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Tag: TVC News

  • Sanwo-Olu visits TVC’s new digital studios at Eko Atlantic

    Sanwo-Olu visits TVC’s new digital studios at Eko Atlantic

    Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu visited TVC News’ newly launched digital studios in Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, on Monday, January 6. 

    During his visit, the governor appeared as the first guest on the station’s Open Studio and participated in their Breakfast Show. 

    The development was shared via a post on the governor’s official X account. Governor Sanwo-Olu wrote:  “Today, I toured the brand-new, world-class modern digital studios of @tvcnewsng at Eko Atlantic City, Lagos. I was privileged to be the first guest to appear on their Open Studio, which officially launched today with the Breakfast Show. 

    “This milestone signals the complete movement of TVC Communications to their state-of-the-art facility and new location, further cementing Lagos’s reputation as a hub for innovation, creativity, and excellence in media.”

    “These state-of-the-art facilities, including the largest and most advanced in sub-Saharan Africa, symbolise what Lagos represents: innovation, connectivity, and limitless possibilities.

    “Beyond the unveiling, I discussed how media plays a vital role in fostering unity, shaping public opinion, and driving socio-economic development. I emphasised the importance of leveraging these advanced facilities to inform, educate, and inspire our people.

    Read Also: Sanwo-Olu pledges enhanced welfare, democratic benefits for residents

    “I also spoke about critical developments in our state and country. Financial markets are showing signs of stability, offering a renewed opportunity to pass benefits to residents. By staying strategically positioned, Lagos will continue to lead in leveraging these opportunities for the social and economic well-being of our people.

    “The largest food logistics hall in sub-Saharan Africa is set to open in Lagos this year, alongside multiple middle-level markets in Mushin, Ajah, Agege, and Ikorodu. These projects will enhance food sufficiency and security, reflecting our commitment to empowering every resident.

    “As we uphold local government autonomy, Lagos remains a model of collaboration and independence. Our joint initiatives with local governments, such as security improvements and infrastructure projects, demonstrate how partnerships drive impactful governance. I will continue to engage directly with our residents and the media to show that leadership and excellence are what we stand for. Lagos leads, Lagos delivers.

  • Stella Din-Jacob is Director of TVC News

    TVC Communications, owners of TVC, TVC News and Max FM, has announced the appointment of Stella Din-Jacob as Director of News with immediate effect.

    An accomplished broadcast news journalist and lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in local and international media, Stella will oversee and implement the strategic direction and management of TVC News as it enters a period of vigorous investment and strategic change in editorial and programming output.

    Commenting on the appointment, Chief Executive Officer of TVC Communications Andrew Hanlon said TVC News is about to undergo radical change over the course of the next few months.

    He added that the change will involve improving editorial output, ability to break news first and fast, and providing viewers with a modern, attractive and world class news service, which Nigerians will be proud of.

    He said: “As a renowned Nigerian broadcast news professional with a pedigree of excellence, Stella Din Jacob has the experience, drive and determination to bring TVC News to the highest levels to which we aspire as major African broadcasting company. Her commendable experience as a news manager and a practising broadcast news journalist will be of immense value to the business as we continue our journey of investment and improvement in our services for our viewers and advertisers.

    In her response, Stella stated: “I’m delighted to join TVC Communications and I look forward to the challenge of leading the news team, harnessing creative growth and professional development of dedicated professionals.”

    Stella brings over 20 years of senior broadcast news experience to TVC having most recently served as National Head of News and GM News 24 for Silverbird Communications.

    She undertook a foundation course at the university of Warwick and graduated from the University of Kent with an LLB in 1992. She attended the Nigerian Law School in 1993 and was awarded a B.L.

    Stella is a highly accomplished broadcast news journalist with many accomplishments in her career.

  • CBS announces multimillion-dollar investment in TVC, Radio Continental

    CBS announces multimillion-dollar investment in TVC, Radio Continental

    In line with its ongoing restructuring, the management of Continental Broadcasting Services (CBS) has announced their commitment to increase investments in the television and radio businesses aimed at improving the viewing and listening experience of its esteemed audience.

    The investment objectives also include shooting the stations to a pole-position in the media industry rankings, thus making them the first choice for advertisers in Nigeria.

    The investments will cut across CBS three major properties which are: TVC Entertainment; TVC News and Radio Continental.

    Making the announcement on Wednesday, the Chief Executive Officer, Continental Broadcasting Services, Mr Andrew Hanlon said viewers, listeners and advertisers on the channels should be ready for exciting times as the execution of the plan commence with immediate effect.

    I am delighted to confirm today that substantial investments will be made in programming and content across our TV and radio stations to improve viewers and advertisers’ appeal in the CBS Group offering. This will involve a substantial spend on technology and transmission equipment.

    “The plan, which was recently approved by the CBS Board, will also lead to improved general working conditions for our 350 staff who will be at the heart of everything we do,” Hanlon said.

    Hanlon further added that “as Nigeria steadily recovers from its economic recession, investments in critical sectors like this will definitely serve as the bedrock for expediting the objectives of the government and effectively revive the economy”.

  • Challenging global dominance

    Challenging global dominance

    The competition between emerging pan-African news channels and global cable news media is hightening. Determined to challenge the dominance of global media giants, some of the new start-ups are investing in technology and manpower, among others, to grow Africa’s share-of-voice in the global news coverage. TVC NEWS, for instance, is set to launch a Cable Satellite, Continental Satellite (CONSAT), to be ahead of others in the pay TV market, writes ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI.

    Cable NEWS coverage in Africa is expanding at the speed of light. Earlier portrayed by global media as a dark continent, Africa is gradually becoming a marketing war zone, where global news media and rising Pan-African media are competing to correct past imbalances in news coverage about the continent.

    Concerned about how global editorial policies, which portray the continent as a geographical zone riddled with famine, war, rape, ritual killings, corruption, bad leadership and several other social vices thrive, communication scholars have at various summits, complained about Western media’s portrayal of Africa as the dark continent.

    African communication experts believe that having a formidable pan-African media, owned by Africans, will help Africa grow beyond the taglines which relegate the continent’s marketing potentials to the background.

    However, the game is changing. With its growing economies, some Pan-African cable news outfits are springing up daily to break the Western media dominance in reportage of happenings in the continent. Positioning as pan-African channels through their content design, programme offerings, such as travelogues which portray Africa as investment hub, tourist destinations, the global media are beginning to feel the competition in the pan-African media news coverage market.

    For instance, only recently, Euronews announced plan to start the first pan-African rolling news channel, in partnership with Télé Congo, the national TV channel of the Republic of Congo in the summer of 2015. Also, some global news channels are designing TV content to present African perspective to stay relevant in the news coverage market. BBC Africa, African Voice by CNN, among others, are some of the ways the Western media have been responding to the fierce competition.

    But, while many still believe that a truly owned African media is the best platform to correct such imbalance in the global information flow, TVC NEWS is marking its one year of operation today after demonstrating its ability to compete with the Western media through content offering that has already captured about three million global TV audience in Africa and Europe.

    With an ambition to triple five million TV viewership across Europe, Asia and America, the TVC NEWS which first made its public broadcast on February 28, last year, is also planning to launch a Cable Satellite Service which will give Africa a strategic advantage in getting their voices heard at par with global media footprint.

    Following its live coverage of the United States (US) presidential election without hooking up to CNN and other global cable network, the 2013 elections in Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Zimbabwe, the African Union’s 50th anniversary celebrations in Addis Ababa, the civil unrests in Egypt and Tunisia, the conflicts in the Central African Republic and Mali, the Nairobi shopping mall siege, the insurgency in Nigeria and, of course, the death and funeral of the late Nelson Mandela in South Africa, the channel has upped its ante with global media awards and recognition since inception.

    “TVC NEWS has received international awards from the International Centre for Journalist (ICJ) in Washington DC, with its report on the “Failure to eradicate polio in Nigeria” and was ‘highly commended’ at the 2013 annual awards of the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) for a report titled: ‘The accused’ in the Investigative Documentary category.

    “TVC NEWS has come a long way within a short time and will remain committed to providing reliable, accurate and up-to-date news about Africa,” said its Chief Executive Officer, Nigel Parsons. He noted that TVC News has also been endorsed as a credible news channel by notable figures, such as Dr. Nkosazana C. Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the AU Commission during her visit to the news channel headquarters in Lagos.

    Underscoring the need to create a channel that will have a continental brand identity, the Chief Operating Officer of TVC, Mr. Lemi Olalemi said: “If you watch CNN, you will hear the voice of Amercia; if you watch Al-Jazeera, you will hear the voice of Middle East; if you watch BBC, you will hear the voice of Britain. However, the essence of founding TVC pan-African station, is to create a platform through which Africans can balance the new world of information-order and tell the African story in the African way. To attain a year anniversary has come with so many challenges but the result has been impressive.”

    Parsons said TVC NEWS’ brand is built on integrity and ethical news judgment. “The TVC NEWS brand is being built on integrity of content, quality of staff and technology innovation,” he added.

    Relying on local manpower, Parsons, a former Al-Juzeera team, said when TVC NEWS started, the management was tempted to poach trained staff from SkyNews, CNN to withstand the competition but it later opted training local hands.

    However, with its footprint and network of reporters in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt and United Kingdom, Olalemi said the feedback across the globe has been overwhelming.

    “We receive responses from United States and we hope to double and triple the five million audience across the world. We have high ambition through the competition but anyone that wants to get into the market will look at us. We get our information disseminated by Reuters, we are a new boy on the bloc,” he said.

    Currently on Sky Channel 572 and with more channels seeking for TVC NEWS on their channel width, the management is looking forward to breaking the monopoly of the pay TV market and have a fully-owned cable network-CONSAT.

    “In a few months time, we are launching CONSAT, starting with 60 channels. We plan to increase it to 80 channels. TVC NEWS and TVC are going to be part of satellite. The footprint of the satellite will be streamed to Sub-Saharan Africa to Madagascar,” he added.

    Parsons stated that the management is working ahead of the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Digital Migration deadline, which starts next year. “To compete effectively, we are steps ahead of NBC/ITU deadline. With this, you are going to have all the International news channels because right now, if you don’t have DSTV, you hardly have access to these channels,” he said.

    On the monopoly of the pay TV market, he said: “Monopoly is anti-competition. In Kenya, there is debate going on against monopoly of the pay TV market. There should not be monopoly of news, sports, entertainment news coverage. For us, every station on CONSAT is going to be free. Information shouldn’t be paid for.”

  • TVC News bags international awards

    TVC News bags international awards

    MONTHS after the launch of TVC News, it has bagged two major international awards. From over 200 submissions in a competition on the coverage of vaccines and immunisations organised by the International Centre for Journalists in Washington DC, the channel’s reporter, Vivienne Irikefe, won the top prize.

    Vivienne’s report focused on Nigeria’s failure to vaccinate all new-born children against polio, the only country in Africa where polio is still endemic with a troubling increase in recent years. With stirring images and powerful interviews, she drove home the horrors of the disease by profiling a victim who couldn’t get a job because of the stigma of polio.

    ICFJ President, Joyce Barnathan, said the coverage “served as a lesson to all on how to conquer devastating yet preventable diseases such as polio.”

    Meanwhile, In London, TVC News received commendation at the 2013 annual awards of the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) for a report titled The Accused in the Investigative Documentary category.

    Reporter Katie Mark’s documentary tells the harrowing story behind the ritual abuse and even killing of African children accused of being possessed by evil spirits. TVC News was lapelled for the top slot at the AIB awards by the UK’s Channel 4 (‘Dispatches’ veteran documentary team) in a strong field in which short-listed entries also included broadcasters from Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Asia.

    TVC News Chief Executive, Nigel Parsons, said: “The awards further prove that the 24-hour pan-African news channel can favourably compete on the global scene. TVC News has come a long way in a short time, and these awards are recognitions of the fantastic achievements of everyone at the channel.”

    TVC News is the first pan-African news and current affairs channel, with state-of-the-art headquarters in Lagos, and bureaux across Nigeria, as well as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt & the UK.” The 24-hour news channel offers a fresh perspective on African and world events.

  • TVC News to tell African stories, says CBS boss

    THE Chief Executive Officer, Continental Broadcasting Services (CBS), owners of TVC News, Nigel Parson has assured Nigerians that when the pan-African news and information platform launches at the end of this month, it will provide an opportunity for Africans to tell their stories in the African way.

    He claimed arguing that the recent launch of Arise TV did not fill the vacuum as the broadcast station has no broadcast licence in Nigeria. Parson who fielded questions at the end of a media facilities tour of the Ikosi, Lagos office of television station yesterday, decried the absence of an African news channel that could tell the story of the continent in the appropriate manner, assuring that TVC News will do that.

    “We don’t have an African news channel. We have a lot of foreign news channel. We have BBC, CCTV. Chinese are spending a huge budget on Africa. Our mission is to tell African stories from an African perspective, the onus is on us to interpret the continent,” he said, adding that Arise TV has no broadcast licence in Nigeria.

    “Arise is not even licenced to broadcast in Nigeria. It is broadcasting from London or in Washington and from what I have seen, they have been running a bunch of old documentaries. And looking at the list of the senior executives, there are no Africans there,” he said, adding that TVC News is entirely an African project which is going to be managed and run by Africans.

    On what will be the focus of the television station, he explained that Africa will be the capstone of all the progarmmes of the news station. “It is a fantastic challenge. Our focus is sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, we will cover North Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt but our real focus will be sub-Saharan Africa. It is going to look at Africa from the African perspective and allow African to tell their stories instead of (it) being told by foreigners. The onus is on us to interpret this continent in our own ways,” Parson said.

    Shedding more light on content, he said it is not going to be restricted to reporting ongoing news stories alone but will focus on culture, health, environment and other issues that affects the continent, stressing however that “extra ordinary” breaking news happening in other parts of the globe will not be left unattended to.

    On other platforms the news platform will be partnering with for deeper reach, he disclosed that the organisation has partnered with Aljazera English, StarTimes and was in talks with Dstv in Johannesbourg, Top TV in South Africa, and other TV houses in Ghana and Kenya.