FINANCIAL TIMES
By Eileen Byrne
Freedom of expression was one of the rallying cries of the Tunisian revolution and, following the ousting of Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali in January, the interim government was quick to announce it would authorise new television stations. These, it was hoped, would compete with Nessma and Hannibal, two existing private channels, and the state-owned Wataniya.
In neighbouring Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president, bowing with the winds of democracy blowing across the region, announced in April that radio and television would be opened to private operators – to meet an appetite for alternatives to the deadening state-owned ENTV.
In Tunisia, companies are often family owned and cautious in their advertising spend, says Nabil Karoui, chief executive of Nessma. Hit by the upheaval of the revolution, businesses have trimmed spending further, he says.But the initial enthusiasm is coming up against the harsh reality of a limited market for television advertising, executives say.
Last year’s total outlay on TV advertising in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya was just $300m, $200m of that in Morocco, where multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, Nestléand Unilever are attuned to marketing, he says. Mr Karoui, an advertising executive who launched Nessma two years ago with Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset as a 25 per cent shareholder, says his channel has yet to break even.
Now, with proposals for 10 new Tunisian television stations, a similar number of radio stations, and some 20 newspapers launched since the revolution, competition for advertising revenue is acute in a country of just 10.5m people. “Everyone who wants to launch a television channel here is thinking ‘power’ and ‘influence’ and neglects the financial dimension,” Mr Karoui says.
Nessma started out with a pan-Maghreb vision, aiming to address audiences from Libya to Morocco with talent from across the region. This strategy has been blown somewhat off course, Mr Karoui admits, by the revolution, which has brought an explosion of political discussion to Tunis television studios and an increasingly domestic focus.
If Algeria’s planned liberalisation does go ahead, Nessma, like its new competitors, will have to keep a weather eye on the shifting policy of a government in Algiers that has been unsettled by events in Tunisia and Libya. Among a handful of Algerian newspapers planning to launch TV channels, El Watan, a leading French-language newspaper, is preparing to invest in a current affairs channel “that will reflect the reality in our country in a way that you don’t find on state television”, says Omar Belhouchet, its director.
El Watan has long funded itself with private-sector advertising alone, he says. The main uncertainty, in his view, will be whether the entrenched interests of the “bureaucrats” will stymie the political will to liberalise broadcasting.
For Driss Bennani, a political journalist who fronts a discussion programme for Morocco’s 2M channel, 68 per cent state-owned, current affairs will always be best covered by subsidised state broadcasters. Private channels should focus on sports and entertainment, he believes.
Large Moroccan financial groups were considering getting involved in broadcasting when liberalisation was mooted in 2010, but the regulator put this on hold, judging that the advertising market could not support the new entrants, he says.
The current affairs coverage at 2M is not without its critics. Journalists report that although the channel, regarded as more independent than the 100 per cent-owned state channels, gave time toMorocco’s youth-led February 20 democracy movement, managing editors were soon giving directives to limit coverage on the grounds it was an unauthorised movement; the protesters in turn became hostile towards its journalists.
Different dynamics are at play for more creative enterprises. The independent TV production companies which have emerged in Morocco and Tunisia stand to benefit from more private investment. But the state should consider subsidising production, as happens in France, says Riadh Ghariani, founder of CGS, a Tunis-based digital animation producer.
CGS produced the ingeniously futuristic “Tunis 2050” series, inspired by The Simpsons, for Hannibal’s Ramadan schedule via sponsorship and product placement from companies such asDanone.
Like Mr Karoui, Mr Ghariani is concerned for creative freedoms after the Islamist party Nahda emerged as the largest in the constituent assembly, which begins sitting on Tuesday this week. Nahda’s campaign rallies featured “freedom of expression” as a slogan. But “only time will tell,” Mr Ghariani says. “Investors are in wait-and-see mode, that is not good.”
