Sierra Leone’s leading official broadcaster, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), has partnered with world renowned Multi-TV satellite company, SES, a press release issued by the corporation states. As a result of this partnership, SLBC’s content will now be aired on the Multi-TV satellite network which will expand the reach of the public broadcaster to millions of viewers at home and abroad thus enhancing its dominance as the only public service broadcaster in Sierra Leone, and second in Africa.
SES Multi-TV is viewed in over 120 countries, which is believed to captivate Sierra Leoneans and fans around the globe, especially at this time when SLBC’s content is part of the channels for the first time. This is expected to introduce non Sierra Leoneans to the “rich, thrilling and engrossing culture of an otherwise aesthetic people unique in the world.”
“We thank the government of President Julius Maada Bio for the partnership with SES to get our contents to the remotest part of Sierra Leone and beyond. The SLBC, the official voice of the people of Sierra Leone, will continue to search high and low to provide and enhance education, information and entertainment to our people online and offline,” says the Director General of the SLBC, Joseph Egbenda Kapuwa Esq.
“Aerial broadcast has been a lingering desire by the government of Sierra Leone to capacitate the SLBC to champion cultural distribution; lead information distribution; re-brand territorial image; re-engineer our tourism; and define the purpose and meaning of our nationality, our politics, and our patriotism.”
“We came to power on the platform of rolling out many reforms in the economy, in education, agriculture, water, and not excluding the media. We charged ourselves to open up the landscape to enhance media pluralism and media diversity by way of unshackling the profession through a joyous burial of Part 5 of the Public Order Act of 1965. Today, again, we are excited to facilitate a partnership between SLBC and SES. We are assured that government has delivered for Sierra Leoneans within and outside the country. This is a ‘talk and do’ administration,” Mohamed Rahman Swaray, Minister of Information and Communications, said.
The SLBC will confess to an unbroken attention it continues to receive from government through the Ministry of Information and Communications regarding technical and operational capacity as part of a wider government programme focussing on applicable media regulations, congenial and pluralistic media environment, and investment opportunities in the landscape.
In the last two years, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation “has made tremendous progress in lifting up the institution’s image by improving transmission, strengthening outside broadcast, expanding coverage, producing new programmes, building organisational network and partnership, exploring social media streaming, and capacitating personnel.”
“We are aware of the enviable position we now occupy in the media landscape; and we also know this continues to make a steady increase in our audience base within and outside Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation is the official voice and face of the people of Sierra Leone.”
The Multi-TV network, SES, leverages a vast and intelligent system that spans satellite and ground infrastructure to create, deliver, and manage video and data solutions that connect more people in more places with content that enriches personal stories. SES services are in 600+ million TV households globally, making it one of the most recognisable brands in the world.
By Ophaniel Gooding