Africa's Satellite Effect.(satellite television and reality shows)(Industry Overview)

The South African version of "Big Brother" recently scored a reality-TV first when two contestants were filmed bonking under a blanket. But its real pioneering significance lies outside the sheets. It's one of the first shows produced by Africans to become a phenomenon in Africa. Now in its third season, the series has spawned fan clubs from Botswana to Ghana. Viewers, who pick the winner, send in votes from all over the continent. The show is so popular in Uganda that it reportedly bumps state news in the Parliament's cafeteria. Popular contestants have toured Africa, drawing throngs of fans from Namibia to Nigeria.

The sensation was made possible by new networks pushing to reach across Africa, aided by the arrival of satellite technology. Africans have long had access to foreign TV (from CNN to "The Sopranos") or local programs, but not to TV from their neighbors. In the early 1990s, the South African partnership of M-Net and MultiChoice began the first homegrown satellite broadcasts to reach all of English-speaking Africa. With its path eased by falling state barriers to private broadcasters, the partnership now operates in 50 African and adjacent island countries, and has spawned at least two rivals, TV Africa and a new network launched by the venerable South African Broadcasting Corporation. The increase of these networks has aroused hopes that satellite TV can foster a new sense of cultural unity on a warring continent, and a tremor of anxiety at the rising power of South Africans in the region.

Both reactions may be premature. The networks say their audience is growing 10 percent a year and has an increasing thirst for African stars and themes. M-Net and its rivals have been screening more and more African-made shows. But only 4 percent of Africa's 900 million people own televisions, although many more have access to TV in private homes, and very few can pay for a satellite dish (which starts at $200) or a monthly subscription. So the networks also rely on ad revenue and broadcast free to an audience they say is greatly increased by those who watch a communal TV. "We believe that half-an-hour-a-day highlights of 'Big Brother Africa,' which we're screening free-to-air in 10 countries, are reaching 20 million people," says Carl Fischer, head of the M-Net team that produces "Big Brother."

The new broadcasts are ...