. Mobile Internet will become cheaper and play an increasingly large role in people’s lives.

Current ad spend on the Internet and SMS is tiny but ad money will migrate as it gets larger. This is money that will most likely be lost to newspapers which seem the most vulnerable as the media landscape’s tectonic plates begin to shift.

So what can the African broadcaster do faced with all of this? There are two ways to stay in the game: by using new media to extend the appeal of interesting content across all platforms and by stealing new media’s best ideas and using them to survive. Unfortunately too few TV stations have invested in convincingly local TV content that might well provide the adhesive that would keep viewers eyeballs glued to the their channel.”

The balancing Act’s African Film and TV Yearbook (2009/2010) content is the following:

-An overview of the industry and a listing of film and TV companies in Africa.

-Key metrics on the African Broadcast and Film industry

-A selection and analysis of 100 films chosen by  Film Festivals.

-Full listing of African film and television companies broken down by country .  specially focused  -Listing of Film Location Agencies and Screen Commissions in Africa

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