CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Live broadcasting of television programs is here to stay. Whether we like it or refuse to acknowledge it, whether we are conscious or not conscious of it, it’s already practiced in our country today.Livebroadcasting is involved in our everyday human activities, as people float the social media today with current news and happenings around the world.
Live broadcasting all over the world has been undergoing significant technological and structural changes. These transformations have given consumers access to a greater variety of communications and media services than ever before. For example, in the past television content could be accessed by the viewer at a specific point in time and only at a fixed location. However, convergence is changing the way in which consumers use communications services and consume content as broadcasting content is increasingly available over the Internet and on various wireless portable devices. Generally, broadcasting as an industry produces programs as goods and services for the consumption of the audiences which may be scattered over a given environment.
Broadcasting can be defined as an establishment principally meant to inform, educate and entertain the audience. The industry is made up of persons and materials who work together to achieve the station’s purpose by structuring programs to recreate events and society which tend to give satisfaction to the audience who react to them the way they are affected or the way the audience react to such events. The persons in the broadcast station come together and use materials to produce programs that meet the needs of the audience who in turn tend to appreciate the efforts of the station. If the content of the programs meets the desire of the audience, the station works the harder to provide more and more of such programs.
Televisionprogram according to Wikipedia is a segment of content intended for broadcast on over-the-air, cable television, or Internet television, other than a commercial, trailer, or any other segment of content not serving as attraction for viewership.
Ensuring widespread access to live television broadcasting is important for a number of economic and non-economic reasons both to the industry and the general public. Economically speaking, broadcasting is a significant economic sector in its own, and it can produce significant spill-over benefits in many related markets. Moreover, while radio and television broadcasting continues to be the major source of information in general, it constitutes “a principal source of information for illiterate segments of the population”, which becomes particularly important in times of emergencies.
In response to challenges brought by live broadcasting as well as a growing number of competition concerns many countries decided to carefully scrutinize their media markets, or at least some segments of it.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
The problem under investigation is the challenges facing live broadcasting media in the new millennium. As regard to the National Television Authority (NTA) Calabar. The study will examine how these challenges affect the Nigerian live broadcasting programmes and activities in gathering and dissemination of information. It will also reveal all the impediments that lead to ineffective coverage’s of live broadcasting television as regard to NTA channels in Nigeria as a whole.The world of TV and video undergoes tremendous changes. Live broadcasting of TV programs is faced with the challenge of lower advertising revenues, and consumers spending more time on the Internet rather than in front of TV screens. However, also the medium ‘Internet’ still is experimenting with new revenue streams and many services as e.g. Facebook do not generate revenue.Within a period of years in Nigeria and abroad, the Journal has published dozens of articles on “Issues in live Broadcasting.” Many different topics have been discussed, many problems have been “resolved” yet many new ones have risen. As a matter of urgency, the problems of broadcasting define or delimit the broadcasting industry itself. It is hard to know which problems are most bothering our immediate colleagues and the profession as a whole in NTA Calabar. To find out, a recent survey of Journal subscribers asked “What are the most important problems facing live broadcasting and broadcasters today?” Which develop interest to embark on a research topic as relevance as problems and prospects of live broadcasting television programs.
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY