Waldheim Shiluwa is not the sort of person who attracts attention to himself. Happily married, and the father of three daughters, he comes across as quiet and thoughtful. The calm demeanour belies the frenetic pace and frantic demands of his career though.

After three years’ formal and practical training in marketing at BMW’s head office in Munich, Shiluwa’s subsequent career choices did not indicate his rapid rise to the position of a director of Namibia’s first free-to-air commercial television station at the relatively young age of 33. But after stints with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the UN, he returned to Namibia in search of a challenge. One Africa Television was his choice.

In this interview with Pierre Mare, Waldheim Shiluwa talks candidly about his choices, the challenges facing Namibia’s television industry and One Africa Television.

Pierre Mare: The leap from public service to the private sector involves a major paradigm shift. Why change to television?
I was with the UN as an Assistant Regional Coordinator for the Environmental Programme, dealing with mainly English, but also French speaking Africa. The position is renewed on a two year contract basis. My contract was renewed, but when it came up for renewal yet again, I decided to see what challenges I could find in Namibia. One Africa Television presented itself and was exciting. I loved the thinking behind developing a television station, being at the forefront of a new company and the vision of Namibia’s first commercial, free-to-air television station.

PM: Did you have any particular affinity for television at that stage?
WS: No, not particularly, just the challenge. I was aware of television as a marketing platform from my training in Munich, and I liked watching TV when growing up in Germany. But One Africa has been a major learning curve. There is far more to the position that watching television. I’m living the business reality.

PM: The first impressions that One Africa Television’s offices give is of a tight operation with a very small, hard-working staff compliment. What is the role of the Director of Operations in this sort of environment?
WS: I keep an eye on everything and make sure that things keep running. There’s a lot of administration involved in the position, seeing that bookings are confirmed, advertisements are flighted, setting schedules, ensuring that the sales people reach their targets and making sure that they have what they need to get their jobs done. We buy programmes in close consultation with our South African office. I spend a lot of time in contact with them. In terms of production, my responsibility is to make sure that jobs are done on time and that they satisfy the clients’ requests. It is important to make sure that the jobs are deliverable and that we don’t promise what we can’t deliver.

PM: What are the particular challenges that you face on a day-to-day basis?
WS: Getting my job done. I often leave the station with guilt feelings, knowing that there is work that has just come in. I have to divide my time between my family and my job very carefully. Time management is an ongoing challenge when work arrives continuously and is never entirely done. In terms of One Africa itself, we balance between wanting to go further and the need for funds to do so. Our clients want us to expand and promise us more business on that basis, but we need the business before we can expand. It’s very much a chicken and egg situation.

PM: What are the hurdles facing commercial television in Namibia?
WS: Finance is always an issue. Advertising secures revenue for our operations and the programmes that we flight. We don’t have any outside sources of funding or a parent company that we can call on. I would like to see more support on the basis of our track record, not on the basis of comparisons. The local market has picked up on us, but many of the brands are South African and much of the media is planned in South Africa. We are making a name as a good Namibian media choice in South Africa, but I would like more business to come from that direction.

PM: How well has Namibia adopted One Africa as a marketing media?
WS: We get a lot of support from larger Namibian corporates. They recognize that we are a good medium and that we will expand with their support. Smaller companies have not yet come to the table as well as they could. SMEs tend to ignore marketing budgets in their start-up financing and early activities, so they miss the opportunities that we and other mediums have to offer. The perception is that television is an expensive medium but One Africa has kept its costs low so we can offer a really good cost to viewer ratio and still fall within the budgets of smaller companies.

PM: You are currently involved in an expansion drive. How do you expect this to change the marketing landscape?
WS: Obviously it will place pressure on media competitors for adspend, but ultimately it will lead to increased media budgets. A higher level of sales invariably leads to a better marketing budget. One Africa is a very effective selling medium, as our advertisers know, and we have a good audience response.

PM: What has been the viewer response to One Africa?
NBC has news and development interests at the heart of its content line-up. DSTV aims at the upper end of the market with a high level of entertainment content on a pay-for-service basis. We have positioned ourselves in the market that falls between the two. We provide a high level of entertainment, and a growing amount of local content, free to the market. It receives an overwhelmingly good response, particularly from people in Katutura and Khomasdal, but we have also been surprised by the number of higher income households who are tuning in. The word on One Africa is spreading and we are getting requests to expand our broadcasting range from towns across Namibia. We expect to see this pattern repeat.

PM: How do you determine the programme line-up?
WS: We have a lot of interaction with our viewers. SMS is one method that they use to talk to us, and from time to time we insert questions for SMS responses. We get call-ins, particularly when popular series are discontinued or come to an end. Our viewers are our assets so we take care to keep them happy. African movies are a case in point. We discontinued them for a while, but viewers responded and we are reinstating them. The regular ‘Bollywood’ movie is another example. We started flighting them as a trial, and although they are subtitled and not an obvious pick, viewers enjoy them.

PM: Where do you see One Africa going in future?
WS: We’re definitely expanding. As we speak, One Africa is about to launch to the coast. Ultimately One Africa will cover all the centers where it makes business sense for our advertisers and where it is feasible in terms of costs. Otherwise viewers will have to make use of the Intelsat transmission and DBV decoders which still allow them to receive the transmissions free of charge. We are also expanding our local content. At the moment, we provide a free platform for local artists. We don’t do their productions for them, but we flight their material as long as it is of a socially acceptable standard. We are also doing a lot on local tourism, promoting Namibia to Namibians. More local content will be added later, but we will announce that when we have the mechanisms one hundred percent in place and are ready to roll the cameras.

PM: Where does the Intelsat transmission place you?
WS: We have reach across the entire subcontinent, dependent on DBV decoders. Our name is One Africa, so obviously there is a broader strategy, but this is long range. One day, we hope to reach the whole of Africa, but for now we are concentrating on our home base and building our strengths and experience locally.

PM: Thank you.
WS: Pleasure.

For more information: Waldheim Shiluwa, tel. 061 253 190