Anthony Dara’s baby-face and youthful appearance contrast with his larger-than-life dream, which has come true. The vision is NN24 (NETWORKNEWS). Introduced to this reporter in the compact and tastefully structured premises of the budding media company in Oregun, Lagos, the polite and sprightly Dara, spotting a short-sleeve shirt over a pair of trousers, spoke animatedly about his new outfit tagged “a next generation Nigerian media company.”
The outfit, according to Dara who is in his early thirties, “aspires to be the leader in the Nigerian media industry for concise and reliable television news, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week.” To achieve the goal, NN24 has an affiliate-partnership deal with CNN International, a primary-distribution-platform deal with DStv, a news-content deal with Reuters and a multi-year-advertising deal with MediaCom.
The TV channel was on test run for a month from the 15
th of March till the middle of April to select viewers on a very familiar digital satellite platform. Dara said his father was on air during the test transmission. The elderly man, overwhelmed with emotion at the success of his son, wept on air. Dara explained the outlook of his outfit, “We have a three-year plan to plant ourselves in the market in the minds of the people. We want to establish our credentials, establish our unique position and build leadership from there. We are aspiring to be the premium national TV news channel. In terms of branding, if you talk about SKY, you think British; if you talk about CNN, you think United States of America. NN4 is an African concept with global outreach. We see ourselves as trying to reinvent the industry in Africa.”
Dara who has been in broadcasting for 18 years started as an intern at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in 1994 and became an employee in 1996. He recalled, “I had a very good working relationship in such a way that the cluster and groups we worked in within the Engineering Directorate were always interchanging. So I worked with a lot of diverse personalities at given occasions.” The first of six siblings, he has one sister and four brothers. His early education took him to several places. “It was quite up and down in the sense that my dad was a teacher and at some point a principal of secondary schools; and every time he got transferred, we moved.” He had his primary education in Niger State – Minna, Kontagora – and then in Abuja. He later attended Federal Government College, Kwalie and JSS Garki, and completed his secondary education in 1991. At the Kaduna Polytechnic, he did a Diploma programme, and later earned a Higher National Diploma (HND).
It was in between studies at Kaduna that he worked with the NTA. He said: “This really made my schooling very interesting because I had real-life experience in the workplace in addition to my academic experience. “
After his HND, he went back to NTA, and then got an opportunity to study in the UK. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in Broadcast Technology from De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. In his third year in the university, he had a stint with ITV 1 in Birmingham, and completed his course in 2005. He joined Bloomberg TV in London for three months, and said he resigned based on some personal reasons. He then got a job with Snell and Wilcox Limited, a world leading TV broadcast equipment manufacturer as a service engineer. This, he said, “was an icing for me in the sense that the company produces TV broadcast equipment and being a broadcast engineer I recognized the name because these were some of the equipment I used in the experiments I carried out in the university, in my workplace in Nigeria. When I got in there, truly, truly, I saw technology as I should have. It crowned my experience in its totality because I went through the gamut of the process from the schematic and the concept of your thinking to the design, the production, the text, the delivery to the customer, the commissioning.”
With this background, he was well equipped to dream. When asked to talk about when it occurred to him to become an entrepreneur in the broadcast business, he said: “I was a reluctant entrepreneur at the beginning because I used to think I couldn’t do such a thing. But on the other hand, I realized that entrepreneurs come in two forms: Those who do things for themselves, that is, think of an idea and work through it; and those who wait to have contracts from either government or established enterprises. I might have tried the latter I just mentioned but I realized I didn’t have the heart to wait on anyone to sign a cheque or voucher, and to go through to see a PA (Personal Assistant) of one Director or the other, and so on. And I just said to myself, this wasn’t for me. I couldn’t do things that I had no control over. So, I didn’t see the need of going that way. So, to me it was a non-starter from the outset. To be an entrepreneur one has to be imbued with the ‘can do’ spirit. So, if I can do for myself with my hands, with my brain, why can’t I commercialize it?
“And I think at some point I’ve spent time teaching and coaching people and I’ve earned quite a bit of money from it. It was something I did more or less like a hobby. But I had to say to myself I could do more than that. I could fully produce with my very strong technical background where production is a process. If you go in to do any technical course either in engineering or technology, what you basically learn is how to do things or how to produce. And when you are effective in your production you have earned result. You have products. And I said to myself, I should go into commercialization to sell the end product. And interestingly, God has put it in my heart and given me talent to be in broadcasting. And I said to myself, let’s produce the content and let’s see how we can either get it sold or sponsored. That is why we have NN24 today.”
His story of how he went about raising funds for the project is an engaging one: “When I spoke with my consultant who happens to be a friend of mine, he said to me : ‘I know someone who can help you and that person is Kenneth Tiven, a former Vice President of Cable News Network (CNN).’ We got introduced and I spoke with Ken and he said to me, Tony you need about10 million dollars. And this was in 2005 when the plans were now in my hand to do it. I said okay, we’d see. In a very unusual confident manner, I said it’s very possible, only because I thought I was going to establish it in the United Kingdom where I would make attempt to access entrepreneurial funds and all that. But somebody said to me, if it’s going to be an African channel, the success must be from the source. My staying abroad to establish the company in the UK would have meant operating from my house and partially in my accountant’s office. And I felt to raise funds in Nigeria would be a huge task.
“But interestingly, I had been on the mailing list of Price Waterhouse and Cooper Media Entertainment Newsletter circulated quarterly. One edition came into my inbox and I read through it. In it they talked about the expansion of media entertainment, and so on. I said, well, let me send these guys an e-mail. And I did. The following day I got an e-mail back from them, saying I should come, they would like to meet me. I went there with my friend.
And they said, oh, they had a meeting yesterday and we were thinking about media in Africa and we felt Africa needs good media, and we saw your e-mail. So we are interested in seeing you. But they were really shocked because they probably thought I would come with a bag or a suitcase filled with money. They were presumptuous I would be that kind of person. But when they saw me, they said humph, what do we do now? We eventually had a short meeting. They told me about Aljazeera and how much the Emir of Qatar had put into it at that point in time, 2007. It came up to about 100 million dollars and he hadn’t earned a penny.
“They wondered how mine was going to be possible. But somehow, when I left, I sent them the business plan I had. They looked at it and said, well, it looks quite feasible in that I had a plan that was going to be based on a shoestring budget. They had thought my proposal was going to be patterned after the BBC model where you have to buy heavy equipment to be seen to be big at that time. In terms of broadcast infrastructure, BBC has perhaps 50 percent of the world’s inventory. I’m not exaggerating. So that model was not good. It was not going to be realistic. But Ken Tiven who had 40 years plus of experience in building TV channels said to me we could do this on a shoestring budget. He said that we could even do it for $900,000 if the parameters are right because the key thing you have to think about is training. The argument was that even if, for example, you give a medical doctor the best stethoscope, it won’t make him a good one except he is well trained.”
So adopting that outlook brought the project cost down considerably. Dara then had to figure out how to raise the money. Explaining how he did it, he said: “If you are able to ascertain how much a company is worth, with a bit of marketing of yourself and the idea, you’ll find people who would say to you, look, I’ll help you build this to this point. How it works out is left for you to figure out. In summary, what I did was to look at the value of the company, I took a slice of it and I told prospective investors, if you participate in this small chunk, this is what you’ll get in return for the money you invest for me to use to build up the bone of the company. It is just like laying a foundation. If you prepare a piece of land and you sell as is, you can only sell it for that value. If there is a foundation on it, the value increases. If there is a building on it, the value increases further. If there a roof on it, much more value has been added. If it’s a completed, it’s a different ball game. That was how I was able to build up the value from one point to the other and I was able to raise considerable amount of money to start the project and get it to this point.”
Dara had no physical structure in place when he started shopping for funds. He recalled: “I was just going about with a rucksack on my back, containing my laptop as well as a bunch of papers.” Dara said he knew the uphill task he was up against. “It is really interesting I’m now able to tell the story. At every point when I ask people to speak on my behalf, those to be spoken to would say, no, I want to speak to you first, if I’m convinced, then we’ll do it.’ When I approached Future View, an investment company, I was taken to see Mrs. Elizabeth Ebi. She said she had just 15 minutes to spend with me. But by the time I finished, we had spent about 45 minutes, because she wanted to hear from me so that she could pick the level of my commitment to the project. And all of a sudden, she was enthralled and we talked and talked about it.”
Along the line, Dara also succeeded in getting one of the biggest personalities and outfits in advertising and marketing to buy into the dream; these were the guru, Biodun Sobanjo, and his conglomerate, the Troyka Group. Dara said the development was dramatic. He narrated: “My contact at Price Waterhouse asked me if I understood the media market in Nigeria. I said, no. He took it upon himself personally to do some research. He came up with the name Biodun Sobanjo and he asked me if I knew him. I said no. He asked me to read up about him. I read an article about him titled the Doyen of Advertising Media Marketing in Nigeria. I said, ‘Wow! I’d like to meet this man.’
In the process of pushing the project, I met Dan Agbese (the veteran Newswatch magazine journalist) who has been very pivotal in the realization of my dream for facilitating our being accommodated in this premises (following a long lease arrangement) of the newsmagazine. But beyond that, he also tried in his own way to help me make contact with people who would be interested in funding this project. So, I called Mr. Agbese and said to him, “Do you by any chance know Mr. Biodun Sobanjo?” He said, yes. I said please, he’s been highly recommended for me to meet if I want the project to work. He said okay, he would speak with him and let’s see how it goes. He then spoke with Mr. Sobanjo.
“I was in Nigeria that day. I came on holiday. I was in Makurdi to see my in-laws. And I got a call from Mr. Sobanjo. I was like, this can’t be true. He said, ‘I’m Mr. Sobanjo. Dan Agbese said I should speak with you.’ I told him about the idea. He said I should send him an email. I did. And truly, I thought that was the end of the story. I was checking my email later and I saw his comment. He said the idea is good and he would pass it to one of his companies, Mediacom, and they would speak with me. Now, this man I must say was quite pivotal because he only saw the idea on paper and in my next conversation with him, I think he understood I was shocked about his response. He said to me, ‘Tony there is no business that is small or big. This is how we all started. He gave me the confidence that I was in the right hands. And I had a meeting with Dr. Kenny … the CEO of Mediacom and his team. They told me, ‘If you say you are going to do this, it has to be different from what is already in the market. We don’t see why we cannot be part of the project by supporting you to sell what you have. That was part of how the horizon opened. They got involved with me from the onset.” They got involved with me from the outset.”
Dara said obtaining an operating license from the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was not difficult. “You can confirm this at NBC. At the end of our presentation there, I remember a member of their staff came up to me and said since he had been there, our presentation had been the best so far. We had the content plan, the business plan, the financial plan, the technology plan as well as the personnel plan. We had the five key elements taken care of before we made our presentation at the NBC. We did our home work very well. Our meeting with them was a mere formality. I remember a member of the panel saying, ‘We are happy with what you did and your license had gone through.”
In December 2008, Dara and his associate, Ken Tiven, coined a term in an advert to recruit personnel: Talent Hunt for Visioneers. The portmanteau word, Visioneers, was coined from the terms – vision and engineering. He said he remembered his dad trying to look up the meaning of the word in the dictionary. In response to the advert, they had about 4,000 applicants. “The idea was that whether you are a mechanic, as far as you have a university degree or HND you are eligible. We want people who know something else rather than the conventional Mass Communications graduates. Now, we have on our staff, engineers, accountants, medical personnel etc. Once we realize you have something that was super and unique to you professionally, we just like you and we take you.”
Dara said they took time to attract applicants from across the nation. According to him, “You find out that there is national diversity. The recruitment exercise followed due process. We are equal opportunity employers. I remember during the interview sessions, I was very particular about not having my family members who are not qualified applying. I wasn’t going to take consideration in that regard. As a matter of fact, a cousin of mine who came for the interview was really grilled. We were pursuing excellence. The recruitment took about four weeks because I read through every CV. We shortlisted the number of applicants to 350 people and we employed about a 100 people.”
Assessing the state of broadcasting in Nigeria today, he said it’s a bit disappointing after 50 years of broadcasting. His assessment: “The quality of broadcasting is not commensurate with the level of awareness in this country. But it is a huge opportunity with the opening up of telecommunications and the convergence of communications. Broadcasting will play a key role in the development of this country socially, most especially, if we harness it. But we are not really doing much, perhaps due to constraints based on the financial climate of this country. Broadcasting has a huge potential that is not quantifiable. This is the human angle. It is creativity-based and very intellectual. And that is why those who have made huge investments have not made much impact. Truly speaking, it is not all about money. It is just about what is in the brain and the skills of the people. Perhaps we might say let’s go back to the basics and train people up and that will improve broadcasting. I won’t advocate investment in equipment as such without really taking the full stock of what you have and what is coming ahead. Technology is ever changing. A camera today becomes obsolete tomorrow. Just last year we bought cameras that were using small tapes, DG tapes. But now DG tapes are disappearing. Now, we have SD Chips that can take 64 gigabytes of content. So we have to focus on human capital. Without training, it is impossible for our broadcasting to move forward no matter how much investment you put into it.”
Talking about his role models, he said he admires Ted Turner a lot for his feat. He stated: “I like his kind of business acumen. He seems to be a very gentleman but very effective. I think that’s the difference between him and Rupert Murdoch who wants to buy up every media house on the street of his house. Ted Turner is more or less a creator. He is also a thinker like Bill Gate whom I also admire. I also admire Richard Burton who will keep knocking at doors until the door receives the last knock and is shattered.” He noted that Burton has been able to retain the copyrights of his brands unlike Turner who unwittingly lost his creator’s right to CNN. In Nigeria, Biodun Sobanjo fascinates him. “After I’ve read about him and about the uphill task he had to face as well as the passionate belief in what he was doing, I was amazed. And of course, I also admire Fola Adeola who said he wanted to change the face of banking along with his friends and they did. These are the role models of our time. Their success stories are not that of father to son but from themselves to themselves. We need to deemphasize the tendency to expect patronage. It is very important that as an individual you set out, saying, okay, I’m Tony Dara, son of Mr. Solomon Dara, I’m taking my own destiny in my own hands to achieve whatever I want to.”
The profit motive
Yet from a business point of view, Mr Dara believes that NN24 is absolutely worthwhile. There has been a need to readjust early projections; the idea that the company can earn 20million dollars a year through appropriate pricing of adverts. But all said, he thinks the company can break even in 18 months flat. “Right from the beginning, my team and I had to determine that this was going to be a worthwhile venture in terms of profitability otherwise it would have been a no no,” he said.
Mr. Dara is a young man and until 2005 he was studying for his B.SC in broadcast technology. This is his first real business venture, so he calls himself a business rookie. But he does his homework. “I interviewed a number of marketing firms. One of them even said our old assumption of S20million annual earnings is quite realistic. Because looking at the media bar in Nigeria, our value is about five per cent of the sector. They said, ‘If you are projecting 20million annually, we can definitely help you earn four million.’ In other words, we can afford to make another four million because we own the product. So if we have spent 8million dollars in running the company, we project that in one and half years, we will cover the cost. So we are quite goal oriented.”
But who are the other members of this team, the ones who own the money, the “deep pockets?” “I cannot give you names,” says Mr Dara almost apologetically. “But it is like this. A man owns an empty parcel of land. One day…” And he launches into another story.
NN24 is on air from Monday May 3, 2010 on DStv Channel 414.