There are fears that Kenya’s only Kiswahili television station, QTV, could be closed following a massive sacking of its correspondents across the country.
Business Today has established that Nation Media Group, which owns the television station, will stop airing local programmes, and instead re-broadcast those aired on its sister station, NTV.
One of the affected programmes is the hilarious Mr Speaker Sir comedy, which used to run every Wednesday at 7:30 PM. “Last week was its end. I am sorry it will not be running this week,” said inside Nation Media Group’s broadcast management.
QTV was launched to tap the low-end of the viewership spectrum.
QTV’s local news is also set to be massively affected by Monday’s firing of the more than 100 correspondents across the country. “Effectively, the station is dead as it heavily relied on these reporters for news,” the source added.
It is not clear if the evergreen Kamusi ya Changamka that is aired every Saturday will also be killed.
Insiders say the plan to kill QTV, which was launched in April 2012 to target the low-end of the TV viewership market, was hatched “a long time ago” when the station outrun the flagship NTV in terms of revenues. This, they say, did not augur well with the NTV’s top management, particularly Linus Kaikai who has in the past maintained that QTV should be run under NTV despite the fact their reporting styles are world’s apart.
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“That is why he hired Jamila Mohammed to be in charge of the Swahili station. Mr Kaikai wanted someone who can follow his word,” a reporter told Business Today.
A school of thought has it that NMG’s new CEO Joseph Muganda is desperate to impress his bosses at a time media business is taking a plunge. “He has to appease shareholders. That is why he is hungry to do away with products that are not bringing lots of money,” said a Nairobi financial analyst.
Mr Muganda, the analyst says, is not patient in terms of businesses that stain the balance sheet. “He is ruthless, and profit hungry. This is what may bring him down as media business requires a lot of patience.” Recently, he sacked the entire newsroom of Nation FM and QFM to cut costs.
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