05 Aug 2019

 Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Tshekedi Khama says his ministry has established a television channel as part of its mandate of creating an enabling environment that empowers youth and develops and leverages the strength of culture and heritage.

He said the channel promoted and showcased local talent in the areas of youth empowerment, sport and culture development, and also sought to grow the film and television industry in Botswana.

Minister Khama said the channel broadcasted hundred per cent local content and relied on content acquisition from independent producers.

He said at inception during the 2017/18 financial year, the ministry was awarded P10 million for acquisition of television content.

He added that expenditure of over P7.8 million had been used to procure 38 programmes of 13 episodes across six genres.

In addition, Mr Khama said the ministry was awarded P15 million for the 2019/20 financial year for content acquisition of which a tender was published in the government gazette and closed on  February 1 2019.

He further said 114 local companies had bidded for the tender, adding that 22 of the companies had been disqualified for non-compliance with the tender requirements.

Of the remaining 92 companies, Mr Khama said 199 programmes across 11 genres had been further evaluated and were currently at the financial stage anticipated to be concluded by the end of August 2019.

Due to a large number of bids received and limited number of skilled manpower, Mr Khama noted that the acquisition process for the content had taken longer than had been anticipated.

Furthermore, he said as the new channel, the procurement method applied on the current tender proved not to be the best to acquire television content due to issues of creativity, which then brought a need to adopt a method of commissioning rather than the normal tendering process.

The minister also revealed that NOW! Channel had initially been launched on a digital platform which required the use of a set-top box and an antenna to decode the signal  andwatch the television.

He said the set-top boxes were now available in the market and the price ranged between P600 to P900.

As the latest development, the minister said that NOW! Channel had been launched on the Dstv bouquet on June 4 2019 with an initial agreement to broadcast within Botswana only. In addition, the minister said as a way of creating more audience platforms, an on-line streaming platform was under construction in collaboration with BOFINET.

Mr Khama said his ministry would continue to explore more ways of increasing access to the channel.

Francistown East Member of Parliament, Mr Buti Billy had asked the minister to state progress in the rollout of the youth TV station, and to brief Parliament as to how much has been used up to January 2019. ENDS