Energetic, youthful voice for Asia

Celebrating its fourth anniversary today, YATV has reached over 150 million viewers in the region

By Richard Boyle

The television production company's headquarters, situated down a leafy, seaside avenue in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, does not appear particularly special from the outside. But when inside, it is soon evident that this is no run-of-the-mill media organisation.

Walk down any corridor and you will catch a blur of youthful, energetic figures rushing past. Take a peek in any production office or editing suite, the graphics department or the studio, and you will be surprised to discover only young people working there - some of them still in their late teens. Indeed, the average age of the production staff is just 25.

Another reason why this organisation is out-of-the ordinary - and why the employment emphasis is on youth - swiftly becomes apparent on viewing the television productions made under its banner. The output exclusively consists of value-based "edutainment" and "infotainment" programmes aimed at young Asians. Programmes for Asian youth by Asian youth. Programmes that deal with issues and perspectives that are uniquely Asian. Programmes that do not simply mimic the West but strive to project an Asian identity.

It is most appropriate that the public service organisation concerned is called Young Asia Television - or YATV as it is known informally (YA being pronounced as in far). YATV is also most opportune, for in recent years Asia has leapfrogged into the nascent global television market without the chance of developing the kind of balance between private and public broadcasting that has been a feature of the slower-paced development of the industry in Europe and North America.

In Asia there has been much criticism of the market-driven, predominantly Western programming of many satellite broadcasters - primarily on the grounds that such programming erodes social and cultural values. However, in reality it is no simple matter to produce relevant and distinctive programmes for a diverse, multi-cultural population, especially when they have to compete with powerful commercial interests. The task is made even more difficult when the target audience, like YATV's, is below the age of 24 - a target audience already exposed to the likes of MTV. Yet this is where YATV has succeeded so brilliantly. By giving young Asians the unparalleled opportunity to express their views and concerns through the medium of television, and by providing them with the training and facilities necessary to make quality, alternative programmes, YATV has captured the imagination of a segment of the target audience.

YATV was initiated by Worldview International Foundation, an NGO with consultative status with the United Nations, which has been supporting development communication in Asia since 1979. At a conference of South Asian broadcasters, convened by Worldview in 1989, a request was made for more programmes to be produced by NGOs and independent producers on issues concerning the environment, development and culture. A proposal was submitted to UNESCO, who subsequently agreed to fund the project.

Three years later, Worldview received a mandate from the NGO Forum at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, to establish a global television network to promote sustainable development. Colombo, where there was an already well-established Worldview media centre, was chosen as the headquarters for the first regional component of this global network - Asia, with its massive population of 3 billion, over half under 24.

YATV started on October 24, 1995, when the first one-hour programme was broadcast in Sri Lanka in connection with the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations. After this, regular one-hour weekly broadcasts in English (the link language in Sri Lanka) were made for a period of 12 months. Then, in October 1996, half-hour daily programmes were introduced.

While the earlier programmes had been mostly compilations of existing material produced by the United Nations, non-governmental organisations, television networks and the like, the programmes that replaced them consist mainly of original material. There are seven programmes - one for every day of the week - each tailor-made for Asian audiences.

The unusual, somewhat hip titles of these programmes reflect their adventurous, youthful spirit, and their desire to attract young viewers. YA Cafe and YA Tribe present the best of Asia's multi-ethnic art and culture programmes. Young Outlook consists of pertinent news and current affairs on development topics. I-Zone and A View to Tell package premier documentaries and docu-dramas with studio discussions and expert comment. The two flagship programmes, however, are the ones dealing with specific issues. These are the magazine-style Nature Calls, an Asian-focused environmental programme, and Space to Let, which reports on issues concerning women, children and minorities from an Asian perspective.

Nature Calls, which is claimed to be the only television programme of its kind in Asia, is by far the most popular of the YATV output. The programme has proved - as others in the West have done before it - that young people are interested in ecological issues and concerned about their environment. In a region where women, children and minorities are still struggling to gain fundamental rights, it is encouraging to discover a television programme such as Space to Let that not only dares to discuss the often complex and socially sensitive issues involved, but that also presents them in an uncompromising and thought-provoking manner..

The title of the programme has special meaning. The "space" on offer is the space that is sorely-needed by Asian women in general - and in particular marginalised groups such as street children, refugees and indigenous peoples - to enable them to express their views and concerns. Rather than just being about women, Space to Let looks at the world through women's eyes using a committed, gender-focused approach rarely encountered in Asian broadcasting. In fact all the YATV programmes display impeccable gender sensitivity - primarily due to enlightened editorial policy.

From the very start, YATV programmes have been broadcast in Sri Lanka as part of the regular prime-time programming of TNL, one of the island's eight terrestrial channels. As a result of over two years of daily broadcasts, YATV has built up a considerable identity in Sri Lanka among urban and semi-urban English-speaking young people in the age group 14 to 35 years. Indeed surveys commissioned by Lanka Market Research Bureau suggest that the programmes are watched by up to one million of the country's total television audience of some 11 million.

The chief production characteristics of the YATV programmes are their fashionable and creative camerawork, their animated and articulate presenters, and their slick and inventive graphics. Over the past two years, the approach to production represented by these characteristics has been increasingly adopted by broadcasters in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, though, in many instances this influence has not extended to the need for value-based content and focused intentions.

Because it is based in Sri Lanka, YATV is naturally associated with the island. Since late 1996, however, YATV has developed a truly regional identity as well. Terrestrial channels throughout Asia - such as India's Doordarshan Metro (DDII), Pakistan's PTV World, Nepal's NTV, Thailand's ITV, Channel 5 and Channel 11, and Vietnam's VTV2 - now broadcast English and local language versions (such as Urdu, Nepalese and Thai) of some YATV programmes, in particular Nature Calls and Space to Let.

In addition, PTV Satellite TV's cable and satellite services provide an Urdu version of Nature Calls to Bangladesh and the Gulf States of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Yemen. Vijay TV satellite-broadcasts a Tamil version of Nature Calls to India. And Astro Satellite TV's cable and satellite services provide Malaysia with Basa Malaysia and Tamil versions of I-Zone.

Audience figures have been impressive, considering the number of alluring entertainment alternatives and the fierce competition among television networks in the Asian region. According to one Indian audience research survey, Nature Calls is regularly watched on Doordarshan Metro by 7 million*, a figure that compares well with those of similar Discovery Channel programmes alongside which it is broadcast. As a result of the progressive expansion of YATV throughout Asia, by November 1998 YATV reached more than 150 million regional viewers. By the year 2000 this figure is expected to rise to 250 million.

Over the past three years, young people from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia and the Philippines have trained and worked alongside Sri Lankans at the production headquarters in Colombo, so enhancing the pan-regional flavour of the programmes. They include production assistants, researchers, presenters, producer-directors, musicians and graphics artists, a high percentage of whom are women. One of the major strengths of the YATV programmes is that they contain material specific to individual Asian countries. This has been made possible by the establishment of YATV production centres in Nepal, Bangladesh and Malaysia, together with the development of a network of stringers located in India, Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore. These stringers have been able to contribute insightful reports and stories, so broadening the scope and content of the YATV programmes.

YATV is evolving all the time, as it should. Recently, production of Young Outlook and A View to Tell was discontinued. In Sri Lanka, these programmes have been replaced by country-specific ones in the Sinhala and Tamil languages. Sathi (Mindfulness) and Vilippu (Awakening) provide young Sri Lankans with a forum to enable them to discuss the ethnic issues behind the country's 15-year-old internecine civil war and to devise ways of resolving the conflict.

Another recent development of note is a "best of YATV" programme titled Planet Asia. This is not for Asian consumption, however. Instead, the idea is that the programme should be broadcast in the West to raise awareness among young people of the issues facing their Asian peers.

Despite the high production standards, there is much to improve on, and there is also the question of how to make the operation a viable one in the future. Nevertheless, YATV is a bold experiment that provided young Asians with a voice, and has demonstrated that there is a future for public service broadcasting in Asia.

(Courtesy Media Development)

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