Answering a parliamentary question on Tuesday, Minister Moeti Mohwasa said that was a free offer (dead air programme or filler running from 00:00 to 06:00 hours) from France 24 hence no procurement method was used.

In addition, the minister stated that BTV did not only enjoy free content distribution but also benefited from trainings offered by the organisation at no cost.

He noted that in 2022 during the build-up of the launch of three channels France 24 trained over 110 staff members including reporters, producers, camera person, technical directors and anchors.

He noted that currently BTV did not purchase foreign content except for sport and arts like the Olympics, beauty pageants, AFCON and FIFA games.

However, Mr Mohwasa said BTV1 and BTV2 did flight foreign content that was donated by development partners such as SADC, African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) and Voice of America (VoA).

The minister also informed legislators that in August 2022, government through DBS, increased local content quota in an effort to increase acquisition of local content on BTV channels.

However, he said the quota had proven to be a challenge for the department to fulfill.

“This was because the television business is very expensive to run in a sustainable manner as it gobbled a lot of capital for production companies particularly for start-ups,” he added.  Furthermore, the minister said through the limited funds allocated to the department, effort was made from time to time to solicit or purchase television content from local television producers. Regarding the Family Feud, he said the show was produced at a cost of US$ 1,533, 711 (P20, 932, 731.89) for 26 episodes. He said initially the show was to be recorded locally.

He explained that during the project review, it became apparent that all other productions of the Botswana Ignite could be done at Mass Media Complex, except Family Feud because the show required a much bigger space than available for the set. However, he said the plan was for season 2 and 3 productions to be produced in Botswana.

Mr Mohwasa stated that all the contestants in the 26 episodes were Batswana, adding that they were no non-citizens participants in the show.  The minister also revealed that in total, there were 613 Batswana, including 21 graduates of the Film Development Training Academy, 260 contesting Batswana families and 332 support personnel from polling, security, transport, AV operators and medics in the pre-production and post-production phases of Family Feud Botswana.

Mr Mohwasa further informed Parliament that BTV had assorted cameras as part of its inventory. He said in the 2024/25 financial year, eight Outside Broadcast (OB) cameras from BTV OB van were supplied by Hitachi Kokusal Electric Europe GmBH and another eight Electronic News Gathering (ENG) camcorders were supplied by DEGA Broadcast Systems Limited.  He stated that there was no employee at DBS who was a shareholder or had any link with the said companies.  However, he said if there was anyone with information regarding potential corruption, collusion or unlawful links to the two companies, his office was open for such information hence committed to the House to take the necessary action.

Regarding the procurement models that were followed, he said the OB cameras and ENG camcoders were procured through direct appointment method. Mr Mohwasa said the reasons were that DEGA (UK) was a supplier of BTV systems, noting that in 1999 when Btv was established DEGA designed and supplied the system and other equipment.

He said they also integrated the system, hence they continued to provide maintenance and support to Btv. Parliament also learnt that Hitachi Kokusal (Japan) company won to supply an OB van and cameras through an open tender and the two companies owned the intellectual property to their designs and systems.

Member of Parliament for Serowe South, Mr Leepetswe Lesedi had asked how much government had paid France 24 for the evening Btv broadcast, how the station was selected and what procurement model was followed to contract the station.

Mr Lesedi also wated to know how much was paid for foreign films versus locally produced content or films on average and what procurement model was followed for the same. He asked the minister to state when Btv would practice affirmative action and give preference to procure only local content.

Mr Lesedi probed how much was paid for the Family Feud Show-and why the show was not shot on Botswana and which group was benefiting from Steve Harvey show. He asked which company supplied Btv with cameras whether the company had any links with any Btv employees and the procurement model that was followed. ENDS