TV station Viasat1 to provide programmes in newspapers

Accra, March 4, GNA - Viasat1, the newly introduced television entertainment channel in Ghana, on Wednesday announced plans to provide their programme information in newspapers, magazines and on radio stations to enable viewers to plan their viewing.

Ms Laurence Miall-d' Aout, Chief Executive Officer for Free-TV Emerging Market at Modern Times Group (MTG), the mother company of Viasat 1, told journalists in Accra that the move was based on findings from an audience research conducted by the company.

"Our viewers told us they are not satisfied with the amount of programme information available and that they will watch more TV if more and better programme information was available and also spend more time reading newspapers if programme information is placed in the newspapers," she said.

She said the company was therefore developing good relationship with newspapers, magazines and radio stations to provide viewers with more and better programme information.

The Sweden-based free-TV entertainment station has been operating in the country for about three months now and has already mounted transmitter sites in Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central and Western regions with plans to mount a transmitter site at Tamale to serve the north and Brong-Ahafo Region.

Ms Aout said the company would soon vamp up their transmitter site in Accra to increase their picture and sound quality, adding that they had already invested heavily in technical infrastructure for that purpose.

"We need to tell the people we are here and we are not too good to be true," she said.

She said the station had started attracting some big corporate brands and very soon they would start developing local content in addition to the wide range of quality programming including world renowned series, blockbuster movies, documentaries and reality shows. "In the Ghanaian market it is natural that such programme improvements are live football, news and local productions in the form of reality shows and other studio programming," she said. Asked why they showed old series and movies and repeated programmes, she noted that because they ran a free-TV station they could only buy what was available for such purposes from the suppliers in Hollywood and some African movie companies.

She also assured advertisers that Viasat1 was a client focused organization that believed in delivering the best entertainment to viewers and first class services to advertisers. Ghana is the first African platform for Viasat1 and would therefore be the launch pad for the company into other parts of Africa.