BTV: Botswana's Entertainment Industry setback

Back in the late 1990s, when the government drafted a law that later gave birth to the now-shamed Botswana Television, there was a lot of excitement amongst our young  and eager nation. I mean, we had been bracing to the SABC all along and we would finally have something of our own.

Yes, fairly enough, the station did start off well. We had daily news at 1900hrs, What's the Score? entertaining us every Friday and dishing out gig guides, Sedibeng Talkshow came in and countless others like the deteriorated Flavor Dome and Mokaragana Music show. It was merry days. Fun galore; literally! Personalities like Bonnie Dintwa, Gloria Kgosi, Gregg Losibe and Tony Tabona were born off these shows. It was a very good start. Excellent start indeed.

Then something went wrong. Horribly wrong.

Mokaragana lost sponsors and had a change of stages until it settled for the old set you see today. Flavor Dome lost Coca-Cola as well and remains with a 1990s set that is just so embarrassing. They continue to play the same songs over and over again when a stack of  local videos sit somewhere in the Mass Media Complex. Shame.
Sedibeng held on and continues to grow. Remarkable.
The BTV news center. Well, the news are a little left behind with moving times. They source news from the Internet and lack personnel in their own territory. I mean, just recently, there were complaints about lack of news reporters in the northern parts of the country, which was being served by one reporter, who doubled as a cameraman. Embarrassing, I must say, for the third if not second leading economy in Africa.
New shows came and went. BTV could not sustain a lot of creative and innovative shows locally produced. The Clover Game Show, for one. It came and poof! It was gone. But at least it managed to put Vee and that co-presenter girl on the map some more.  They lost more of the shows they had started. Diacha sadly fell on the list. Lots others did too.
Local shows are made and the station fails to commission them. Next thing you know, they are buying Korean dramas and old, Australian and Canadian shows like the disgraced Degrassi. Shame.

For as far as the looms of our government stations go, I could literally sit here in front of my iPad and list them the whole day. From shaky cameras to unproffesionalism in the editing team, The few listed are a fair explanation that BTV is the major setback in this country's entertainment arena. Someone needs a boot from Mr. Ian Khama soon!

Good day.