Tough journey for Free-to-Air TV investors

By Elisha Kamau

Elimu TV teacher Jane Wainoga takes virtual students through a Chemistry class. Elimu TV is one of the Free-to-Air TV stations under the digital migration space

Since 2012 when she began her television station, she has never looked back despite the teething challenges. 

With a passion of creating alternative learning opportunities for the girl child some of who are either sent home because of one reason or the other and end up getting married off at an early age or those that are sent home because of school fees arrears, she started the long journey.

In 2011, she started with video conferencing and transmitting small TV signals in Korogocho area and after much struggle in 2012, she had an opportunity to meet the then Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information Communication & Technology, Bitange Ndemo at the  TV station’s launch event in September.

“I had a chance to have a brief chat with him and shared the great vision I had in the education sector. With 57% of high school pupils not transiting for their university studies, I knew I had to step in to close in the growing gap in the education sector,” she adds.

Meet Jane Muthiga, Founder of Elimu TV and one among the 30 Free-to-Air television investors that started her own station to address the growing needs in the community. 

Elimu TV has 24 teachers all who are hired on a part time basis and who teach in some of the national schools in the country. This means that primary school children have scored poorly in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams have an opportunity to not only get access to education but also to get couched by well-experienced teachers similar to those in a national school would.

A passionate Muthiga explains how the TV programming operates.

“In a typical day, we have six hour classes for form one course that cover various subjects – Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, that is from 6am to noon. All these are taught in the ordinary way only that this time, it is recorded and lots of audio-visuals - charts, graphs are used to make the virtual students understand better,” she notes.

Thereafter, we have form two sessions that run from noon to 6pm and form three session that extends to midnight with form four syllabus taught in the wee hours of the night running till 6am.

“In essence, it is a 24 hours 7 days a week process and we alternative the classes just so that it is balanced,” she adds

Elimu TV works very closely with the Ministry of Education through the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) who provide them with the approved curriculum which they then use. 

“Soon after we record all sessions, we normally take the videos for approvals before we share them with Signet partners who then air them through our TV signal and our virtual students then watch from the comfort of their homes,” she notes.

A cheerful Muthiga explains in our interview with her that her vision is to be the greatest audio-visual content producer in the country. She has great ambitions of producing videos that can even be sold in local retail shops which would also mean additional revenue stream for the station.

The videos are normally 20 minute long that are also uploaded on social media platform – YouTube.

Through an SMS platform, virtual students can then share feedback soon after watching the TV programme or even share their questions through social media platforms – Facebook and Twitter.

The station is soon setting up a call centre that will add value and will encourage real time responses to students asking questions on either of the subjects. 

For Farmers TV, another Free-to-Air TV station it is all the same only that this time, the audience is different. 

“Our target audience is anyone who is a farmer in the country. Right now, we have three programs during the day. Shamba la vijana, a programme that highlights what young men and women are doing in farming, Experts View whereby we get on board an expert in a particular area for instance rabbit farming who then advises all farmers on rabbit rearing – feeding, diseases, slaughtering to success stories from those that have made it in their farming initiatives, notes Jane Muhotho, Farmers TV founder.

With a passion for farming, Muhotho started the TV station with the realization that most farmers do not know where to get the right information that can play a big role in enabling them get a high yield or even make their animals produce better she ventured into TV farming in 2012.

This has not been an easy road for the Free-to-Air TV investors. 

They each have to pay a monthly charge of Kshs. 321,000 to Signet that is owned by Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) as transmission charges so that their TV programmes get aired. This is simply because they do not own their own infrastructure.

This has been a great challenge for the investors given the long road they will have to go before they finally start attracting some advertisements so as to make the business economical.