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Television Access and Use in Sierra Leone

While the radio industry in Liberia has thrived since the end of Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war, the television market has stagnated. Poverty continues to be TV’s largest barrier to growth. The majority of Sierra Leoneans living under the poverty line can neither afford the cost of a television set nor the goods that may be advertised on television. [1] This is not a conducive environment for media investors.

Overall, only about 5 percent of Sierra Leoneans surveyed said they have home access to a television. A little over three quarters of those that do have a TV at home, use an external antenna. The remainder said they have a satellite dish.

TV access and viewership is highly dependent on income level; only about 5 percent of low-income respondents (the largest income group by far) watches TV regularly (weekly), while 40 percent of high-income earners do so. Affluent residents are at an advantage as they can afford generators to power their homes or they reside in urban areas such as Freetown or Bo where electricity is somewhat more reliable. Only about 8 percent of respondents reported having access to the national electrical grid.

Chart 1

The vast majority of Sierra Leoneans have never watched television (84 percent, according to the 2008 survey). Of those who have watched television, the most popular place to do so was at a friend’s or neighbor’s house, followed by their own home or at a community center. The frequency of individuals watching TV outside the home helps to explain the gap between home access (5 percent) and weekly TV viewership (9 percent).

Chart 2

There are currently eight registered television broadcasters, but only two are broadcasting a signal: the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS, soon to be Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation) and ABC TV, neither with national reach.  [2] ABC-TV, Sierra Leone’s first independent TV station, is based in Freetown, but its signal is confined to the city. Only until about 2006 could the SLBS-TV signal be reached outside of Freetown. The channel now transmits to the Southern provincial town of Bo and Kenema in the Eastern province. Both ABC-TV and the SLBS have historically rebroadcast international content. In news coverage, while the SLBS has tended to concentrate on politics within Sierra Leone, ABC-TV has a more pan-African or international perspective.[3]

RTG, the Guinean national service, is also viewable by a small percentage of the population. In addition, the DSTV or MultiChoice service, a satellite TV service providing a bouquet of channels, is used by a small percentage of the population. For more information about television outlets see our Media Outlet Matrix.

[1] According to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2009 Human Development Report, 53.4 percent of Sierra Leoneans live under the $1.25 a day poverty line and 76.3 percent live under the $2.00 a day poverty line. “Human Development Reports”. United Nations Development Programme.

[2] “Facts & Figures”. Independent Media Commission. Freetown, Sierra Leone. Accessed January 2010. http://www.imc-sl.org/FactsFigures/tabid/56/Default.aspx.

[3] “Sierra Leone: Television”. African Media Development Initiative. BBC World Service Trust. Accessed January 2010. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/AMDI/sierra_leone/amdi_sl6_television.pdf. and “ABC-Television: About Use”. ABC-Africa Media Group Ltd. Accessed January 2010. http://www.abc-africa.com/aboutus.html.