In relations to the big stations in Kenya,K24 is the youngest interms of how long they have been around. Other major competitors in line includes NTV,KTN,Citizen TV and KissTV. In a such hostile and competitive market survival tactics must be incorporated and in this case great and variety of content to boost your ratings on viewership and inviting ads which is the primary source of generating income in the stations.
Initially K24,was solely popular because of Jeff Koinange’s Capital Talk show which put the station up in the maps and talked about. Early this year,Jeff the station’s “bread winner” landed a major deal with a foreign TV station,this could later see him depart K24 which was then rained on. Thanks to quick actions by the management,they reorganized themselves and decided to bring in popular faces in the station. This move saw citizen TV falling prey of the scavenging K24 who poached almost the entire newsroom,major anchors like Tom Mboya,Belinda Obura led the list of the major media exodus to K24. However it wasn’t only citizen who suffered,the rest NTV,KTN Beth lost their top rated anchors to K24. After the shakeup,K24 was all revamped and fresh.
With new face,the revamped station was ready and rearing to go. Apart from the anchors they had to apply the same to their content as a result,many new programmes had to be brought in both new and poached. Here is where the criticism comes in,how fresh and unique is their content. Initially when the station launched it was visioned to be Kenya’s CNN with news items running 24/7 and for those who remember,the station used to air purely news related items. On the way I guess due to market demands and need to survive,they quickly changed their vision. The station was relaunched and joined the rest of the stations by showing variety of programmes including their trademark news items.
Sticking to the topic,with K24’s new faces they have been accused of biting and stealing ideas from competing stations. When NTV was shinning high with a standup comedy(Churchil live) they too created a standup show by name LOL the show was however shortlived and died before it became popular. Recently KTN launched a new program hosted by Betty Kyalo,the show named “how things work” within a couple Weeks a replica of the show was airing on K24.Days back NTV aired a story about scam in Kenya universities of students hiring experts to aid in their exams and research,the same story would few days find its way to the K24 screens. As many stations brings in dance show,K24 also brings in katika show which is seen as a clear bite off citizen’s sakata show.
Its however worthy noting that due to market forces and consumer demand could force the station to air programs they would rather not show,as a result its excusable for K24 to show Nigeria movies and soap operas as these genre commands a larger portion of the consumer base. With that said its also possible to find same news items showing across all the channels as they happen to share the same news makers eg politicians. However the line is drawn when it comes to featured articles,these are unique items where by each station through respective presenters should come up with fresh ideas,K24 is accused of replicating the citizen’s dandora gang rape amongst many other features.
This isn’t a hate article but a wake up notice to the entire K24,I believe with the big names in the station magic can be done,by saying magic I don’t mean performing magic on others’ articles and creating exact copies. Magic is sitting and incorporating creativity,come up with your own fresh ideas and this will put the competition on toes. But until then,it was Nice talking and happy you read. Now get to work ladies.
There's no story that cannot be told. We cover the stories that others don't want to be told, we bring you all the news you need. If you have tips, exposes or any story you need to be told bluntly and all queries write to us [email protected] also find us on Telegram
