Tunisia’s first private TV station greets a lukewarm public

Seated in his lavish office, the owner of Hannibal TV, Larbi Nasra, seems oblivious to criticism of the first private television station in Tunisia. “We started with no concept, no program, and no technicians,” he says, as if justifying the station’s lackluster performance.
One of its critics is Hassen Zargouni, owner and CEO of Sigma Conseil, the research firm hired by Nasra to track the performance of his station. “Hannibal TV is a big disappointment,” says Zargouni. Hailed as the first private sector venture in Tunisian television, Hannibal failed to live up to expectations. Tunisians may have wanted local programming, says Zargouni, but the programs produced by Hannibal don’t address Tunisian society’s concerns. “In the end we have nothing: no programs, no ads, and a barely surviving channel. That’s a pity.”
Could it be that expectations for the channel were simply pitched too high? Only one day before Hannibal TV’s launch in January 2005, over 80 percent of Tunisians were ready and eager to tune into the new station, according to Zargouni. Many seemed to assume that it would enjoy the same level of success as the first private radio station, Mosaique, which was launched in November of 2003 and today commands up to 60 percent of Tunisia’s radio audience. However, in the case of Hannibal TV, it was not long before disappointment set in.
Soon after its launch, it became evident that Hannibal TV would not be able to capture more than a five percent audience share. The new station was unable to compete with the state-owned Channel Seven, which had tripled its share of the advertising market in just a few months. Hannibal’s performance, in comparison, was abysmal. A survey conducted by Sigma showed that in March 2006, advertisers invested approximately $2.7 million in Channel Seven compared to a mere $150,000 in Hannibal TV.

Tunisian Media: a state-controlled organ
The station, say critics, could probably fare better if it had a credible newscast, rather than just a deferential daily report of presidential protocol visits. That would be asking too much, says a smiling Fouad Benhalla, Director of HMI, an advertising agency for the Middle East and North Africa. Tunisian media, he points out, is heavily controlled by the state, and “there is no freedom of expression.” Were Hannibal TV to have a newscast, it would be no different from that of state television. In its report last year on Tunisian journalists, Reporters Without Borders concluded that freedom of expression is absent in Tunisia, and that an atmosphere of “no politics please” prevails. In addition the government imposes heavy fines, restrictions, harassment, and imprisonment of journalists, according to the report.
Nasra denies that it is a matter of freedom, citing cost instead. “News programs cost a lot and we can’t afford them.” Moreover, he says, in a market where there are “news giants like Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, you either have the means to compete and prove yourself or you just remain silent.” But statistics show that Tunisians have lost interest in news. Sigma Conseil research indicates that only 13 percent of the population watches any news, compared to the 70 percent that watch French game shows and Tunisian dramas.

Impact on local productions
The disappointment over Hannibal weighs heavily on producer Nabil Ayyad. The white haired producer and owner of a production house is very unhappy with this turn of events, which he believes might impact negatively on the industry.
“Tunisian TV production already had little external or internal credibility, and then along came this Hannibal issue to destroy what was left,” he says with a smile.
Ayyad had pinned his hopes on the station helping to save the industry by creating demand for local series. The state-owned Channel Seven devotes only about 50 hours a year to dramatic series, preferring instead, says Ayyad, to run propaganda material for the government. “The government just doesn’t understand the industry,” he says.
Not all Tunisian producers shared Ayyad’s early optimism for Hannibal. Ahmad Attie, producer of the award-winning feature movie Samt El Qoussour says he saw it coming. “The market for Tunisian productions is very limited, and one television station was just not going to make a difference.”
Ironically, Zouhair Al Qambari, the manager of Channel Seven appears optimistic about Hannibal TV. “The station was launched after the authorities saw the necessity of opening up broadcasting to the private sector in November 2003,” he says. As Hannibal TV continues to broadcast, there are hopes that new programming will breathe fresh life into it. Qambari believes that Hannibal TV pushed Channel Seven to make more of an effort to keep viewers and compete for advertising. Ayyad, however, doesn’t see any real competition in the TV market as yet. For the moment, he sees Hannibal’s presence as negligible, while the state-owned channels aren’t motivated by competition or profits since their target is the local population, which leaves them, he says, never having to aspire to credible existence beyond Tunisia.

A new private channel could alter the status-quo
Salvation for the market and the viewing pleasure of the locals could come in the guise of a new station backed by Tarak Ben Ammar, owner of Ben Ammar's Quinta Communications, and a number of channels in Italy and France. His plan is to launch TT1, a Tunisian-based TV channel for Tunisians, with select international partners, such as private French channel TF1. The project has been thoroughly researched although feasibility studies conducted by Sigma concluded that it might not be profitable to launch a station at this time. “Ben Ammar saw that the project would cost him $30 million, and that he might have only $10 to $15 million from ads in return,” says Zargouni. The study made him change his mind; however, with the recent success of SMS revenues in the industry, the project might be reconsidered, he adds.
Given the reality of state control of the media, just how much could this new channel improve the situation? To date, the first private channel failed to provide a solution and privatization ended up being a burden on the industry. Now the ball is in the government’s court. HMI’s Benhalla believes that “liberty and diversity are absent in Tunisia, which pushed Tunisians to watch more foreign stations.” Calling for privatization may have been a first step in liberalizing the media but the government may need to do plenty more if it wants the television sector to flourish.

Stations Advertising income
as per rate card for March 2006
Tunis 7
3,692,517 TD ($ 2,737,654)
Hannibal
200,222 TD ($ 148,467)
Radio Mosaique
544,712 TD ($ 403,909)