Financial Times

Need for small business programmes on TV, radio
By Nimesha Herath
Does it make commercial sense for Sri Lankan media to develop and run programmes targeting small businesses as an audience? Or in other words, could the media profit from this? According to Gavin Anderson, International and Media Consultant, UK, the answer is yes.

“Audience led business programming is the way to capture the audience”, said Anderson who analysed the business media opportunities in Sri Lanka at a workshop organised by (Enter-Growth) ILO and the Sri Lanka Press Institute recently. “The business programmes need to be interactive and well-produced to suit the audience in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan programmes contain too much music, politics and comedies. There are very few programmes done on SME (Small and Medium Enterprises), agriculture, income generation, health and large business management.”

Research undertaken by AC Nielsen Sri Lanka showed that there is a mismatch in the coverage of business information for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s). Although there is high demand or interest for business programmes by the SME, the current programmes available in television and radio are very low. The survey revealed that there is a high interest in SMEs for programmes in areas such as management issues, financial management, legal issues, focus on SME and related issues, information sharing through prominent businessmen, etc.

Research found that the business programmes aired are boring to the audience due to lack of relevant data used and poor production of programmes lacking creativity and dynamism.

According to AC Nielsen’s survey, only one percent from radio and 6.2 percent from television of total air time is allocated for business information. However this very low coverage hardly caters to the growing demand for informative, educative, info-tainment and non-serial programmes for the general public.

Anderson said that the idea was have a balance in programming. “Media will target a wider audience if they air programmes suited to small businesses. SME is a commercially viable audience segment because they are in large numbers, are business consumers themselves and have strategic importance to advertisers as this segment is fragmented and difficult to reach. Therefore it makes commercial sense for the media to adopt programmes that attract a larger audience as the advertisers are bound to follow that sector due to its importance,” he said.

International Labour Organization (ILO) Enter-Growth project is ready to provide support to media broadcasters to develop audience-led business programmes or to make existing programmes more relevant to consumers. Roel Hakemulder, Technical Adviser, Enter-Growth Project in Sri Lanka said that they would identify and work with radio and television channels interested in business programming.

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