The Myth of Digital Streaming Platforms and the Delusional Death of Mainstream Media.
I have been in the Industry for more than 25 years
These were the words of a key industry player who has been in the music business for more than two decades. My comment afterwards? “Damn, that’s longer than I have been alive.” Don’t get me wrong, I am young, but come on, I have also seen things, right?
Many times, stories have been peddled around by wannabe futurists, myself included, that mainstream media, as we know it, is inevitably dying. However, after extensive research via the available papers and conversations with media players, radio presenters, and executives in the subject industry, radio and TV are not even sick, let alone dying. Radio and TV are the blueprints on which other forms of media are thriving. Newspapers, magazines, and all the print media are at their feet, undoubtedly, but they have morphed into the kind of media you’re reading right now, this blog.
The Nairobification of other major towns in Kenya has increased the exposure of our kinsmen to new things that were previously considered "boujee." Kenya is a copycat country; we survive on trends and facades, so which country in Africa would Netflix launch “free plans“ to lure more customers from the host continent of slavery? Great guess, Kenya. We were the first and only country to ever have a free and ad-free network plan.
The entry of Netflix has not really revolutionised the film industry as expected. Mainly because they’re still contacting the same mediocre content creators to do the same mediocre content to appease the househelp consumer. I blame the agencies that act as conduits for the commercialization of talent; they’re a few talentless fucks seated in offices with no clear comprehension of art or how to appreciate it. How a team of creative directors sat down and decided Bahati and his family scripting all the gba gbos, calling it “Bahati’s Empire,“ is beyond me.For starters, that’s not an empire; that’s a small family business, and we have already seen all those theatrics and people on Youtube, and we didn’t like it there either, so why?
Anyway, I digress.
To double down on the music angle, Spotify launched in Kenya in February of 2021, introducing a vibe that Kenyans had craved for. The middle class urge to be different than the poor but just as near to the elite few as they could get was what Spotify capitalised, Kenyans wanted Spotify here! Apple Music users always teased on the exclusivity they enjoyed with their product, Android users wanted that more than anything, as previously stated, Kenyans thrive on FOMO, the fear of missing out. The entry of these two giants in Kenya led to the creation of a false narrative that mainstream media was slowly dying, coupled up with social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok , Deezer and the likes, the future of TV and Radio seemed bleak to the naked eye. However, statistics show that less 2.6% of Africans use DSPs, leaving a whooping 97.6% to traditional media.
Kenyan Radio has for 97 years been the medium to push agendas into the Kenyan market: politics, entertainment, economics and push of any agenda the government wanted to run. In 1982 during the attempted coup by junior Airforce officers, then radio presenter Leonard Mambo Mbotela was kidnapped from his house in Ngara to go and announce a change in government by the legendary General Ochuka, that is the magnitude of radio importance in our nation
The average Kenyan is an avid radio and TV consumer. He waits for the morning show at Radio Jambo to listen to Patanisho with Gidi na Ghost. He tunes in even in the evening to watch “Indian“ soap operas translated into vernacular. The average Kenyan is the target of betting company advertisements that have overtaken radio and local TV. Think of hotels, bars, and any social gathering place that, for neutrality, puts on a radio or TV programme to entertain their patrons. Consider the Matatu commuter going to work, the nduthi guy at the local market waiting for them to alight the matatu, the Mama Mboga at the same market waiting for them to buy groceries, the lonely mad man at the market hoping to slap the shit out of you—everyone listens to the radio except you. By you, I mean the “woke“ Kenyan that only consumes their media online because normal is boring. The truth is, you can never run away from mainstream media. You might want to counter my argument with statements like “we use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and whatnot,“ but hear me out, gentlemen, the snippet you see of some news bit on Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok airs as prime news on mainstream TV. What social media platforms do is extrapolate the already-existing media as a source of information.
12 years ago, when Kenya was deliberating whether or not to migrate from analogue to digital media, speculation and resistance were experienced, but it’s because, like in the past, my people perished due to a lack of knowledge. People almost fought Bitange Ndemo physically for suggesting that we join the bandwagon and migrate from Analogue because the countries we wanted to emulate were doing it. If I remember correctly, traditional TV had only 5 channels; now I can’t even count the number of Kenyan TV stations with all the bones in my body.
The digital migration opened a portal that is only comprehensible to media players; it revolutionised mainstream media, and if anything, it ensured mainstream media would never die. Hear me out, ladies and gentlemen. For context, I will use Royal Media Services for references. Keep in mind that there are other abundant media corporations in Kenya.
Royal Media Services has 3 TV stations (Citizen Tv, InooroTv & Ramogi Tv), 14 radio stations, twelve of which are vernacular to cater to the diverse cultures in the region and a Video on Demands platform (Viusasa). The radio stations are Radio Citizen, Ramogi FM, Inooro FM, Musyi FM, Chamgei FM, Muuga FM, Egesa FM, Bahari FM, Mulembe FM, Wimwaro FM, Sulwe FM, Hot 96, Vuuka FM and Bilitu FM.
7M +
TV VIEWERS PER DAY
10M +
RADIO LISTENERS PER DAY
52M+
SOCIAL MEDIA REACH PER MONTH
30M+
DIGITAL PLATFORMS MONTHLY PAGEVIEWS
With these kind of statistics , I can assure you that even for artists, Radio and TV are their main source of traction. If you couple up the aforementioned numbers with the other media stations, no single Digital Platform in Kenya can match that.
After all is said and done, dear reader, Is mainstream media really dead?
