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VIASAT 1 gains commercial
viewing
Accra, March 26, Ghanadot/GNA – Two months
into its operations as a free-to-air (FTA) entertainment
television channel in Ghana, VIASAT 1 has gained 12.3 per cent
shares of commercial viewing in Greater Accra Region and 6.2 per
cent nationwide, a report from Research International (RI) on
Thursday said.
In January 2009, barely a month after starting operations in
December 2008, the station gained 3.2 per cent shares of the
commercial viewing, comprising of viewers between the ages of 15
to 49 and doubled it to 6.2 in February.
Mr Rune Skogeng, Chief Executive Officer of VIASAT 1, owned by
the Scandinavian Modern Times Group (MTG), told the Ghana News
Agency that the success of VIASAT 1 in Ghana within a relatively
short time was one of the best starts MTG had had for a FTA
channel.
“We operate free-to-air channels in 11 countries and our success
in Ghana is the best start so far,” he said.
The gains of VIASAT 1, according to excerpts of the RI report
available to the GNA, compared favourably with some of the TV
stations which had been operating in the country before VIASAT 1
entered the Ghanaian market.
Mr Skogeng said the success had engendered corporate confidence
in the channel, attracting some corporate giants such as Nokia,
MTN, Tigo, Blue Jeans Energy Drink, all of which have started
placing ads on VIASAT 1 and several others which were yet to
close deals with the station.
He noted that in coming into Ghana, the VIASAT team realized a
void in TV content that could be relaxing for the commercially
active 74 per cent of Ghanaians between the ages of 15 to 34,
adding that TV content in Ghana was generally news, sports and
talk shows.
“It makes financial sense to pay attention to content that
target that large group of Ghanaians because they are the ones
who will see adverts and actually act on the basis of the
adverts,” he said.
Mr. Skogeng said VIASAT 1 focused on mixing high level
professionalism with hip, trendy and high quality acquired
content from some of the best production houses in Hollywood and
other parts of the world, which was lacking in Ghana until the
advent of VIASAT 1.
“We do all that to assure Ghanaians and the corporate community
in particular that we are here to stay and to build a lasting
relationship for mutual benefit,” he said.
VIASAT 1 boasts of a number of trump cards, including having an
aggregate of 30 kilowatts of transmission power, the highest in
the country so far, being the first to do full page newspaper
placements of their weekly programme outlines and synopsis to
movies and also starting programmes on time.
Mr Skogeng said unlike the other TV stations, where the play out
system was operated by humans, the VIASAT 1 play out device was
server based and therefore the programmes were fed into the
system which used a satellite clock ensuring that programmes and
commercials were shown at the exact times advertised in the
media.
“That way we can promise out clients 100 per cent compliance
level–that with VIASAT 1 they can be sure to get the exact spots
and the number of slots they paid for their commercials to be
shown,” he said.
Touching on local content on VIASAT 1, he said the station had
set a high benchmark for itself in terms of the quality of TV
production on the current channel and was therefore working on
starting a separate channel for local content.
He said besides, there was ongoing
arrangement with some African content owners in Ghana, Nigeria
and other parts of the sub-region to buy some quality local
content.
In the area of reality show, he said “we have identified some
personalities who we are considering as hosts of some exciting
shows such as a Ghanaian version of America’s Top Model, among
other things.”
GNA |
