The media is a big and popular industry that has been around for years. This industry has done and is still doing a good job entertaining and keeping us updated with recent news and information. Technology also came in handy, making it easy for the media to generate revenue.
Financing the media involves different things, from raising infrastructures to funding business projects and paying workers.
The sustainability of the media comes from different sources. It could be from the government, business projects, campaigns, advertisements, subscriptions, or donations from supporters.
The funding of media business models varies based on the country and what individual media agencies try to achieve.
Different countries across the world have different means of running their media. While the government solely runs the media in some countries, the private media system is more prominent in others.
This article will discuss how the media is financed in Nigeria and other parts of the world.
Read how Nigerians are making money from social media.
How the Media Is Financed in Nigeria
In Nigeria, the media industry is in the hands of the private sector, although regulated by government policies. This is because many media houses we see today are privately owned.
Financing media companies is very important to give the audience the best. Nevertheless, funding is probably one of the Nigerian media's major issues due to economic crises.
Media firms, especially the private sectors, have devised business plans and campaigns to finance the media and help them pull through the hard times.
Below are different ways the Nigerian media is being financed:
Funding From Government
While public media is supervised and funded by the government in Nigeria, private media firms have to look for ways to keep their media business running.
There's always money allocation for the different sectors in Nigeria from the national budget, including the media. The government uses the money allocated to local, state, and national media to fund the media and pay workers and journalists.
On the other hand, private media in Nigeria work on business models and services that can help them finance the company.
Investments
Investment is one of the ways the media market develops its financial capacity. Since the media is of economic and financial importance, people tend to invest in it.
Private media leverage the money they get from the investment made by shareholders. So, they work on campaigns to bring revenue and investment into the company.
Marketing
A major way the media get their revenue is via advertisement and marketing either on social or broadcast media.
This works a lot as many people want their business to gain visibility. Everyone wants to advertise their products and services. Money gotten from these advertisement services is usually used to fund the agency or company.
Subscriptions
Subscription is another way money can be gotten to finance the Nigerian media. Media firms work in providing exclusive content for an interested set of people for a fee.
For example, they could focus on people who read their emails and website news and listen to their shows. They encourage them to subscribe for certain content, information and news while promising them something special.
Lending their media space to people who will pay them is another way they finance their agency. These are called sponsored programmes. This works by selling a portion of the show for advertisement purposes or mentioning the business's name and brands.
Donations
Donations go a long way in financing the media. This involves getting support from people for what they do. In Nigeria, private media often get financial and other types of support from the members of their community.
This is how money circulates in the Nigerian media!
How the Media Is Financed in Other Parts of Africa
The development in African media is pretty advanced due to technological advancement and new business models. Africa's media ecosystem keeps improving from the first printing press in Sierra Leone to what we have in recent years.
Regarding the print press, Nigeria is known to be one of the best in Africa. Like Africa is winning with print media, their digital media is doing great as they actively give out content via the radio, TV shows, and other online platforms.
Africa has depended on the fund from transactions, advertisements, and other services, which is not enough as maintaining the media entails many things. The COVID pandemic also took a toll on the global media as people had to stay away from work.
The African media was forced to look for alternative ways to keep the industry moving. Most of them resolved to use the digital space to get revenue as they promote their agency.
However, during economic pressure, non-profits from the local and global community have offered support in cash and kind.
African countries have benefited from media financing programmes, including grants, training for media personnel, and infrastructure.
Different media initiatives were put in place to strengthen the impact of African media, which also supports economic development. We can see cases of programmes and campaigns to help the media. An example is the African Centre for Media Excellence in Uganda.
This programme focuses on giving grants to journalists in the industry to help them become better at what they do.
Another example is the DW Akademie, an international media and a segment of the Deutsche Welle, Germany's public international broadcaster. They provide grants and work to encourage free press and access to information in Africa.
They support the economic growth of the media by supporting journalists, print media, community radio channels, TV shows, and social media bloggers in over 18 countries in Africa.
Other funding programme and society that has helped to promote media in Africa include:
- International women's media foundation
- Ford foundation
- Luminate
- International training programme
- Media development fund
- Media Foundation for West Africa
- Open society foundations
- African media initiative
- Media Institute of Southern Africa
How the Media is Being Financed in Other Parts of the World
The political structure of a country most times determines the media financing in that country. In some countries like Russia and India, the government owns and controls the local news and information provided by the media.
While in other countries, the government doesn't have total control of the media.
Financing the media is usually directed at long-term sustainability in all countries. Almost all countries follow the normal trend of advertising products and services to get their revenue.
Foreign countries are also financed by a licence fee paid by the public. In most foreign countries, each household pays a radio or TV licence fee, whether you listen to them or not. In some countries, it applies to those who have those gadgets alone.
Example of countries that do this is Japan and Switzerland.
Local news media receive donations from the community. There have been records of people giving to the media in recent years. Those who read print news tend to give more when making payments since they always give tips alongside the actual fee.
USA major media is funded by the corporation of public broadcasting and local donors. They also have quite some non-profit media with no source of revenue.
This non-profit media gets their fund from local donations in the community willing to give to a specific course or programme.
The government is a major source of financing for the media in the United Kingdom. They get funds from generated revenue, licence fees, and indirect subsidies.
Nongovernmental media financing comes from advertising, a second major funding source in the UK news media. They also leverage subscriptions to run the media.
In addition, small and independent media firms in the UK are often financed by philanthropists willing to support them.
The Mobile Internet Capital funds the media in Asian countries. They are also financed with seed funding, grants, and corporate partnerships.
Aside from the normal government fund, mass media in China bank on advertising and sales from the content they give out to the public. The Chinese press has done this for decades and has helped their media gain global economic and financial success.
South Korea, another Asian country, is funded with money procured from television and radio licence fees from every household. Aside from this, they get revenue from transactions and advertising services.
In France, the state owns the largest national Tv and radio broadcasting group and private owners control other media firms. The media in France specialize in producing publications and useful content.
They fund their media from grants, licence fees, and subscriptions. This varies with different media types. Here are some programmes that finance the media in different countries:
- Asia-Pacific grants
- Global Media Defence Fund
- International fund for public interest media
- Media development investment fund
- MacArthur Foundation, USA
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