PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF LIVE BROADCAST OF TELEVISION PROGRAMMES (A CASE STUDY OF NTA CALABAR)

CHAPTER ONE

                                     INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Live broadcasting of television programs is here to stay. Whether we like it or refuse to acknowledge it, whether we are conscious or not conscious of it, it’s already practiced in our country today.Livebroadcasting is involved in our everyday human activities, as people float the social media today with current news and happenings around the world.

Live broadcasting all over the world has been undergoing significant technological and structural changes. These transformations have given consumers access to a greater variety of communications and media services than ever before. For example, in the past television content could be accessed by the viewer at a specific point in time and only at a fixed location. However, convergence is changing the way in which consumers use communications services and consume content as broadcasting content is increasingly available over the Internet and on various wireless portable devices. Generally, broadcasting as an industry produces programs as goods and services for the consumption of the audiences which may be scattered over a given environment.

Broadcasting can be defined as an establishment principally meant to inform, educate and entertain the audience. The industry is made up of persons and materials who work together to achieve the station’s purpose by structuring programs to recreate events and society which tend to give satisfaction to the audience who react to them the way they are affected or the way the audience react to such events. The persons in the broadcast station come together and use materials to produce programs that meet the needs of the audience who in turn tend to appreciate the efforts of the station. If the content of the programs meets the desire of the audience, the station works the harder to provide more and more of such programs.

Televisionprogram according to Wikipedia is a segment of content intended for broadcast on over-the-air, cable television, or Internet television, other than a commercial, trailer, or any other segment of content not serving as attraction for viewership.

Ensuring widespread access to live television broadcasting is important for a number of economic and non-economic reasons both to the industry and the general public. Economically speaking, broadcasting is a significant economic sector in its own, and it can produce significant spill-over benefits in many related markets. Moreover, while radio and television broadcasting continues to be the major source of information in general, it constitutes “a principal source of information for illiterate segments of the population”, which becomes particularly important in times of emergencies.

In response to challenges brought by live broadcasting as well as a growing number of competition concerns many countries decided to carefully scrutinize their media markets, or at least some segments of it.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM           

The problem under investigation is the challenges facing live broadcasting media in the new millennium. As regard to the National Television Authority (NTA) Calabar. The study will examine how these challenges affect the Nigerian live broadcasting programmes and activities in gathering and dissemination of information. It will also reveal all the impediments that lead to ineffective coverage’s of live broadcasting television as regard to NTA channels in Nigeria as a whole.The world of TV and video undergoes tremendous changes. Live broadcasting of TV programs is faced with the challenge of lower advertising revenues, and consumers spending more time on the Internet rather than in front of TV screens. However, also the medium ‘Internet’ still is experimenting with new revenue streams and many services as e.g. Facebook do not generate revenue.Within a period of years in Nigeria and abroad, the Journal has published dozens of articles on “Issues in live Broadcasting.” Many different topics have been discussed, many problems have been “resolved” yet many new ones have risen.  As a matter of urgency, the problems of broadcasting define or delimit the broadcasting industry itself. It is hard to know which problems are most bothering our immediate colleagues and the profession as a whole in NTA Calabar. To find out, a recent survey of Journal subscribers asked “What are the most important problems facing live broadcasting and broadcasters today?”  Which develop interest to embark on a research topic as relevance as problems and prospects of live broadcasting television programs.

1.2      OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study generally aims to find out the problems and prospects of live broadcast of television programs, comparing the recent occurrence in the industry to their previous way of performing its statutory role since inception. Specifically, the study is meant to find out the following:

i)             To examine the problems and prospects of live broadcast of television programs in (NTA) Calabar.

ii)           To examine the level of decadence in television broadcasting in this era of trending social media in Nigeria.

iii)          To examine the extent at which the National television authority in Nigeria has been able to perform its monitoring role as a watchdog of the broadcast industry

iv)         To proffer possible solution to problems and challenges associated with live broadcast of television program in Nigeria.

1.4      RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following null and alternate hypotheses was outlined by the researcher for in depth research testing.

H0: the National television authority in Calabar has been able to perform its monitoring role as a watchdog of the broadcast industry in the state.

H1: the National television authority in Calabar has been able to perform its monitoring role as a watchdog of the broadcast industry in the state.

H0: trending activities from the social media today is not posing serious challenges to live broadcasting of television programs in Nigeria.

H2: trending activities from the social media today is posing serious challenges to live broadcasting of television programs in Nigeria.

1.5      SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The Nigerian television authority in the last century could be assessed to have lived reality for shadow, in terms of performance. But they still have a lotproblems and challenges to reckon with due to certain factors emanating from the trending of online videos. It is therefore believed that at the end of this study, the findings will go a long way to motivate broadcasters to put in more effort in rebranding their live broadcasts, so as to attract the public back to developing interest in television programs. To the government it will set up policies that will aid proficiency in the broadcasting industries in Nigeria. To the general public the findings of this study will be an awakening material or a wakeup call to the level of decadence in our broadcasting corporation in Nigeria. To the department of mass communication and scholars the finding of this study will acts as a reference material for future research to the subject of live broadcast in Nigeria.

1.6      SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

For a study of this nature which centers on the problems and prospects of live broadcast of television programs, as broad as the scope of this study is the researcher only centers on Nigerian television authority. The researcher was constrained in the following ways:

1. The limited resources and time for this kind of study would not allow for gathering of adequate data from the entire newspaper houses, advertising agencies and radio/television houses in Nigeria. This has also constrained the researcher from using a combination of methods of data collection for the study.

2. A major limitation encountered during the administration of the questionnaire was the gratification or reward expected by the respondents from the researcher so that the copies could be filled. It almost made the elicitation of the data impossible.

3. It is expected that by the purposive sampling method employed for the study, the respondents actually know about the deregulation of the broadcast industry and the role of the NBC.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to ascertain the amount of bias introduced into the findings of the study because the respondents may not be truthful in answering the questionnaire.

1.7      DEFINITION OF TERMS

Challenges:Those things NTA need, to have a more dynamic, responsive and effective coverage and broad casting

Broadcast Industry:This refers to the public and private radio and television stations, including cable television services, direct satellite broadcast and any other medium of broadcasting in Nigeria.

Live broadcast:                                          

Technology: That is NTA to more for the growth and development of modern and supersonic equipment. Hence to too aside the adapted and analogue broadcast equipment and imbibe the use of digital equip0ment.

Coverage: The extent of NTAaudience coverage in Nigeria and the need to cover the rest of the world like BBC, VOA, CNN and radio France international, Nigerian launched its satellites.

1.8      ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlight the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.

1.9      BRIEFHISTORY OF THE NIGERIAN TELEVISION AUTHORITY

The Nigerian Television Authority - also known as NTA is a Nigerian government-owned and partly commercial broadcaster that was inaugurated in 1977, at inauguration it had monopoly on television broadcasting in the country. The NTA runs the biggest television network in Nigeria with stations in several parts of Nigeria. Formerly known as Nigerian Television (NTV), the network began with a takeover of regional television stations in 1976 by the then Nigerian military authorities, and is widely viewed as the authentic voice of the Nigerian government. NTA's monopoly was broken in the 1990s.

Nigerian Television Authority began broadcasting on 31 October 1959 under the name Western Nigerian Government Broadcasting Corporation (WNTV) with OlapadeObisesan as its first Chairman. It was based in Ibadan and was the first television station in Tropical Africa. Other Northern parts of Africa already had a television station.

NTA was founded in 1977. By 1979, it had reached about 20% of the population.