BT Media has launched two new television channels, My Movie and My Music, to help address the problem of lack of English and Entertainment related content on television in Cameroon.
In the past, Anglophone Cameroonians have repeatedly criticized the media for ignoring English language TV programs as well as not paying attention to Entertainment content on television. Instead, they claim the country has been saturated with French speaking as well as political content for centuries leaving out English-speaking nationals from enjoying captivating, informative and entertaining local content on TV and Radio.
“BT Media’s reinvigorated approach is built on supporting true and untouched talents, embracing and enhancing their dreams, focusing on the issues that are important to them and presenting the freshest of our talent and entertainment to the rest of the world. We want to transform the TV mentality in Cameroon,” Alenne Menget, Managing Partner, told bloggers at a Bloggers Hangout organized at the BT Media Douala headquarters last week.
The two new channels, My Movie and My Music, are the only two effective of the FOUR running channels BT Media has already launched in hundreds of cable homes in Cameroon this year.
Both channels are built around music, movie and entertainment programming for a young and slightly older audience ranging around 18-60-year-olds. The channels feature upto 75% of Cameroonian content with the aim of blending local and international content to make them even for viewers at home.
While My Movie and My Music Channels handle local content, the other two channels, Real Black TV and Real Black TV 2 will focus on successful stories in the international music, movie and fashion industries with zero tolerance for negativity and racism.
“To feature on RBTV and RBTV2, you must have sold multi platinum records, meaning across continents. You must also be known worldwide as a celebrity. We are so interested in foreign movies which have respect for black mentality,” Alenne emphasised .
Both channels now run for 24 hours and feature never-before-seen Cameroonian films with an 80% – 90% Cameroonian cast. Music videos aired are drawn from the following genres: Urban, Makossa, Bikutsi, Bend Sikin and other traditional sounds. Every genre has its own slot daily.
“We are not interested in the news. We want to focus on entertainment and our intention is to run 10 TV stations before December. There are four stations running now, two effective and we believe we can do better,” the managing partner explained.
“Cameroon lacks the weight of the media. Sadly, the media doesn’t control the society in this country. If both English and French talents are raised and encouraged, they will add value to media, hence build a better society,” he added.
To fill up their airtime, BT Media assured bloggers that they have allocated budget to buy very good quality content from independent content producers, adding that they will however be open to partner and work with producers to produce programs for the created channels.
“We want to build stars, celebrate our own just like other countries do. We are giving a platform for stars to be born and others respected and celebrated for what they do which is to entertain us all.. BT Media will want to do two soap operas where we can discover, nurture and raise talents. We want to build a structure whereby celebrities in Cameroon would be branded and made popular for arts and can appear on billboards across the country as well as the internet,” Alenne explained further.
BT Media will continue to beef up its programming throughout the year and say to get your content (whether music videos, movies or comedy and other Entertainment TV shows) aired on any of their new channels, all you have to do is bring it to them.
The two channels are now available on satellite, making it easy for cable distribution companies to add to their packages FOR FREE!!!!!
So, if you are in the SW and NW Regions for example, and you are currently using either the SWECOM or SIAT Cable networks, you can ask your distributor to go search for My Movie and My Music Channels and add to your package. IT’S TOTALLY FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
