The Standard Group has been given the green light to launch new TV and radio stations. The Communications Authority of Kenya has issued licences for KTN Burudani TV and Spice FM.
Sources indicate the two stations are targeting millennials (those aged between 18 and 35 years) and would offer entertainment news and shows.
On August 2, the media house released a teaser about the station through its social media platforms indicating the newest TV station would go live soon.
According to the promotional materials, the station will focus mainly on music backed by other entertainment programmes like movies and comedy. Music selection will cut across local, Congolese, bongo and even Nigerian.
The entertainment segment in Kenya’s music industry is still virgin with mainstream TV stations just allocating few hours for music and other entertainment programming.
However, the Kenya Red Cross is set to launch Switch TV, which will also target millennials. It has already recruited noted media personalities including Shaffie Weru, DNG (Davidson Ngibuini), Grace Msalame, Nzula Makosi and Remmy Majala, in addition to injecting new blood.
By launching an entertainment-only TV and radio stations, Standard Group is hoping to attract the growing and powerful youthful audience, which appears to have been captured by social media forums such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Millennials (Gen Y) are very fickle with very short attention spans especially when it comes to consuming conventional TV and newspapers.
In addition, winning them over will not be easy as they immune to most traditional marketing and sales pitches…they not only grew up with it all, they’ve seen it all and been exposed to it all since early childhood, experts say.
They are also less brand loyal and the speed of the Internet has led the cohort to be similarly flexible and changing in its fashion, style consciousness and where and how it is communicated with, according to social marketing firm, WJSchroer Company.
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The plan to launch an entertainment radio station has been in the works at Standard Group Centre but its was jolted after DJ Wesley, who was head of music at its Radio Maisha, allegedly used its masterplan and market research the media house had commissioned to establish NRG, which has become a sensation among the youth for its genre of music and delivery that appeals more to the younger generation.