Channel 2 Group in partnership with Kenyan Broadcasting Corp

Dubai: Channel 2 Group Corp has partnered with the Kenyan Broadcasting Corp to launch a new 24-hour movie channel in Kenya, the two parties announced yesterday.

Offering movies from Hollywood and a "touch of Bollywood," Channel 2 chairman Ajay Sethi said the new joint venture will be the first terrestrial movie channel in Africa. Terrestrial stations are available to anyone with a TV, as opposed to subscription-only satellite stations.

Once the station is launched in August, it will instantly become a big player in Kenya currently only five channels cater to a population of 40 million Kenyans.

Channel 2's local partner, the Kenyan Broadcasting Corp, boasts an 85 per cent viewership.

The new station will enter a $25 million (Dh92 million) advertising market in Kenya that is growing by 10 to 12 per cent per year, according to Channel 2 estimates.

Hezekiel Oira, managing director of the Kenyan Broadcasting Corp, said he chose Channel 2 for this partnership because of its expertise in film production, "This will give the KBC an exalted position," he said.

To accommodate the move Channel 2 will open an office in Nairobi while utilising their Media City offices to package content and develop the look and feel of the station, which Sethi said would be designed around African sensibilities. Existing Kenyan Broadcasting Corp infrastructure will deliver the content to Kenyan households.

While Hollywood movies will make up most of the programming, Bollywood films will target Kenya's 200,000 Indian residents. Already, Channel 2 provides several hours of content daily to the Kenyan Broadcasting Corp.

To promote the channel Sethi said he will tap Hollywood celebrities of African origin to record commercials and attend the August launch party in Nairobi.

Sethi said the Middle East has "satellite channels coming down like rain here," but few exist in Kenya because only a paltry 17,000 households own satellite dishes there.