 Welcome back, and we are here today to give you experience at the Kenya Film International and TV Market. So, lucky enough to have a special guest, Esther Mukima, Kimani Head of Content, Vyu Sasa, maybe to share with us the experience and maybe the idea and why they are here at Kenya Film Commission today. Hi Esther, how are you? Hi, fine, thank you, how are you? How are you? First of all, thank you, how are you? So maybe to share the experience you've been having for so long. As you know, Vyu Sasa is the only local video and demand platform, or rather the first one within the region. And we are backed by our heritage, which is Royal Media Services. We have 14 radio stations, 3 TV stations, so for sure, for sure we had to come to support KALASHA, to be part of KALASHA. But one of the key things that we are mandated to do as Vyu Sasa is to grow the industry, the local industry in terms of local content. We bring in a lot of international content as a region, but then we don't grow our own hub. So we need to grow our own hub and have our own very own nollywood or what we have in Tanzania. So that's the work that we predominantly need to do and that's why we are here, to meet with producers, editors, video editors, actors, digital producers and everyone else just to understand what's the pain point and where can we come in. Why are we missing out as local creators? One of our biggest problems has been scripts. We sort of very well, we do a season, the scripts are fantastic, by second season we are struggling with the scripts. So I think one of the things that we need to really invest in is scripting and then the cost of production also we need to look at it. And this is not just for producers but also for the government. I know this is a government function and I really hope they will start looking at it from a point of view if I want to shoot in Rungai, I don't need to go and get a license from Kajiyado County. If I want to go and shoot in Nakuru, I then have to go and speak to the Nakuru County. Why can they have a unified license where I pay a one of license for the whole year and I can shoot wherever. So it becomes very expensive for us to shoot locally as producer, at this point I speak as a producer. I want to shoot and show the beauty of this country but going to Mombasa, I will first spend a lot of money going to Mombasa, then I will have to pay permits after permits after permits. And it depends who is the accounting officer at that point to decide whether they are giving me a permit, how much they are charging me. So I think that's another key area that we need to look at and to just also look at how do we partner and produce more content as broadcasters. What are some of the solutions that you think we need to embrace when it comes to that point that you say about content production from one area to the other? I think one of the things we need to embrace and the solution would be for us to produce at a very low cost, number one, but more importantly to also engage the government. One of the things I've always asked and advocated for is government advertising should be given based on the local content that you have. So if a station has 40% local content then they should get that 40% of advertising, if they do 60% they should get 50% advertising. So you find a station probably has only 5% of local content but they get the most money for government advertising. Then how are you building the industry? So how about the funding because you've just said something about marketing only. How about the funding that the government is supposed to give to that goes to the film production in Kenya? I honestly don't think we are well organized as producers and I speak as a producer to be able to get funding because if we are well organized and I know a couple of my friends who've been very well organized and they've been part time. It's not even registered that if I go to a bank they can give me funding. If we go to the government bodies to kiaenda Natumbili to naza kupigena Natumbili. We need to form an association where we are all friends and we know what we are pushing for as an organization. So my name is Tumbili, I do content and I am a big follower of View Sasa. I can say when View Sasa started, it started as a platform where me personally I was calling it the Kenyan YouTube. I don't know if it was right for me to call it the Kenyan YouTube because we were trying to push for our contents to be watched on View Sasa. We can say we are some of the people who started but I only have View Sasa. Even people who didn't know about View Sasa, they were like yo, bani View Sasa kuna ni ni. Because we were pushing every of our content to be watched on View Sasa. But right now I've seen it as scattered to like you are doing like everything, someone wants to buy power View Sasa. How did it transition to? So the platform started as an OTT platform where it was a VOD platform for content. But over time we've realized if you look at a normal Kenyan they have two or three apps only. So you need to make your app to become a marketplace. So our app has become a marketplace where you can come and do virtually everything and that's the plan we have. Remember we have the biggest consumer base. Why would we then tell you come and watch content here and we are giving you advertising but you are not able to pay the power of the advertising you've watched. So we opened it up to become a marketplace. But when you come in you are able to do very many other things within the ecosystem and it moves away from just being a video and demand platform to being a marketplace. If you look at Google or at Amazon, Amazon started as an e-commerce platform. Now they have Amazon Prime, they have a pharmacy, they have all these other things around them and that's what we need to do as a country to be a place that is within the East Africa region. So why don't we then set the pace for everyone else and then they can run that with Watanga as Kenyans. But we need to set the pace for East Africa. We're just asking this question. I've seen it online. We have great creative minds. We have the likes of Kina Bhutita. We have the likes of Kyoko, the comedian. They're producing a cartoon, they're producing a short series. They're doing very well on YouTube and Facebook. I don't know if you guys have had plans maybe just to reach out to them so that at least they can earn something from that because at the end they won't reach to that level if you guys cannot support them. Yes, yes, yes. The platform is open to anyone and everyone and especially to the content producers within the region. I know COVID came and disrupted quite a number of things but now we are back into production. We are back into looking for content and soliciting for content. And hence the reason ViewSasa is here because we want to solicit for content from everyone within the region. So if you can all make money, you know, tu likuja na aerobik fanyani ni traftashi lingi nizi ni shambaya mawe. So tu likuja na aerobik traftashi lingi even within the counties, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kisi, Kaka-Mega we are going machinani to also get the content. Okay, you think it was the issue of what you gave to the content creators? Is it the issue of maybe the split sheet? Is it the issue of the percentage? Is it the issue of owning the content? Because I don't understand why. Initially, and I know that was a big problem, the revenue share was 60-40 with 40 percent to the content providers but we have since now shifted it to 60 percent to the content providers. So the content providers keep 60 percent and the reason we are doing that is to encourage more and more people to produce and make money out of it. So what you are doing is to slowly start reaching out to the content providers and to tell them that, hey, there's a platform where we can put in your content, advertise it and you make 60 percent of that revenue. So I have a question. What can you do as a view sasa to divert the content creators in Kenya who are uploading, who are doing YouTube because to some point YouTube is becoming like whatever the content creators are ending up whatever is ending up in their pocket to some point is so little because of the taxation in America taxation in Kenya to some point so many of them are losing hope doing YouTube. So as view sasa because to me I can say maybe view sasa is second after YouTube in the platforms that Kenyan content creators are seeing as a hope to have their content what are you like do you have any strategy to capture the people who are losing hope and they were doing well on YouTube to have the content on your platform and number two do you have like a option where someone can upload their own content without knocking your doors just like YouTube Like me, I can say that I have uploaded my content directly to view sasa and third our consumers to some point were complaining why should I pay 10 shillings to watch, to build this content on view sasa and then I will get the data And the first point is free So just to add on his question the solution that you are providing that I want to upload my content on YouTube and I prefer to upload it on view sasa Okay so we start with subscription One of the reasons we have subscription is because this is curated content So I will go to view sasa and then I will go to watch curated their tumili Haena advertising If you start doing advertising then you start finding you are using data but a lot of that data goes into advertising and that's where now the money comes from for the one that pays you on YouTube but hence the reason why we have a subscription based platform where you pay there is no advertising you watch what you need to watch at whatever time and if you stop watching it tomorrow you will find it where it was you don't have to keep coming to search for it and then it also now helps us to pay the content providers So if tumili comes and pays 10 shillings and watches your content tumili will you will get 6 shillings out of the 10 shillings so you see that is for helping also create the economy and grow the economy hence the reason for subscription and to watch any content now on any OTT platform including YouTube you need to have data but yes we've had that cry and one of the things we've done is to partner with Safari Club and created what we call data pass so you come onto the platform you buy a data combined with subscription you watch your content and then you continue with your life but already it is ingrained within there subscription and the data is in one pack so we are trying to lower the cost and also bundle it together with data so that is one thing the other question was maybe the war between I call it a war maybe between YouTube and so we are very soon we've had something we've called expression for the longest time where you upload your own content we have since just migrated our app to sit within Kenya one of the things we've also done other than for content providers is to create a platform for developers to be able to develop the app so Vsasa is fully developed in Kenya and managed in Kenya so one of the things we've developed and we've enhanced is to be able to self upload so in the next two or three weeks you'll be able to self upload your own content and put it up onto the platform without coming to us all you do is once you self upload we reach out to you and we tell you this is how you set up your account in the backend and you get your dashboard and you're able to now see five people came and watched this is the money I get you send us a we send your statement by the end of the month you invoice us and within 15 days of invoicing we pay you immediately yes okay just to ask maybe a question we have very upcoming script writers, directors, producers in our university and colleges I don't think we have plans maybe financial plans maybe to mentor them have them on board maybe to have an extreme program with them because at the end some of them are missing out because they've produced I believe they've produced film and series in colleges so for colleges and high schools we have what we call school flicks I'm sure you've seen it where you have students producing from as little as kindergarten so we have school flicks we've partnered with the ministry of education and we've put that content up and most importantly we've also gone to the universities themselves and told them there's already this platform give us your content and let's put it on the platform over and above that yes we are we're still a very small organization but over and above that we partner with the universities to give us one or two people to come in for internship to work with us we really try not to produce so that we allow the content providers to produce for us but once in a while when we're producing an exclusive show we work with them in terms of scripting we help them to script and then they go out and produce yes Are you being selective on the type of content you want to be on the platform? No, we're not selective the only thing we ask for family-friendly content remember who our parent is citizen is known for family-friendly content so whatever kind of content as long as it is palatable from 0 to 99 to 100 years it is welcome onto the platform amazing thank you so much me and I think I'm really Tunesa Watchpa TV yes yes so one of the reasons say we brought Viewsasa home you know the way they said Empesa has come home the reason we brought Viewsasa home was to be able to create those experiences so when you're having an app that is developed in the US or is in developed in India some of the TV stations like Vitron the TV sets we have like Vitron are not in those countries so they are not able to then carry our app so now what we've done we've brought Viewsasa Numbani and we've now started creating apps that can sit on any kind of home from high end to low end we've also created an app for the TV and we're also introducing what you're calling a USSD I'm sure you've seen Sa487 it is to also introduce a USSD for people to be able to watch the content go on to 487 and get into the websites yeah so you also do like artists the way they upload the way they upload their songs on YouTube yes you also have an option where I can do my songs and upload them on Viewsasa on Viewsasa and as you all know Viewsasa and Skiza we have Skiza for Citizen as well which is still part of our family so we are really trying to be consistent to make sure that we have a platform for all our of all our content providers yes from musicians to video content providers so Malizia you mind quality quality of the tools and upload you no what happens is and I've seen it over time we start people bringing a bit of us they're starting off the quality is a bit low but as they go they graduate into growing the quality and you see what matters most times look at Nollywood sometimes the content is not the quality is not so high end but the script is rich the joke is rich so people will still watch and laugh about it so what matters is what is the content within that what you've given us to add on to that since the content that someone use sometimes we didn't want to consider the type of quality that is being released do you sometimes get to approach these people and tell them we're going to fund you for the production of these scripts that you have because we have seen the script is very unique and we would want to partner with you guys you sometimes collaborate so we're not funding yet we're trying to get into a partnership with equity to fund content providers so we are as you know RMS is in a partnership with equity so we're also trying to see how do we then partner with them to provide funding for producers yes thank you so much I hope to see you again thanks for your time for inspiration awards and good bless you thank you for having me