Television Buyers as Institutional Cultural Intermediaries in Centralizing Alternative Media Flows

Institutional Cultural Intermediaries in Transnational Television

The discussion of transnational media flows has focused on either the totalizing impact of cultural imperialism on global cultural homogenization (Schiller 1976) or the local audience agency-powered resistance and the persistence of localities (Appadurai 2013). In transnational television studies, scholars have become increasingly interested in the role of television buyers in mediating boundaries across languages, cultures, and nations (e.g., Kuipers 2012). In the sociology of cultural consumption, Bourdieu introduces “cultural intermediaries,” a group of professional tastemakers who mediate the economy by creating tastes and guiding consumption patterns to shape consumers’ cultural preferences (Bourdieu (1979) 1984). These cultural workers often mediate between the needs of producers and the pleasures of consumers, but can also perform multiple mediations, such as in the case of advertising practitioners between advertising agencies and clients (Cronin 2004).

While individual cultural intermediaries develop their areas of expertise to gain legitimacy, institutional intermediaries rely on trusted suppliers and apply appraisal criteria to interpret, select, and promote cultural products (Bielby 2011). In the television industry, television buyers are surrogate consumers, whose authority in media buying relies on their status as privileged interpreters of audiences’ tastes (Havens 2003). Situated between production and audience consumption, these buyers serving as institutional cultural intermediaries navigate audiovisual content markets and audience preferences to balance commercial goals of media organizations, the structure of global media industry, and their sense of cultural relevance in relation to particular national, cultural, and social contexts in transnational media flows. Previous studies on cultural intermediaries in transnational television flows have primarily focused on television programs and markets in North America, Europe, and South Korea (e.g., Kuipers 2012; Mast et al. 2017). Examining alternative drama flows in sub-Saharan Africa, a region historically at the margin of global television programming and distribution, contributes to the scholarship on the mediation of transnational television flows.

Corporate Rationality for Alternative Drama Series

Television scholars and industry experts commonly view audiences as preferring local content over imports, especially when quality is comparable, leading to trends of localization (Esser 2016). The acquisition decisions favor drama series from emerging media hubs in South and Southeast Asia and Latin America over local African productions, partly due to their higher production quality. As several professionals who are familiar with the industrial conditions in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Rwanda point out, while locally produced content offers culturally proximate storytelling, the comparatively lower local production values, due to lack of resources, equipment, and professionals, often tips the buying decision in favor of higher technical quality imports (Lumo, Teba, and Zane).

Professionals at ViewNet select drama series from the aforementioned regions as “alternative content” to popular Western productions (Tano). Western screen media content, particularly television programs from the U.S., has long dominated the global television trade (Hoskins and Mirus 1988). The U.S. remains a leading exporter of scripted series today, followed by Britain and, increasingly, Turkey (The Economist 2024). Professionals involved in television buying acknowledge the high production values of Western content, but they are also concerned about the limitations and challenges associated with licensing it. A senior professional articulates a commercial rationale, emphasizing the financial risks involved: “The licensing costs of Western series are too high, especially the latest ones. Older series have been around so long that the audience has already seen them. If we keep costs down, we still will not break even” (Sharon). The unfavorable cost-to-revenue ratio therefore is “the most significant reason” for the reluctance to invest in Western content licenses (Jessica).

In addition, licensing Western content often comes with more restrictive rights that significantly limit how the content can be used or adapted. These restrictions often involve key aspects related to language dubbing, the time frame of airing, the geographical territories where the content can be distributed, and the platforms where the content is available. Such restrictions hinder a strategic and flexible use of the content by content planners to maximize profitability in different markets. Jessica continues: “High-profile drama series from the US often come with greater costs and stricter licensing restrictions.” The restrictions include shorter licensing period, language restrictions for translation and dubbing, and limits on the number of broadcasts. “Because of these constraints, we are generally reluctant to purchase such shows,” Jessica concludes.

As the political economy of the media suggests, the distribution of culture takes place within a specific economic and political system within a particular geopolitical environment (Mosco 2009). Transnational media organizations from countries traditionally belonging to the periphery of the world-system often enter foreign markets with structural challenges. Growing out of media environments where national cultural industries are still developing global competitiveness, newly established media organizations face obstacles such as limited brand recognition, smaller budgets, and a lack of experience in transnational media operations. These media actors need to address the structure of the global media industry, where media power in Western countries, such as U.S.-based media conglomerates, continues to hold dominance even as its influence experiences a decline (Jin 2024). Television buyers licensing of drama series from various regions as an alternative to Western productions suggests an enduring yet gradually shifting power structure in the global television trade. While traditionally dominant markets still enjoy disproportionate power in licensing agreements through leveraging their historical status and established global appeal, emerging television buyers look for opportunities outside the traditional centers of media and cultural power.

Content Approach to Address Social Stratification

Understanding the audience segment that the television targets is a key factor in selecting and airing particular content that resonates and appeals to the niche market. Sub-Saharan Africa has long faced extreme income inequality, with the highest gap between the average incomes of the top 10 percent and the bottom 50 percent, underscoring significant economic disparities by international standards (Chancel et al. 2023). Considering the high inequalities in wealth distribution in sub-Saharan Africa, pay TV providers such as ViewNet gradually identified a traditionally overlooked segment of the population, the lower-middle-class majority, and developed service packages for this customer base whose entertainment media choices were limited, as other multinational pay TV providers previously primarily targeted the upper-middle class. A media professional Luna with experience working in Nigeria compares the socio-economic discrepancy of primary customer bases between ViewNet and a major pay TV service provider. “If you visit bars, hotels, or affluent neighborhoods in Nigeria, you will often see satellite dishes on the walls painted in blue,” a signature color of ViewNet’s competitor’s dishes. “They dominate these areas because they offer premium channels, especially top-tier sports content, which bars and hotels rely on to attract patrons” (Luna). The stratification of audience segments is a major factor influencing pay TV corporations’ content planning and strategic investment in international productions.

Financial instability of operating countries further contributes to providers targeting less affluent audiences, as in the case of ViewNet favoring alternative content. Many African nations have experienced rapid devaluation of their currencies against the U.S. dollar, particularly since 2022, leading to economic instability and currency crises. This situation has heightened the economic vulnerabilities of ViewNet’s customer base, threatening a decline in pay TV subscriptions. For instance, as the Nigerian Naira has experienced severe depreciation recently (Asadu 2024), this imposes concerns about the economy on ordinary Nigerians and influences their media consumption. Luna continues, “The income levels of our customers are on the lower end of the spectrum, which means they have weaker financial resilience. When there is a currency devaluation or inflation, which causes price hikes in basic needs like food, housing, and transportation, users are more likely to stop subscribing to our services, as they are disproportionately affected.” The socio-economic stratification in operating countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the class divide of the audiences impacts media buying capacities of pay TV providers like ViewNet. More elite customer bases are generally more resilient to national economic downturns. The financial stability of this customer base allows the pay TV companies targeting the upper-middle class to invest in acquiring high-profile and global programming (Tano and Anle). In contrast, ViewNet and other providers offering lower-cost packages to financially precarious segments have a stronger incentive to acquire alternative drama series than globally popular programming from the West.

The strategy of product differentiation is a common approach in marketing, aiming to distinguish a product or service from those of its competitors. Kima suggests that, through leveraging the compelling appeal of drama series, alternative content offered on ViewNet’s pay TV platform has become one of the key drivers attracting audience subscriptions, gradually growing into a distinct television investment opportunity in the region. From a corporate perspective, a senior media professional involved in content development at a local subsidiary comments on the growing industrial phenomenon of circulating alternative pay TV content in Africa: “We invested a lot in alternative content and that worked for us. Because of the segmented market, we focused on those differences in service” (Tano). The use of “alternative” in the pay TV business is a reflection of the traditionally peripheral position of these productions and their media hubs in global media flows and suggests enduring structural disparities in production value and content circulation between the Global South and the traditional center of the television trade.

The content approach favoring alternative media texts results from an interplay of factors related to media organizations’ economic rationality and differentiation strategies, the socio-economic stratification of local audiences, and enduring inequalities in the international television trade. The constraints of high cost and restricted rights in licensing Western content suggest how productions from the traditional center of media and cultural flows are still positioned as premium. According to insights of the media buyers, a perception of Western programming as a premium offering for more affluent audiences while content from other regions is a cost-effective alternative consumed by the lower-middle-class majority has developed in the pay TV industry in sub-Saharan Africa. Such institutional discourse, on the one hand, acknowledges the perceived dominance of Western productions in global television markets in scholarship. On the other hand, it suggests an industrial shift in centralizing and promoting transnational flows of alternative media texts from the traditional periphery in Africa.

Fragmented Audience Demographics and Long-running Drama Series

While class is a primary characteristic distinguishing target consumers of premium and alternative international content, the consideration of audience segmentation is more refined, incorporating factors such as gender, age, educational level, and social roles. The popularity of alternative drama series highlights specific tastes and preferences among audiences of ViewNet’s telenovela channels, who are primarily women of middle-age or older with less formal education, typically occupying the role of housewives and having limited internet access. The intersection of these demographic dimensions shapes the evaluation of different aspects of drama series in content planning and media buying. An editor working for a telenovela channel at ViewNet states: “Based on the audience profile gathered, we found that the pacing of drama series needs to be relatively slow. Shows from the U.S., Japan, and South Korea often have faster pacing. Latin American and Turkish dramas tend to be slower and feature longer episodes, making them a better fit for our audience” (Sharon). The association of their female audiences with traditional gendered social roles, for instance, as housewives, contributes significantly to television buying preference for long-running drama series over shorter series. Larry, another professional in content planning, suggests that the selected alternative drama series are usually long-running, which contributes to audience stickiness. “A housewife in Africa, like in Tanzania, might spend her day doing chores while watching TV. Indian dramas, for instance, with their slower pacing and long story arcs, are perfect for this. A viewer can step away to sweep the floor and return to the same storyline. The fast pace of the U.S. dramas does not suit this context. Because if you miss a little, you are lost” (Larry).

These content planners’ understanding of the audience segment and their characteristics is often established through user feedback through local call centers, social media, local staff’s home visits, and their evaluations of market reactions. Based on these sources, media professionals speculate that this segment of the audience has limited internet access. For instance, Tina shares her insights and states: “Some dramas that generate buzz on Facebook do not necessarily attract high viewership, while others with little online chatter end up performing well.” These incidences make the professionals speculate that many Facebook users are likely younger, whereas the majority of those watching TV at home are older and rarely go online. The descriptions above indicate how content planners construct a profile of the target audience for alternative drama series and conceptualize the alignment between content characteristics and audience demographics.

Social stratification, along with associated economic, linguistic, and cultural capital, shape an individual’s cultural taste. Levels of education and social positions occupied by different groups create a distinction in their tastes for symbolic practices (Bourdieu (1979) 1984). This relationship applies to media preferences that are often shaped by class structure, where working-class audiences tend to favor culturally proximate content, while upper-class audiences are more cosmopolitan and open to international programming (Straubhaar 2007). In the current case, class is still employed as a major factor in interpreting audience’s tastes in premium and alternative international content. A senior content manager at a local subsidiary in West Africa explicitly associates social class of audiences with their appreciation of storytelling styles and visual aesthetics of drama series from various regional media hubs. He suggested that African audiences with more formal education and richer life experiences would lean toward content that is globally popular, such as Western or South Korean productions, which often has more sophisticated storytelling, over long drama series (Kima). Alternative drama series are perceived as aligning more closely with viewing habits of non-elite viewers and fitting particular gender roles. The sociological mechanism behind taste—the intersection of social class, education, and gender roles of the audience demographics—is translated into institutional discourses around audience tastes and television buying strategies. While some pay TV providers have a higher capability to invest in high-profile productions from the Global North, to thrive in the competition for market share in sub-Saharan Africa, other actors like ViewNet have developed a business opportunity by cultivating and shaping audience taste toward long-running alternative drama series.

Reimagining Proximity

Beyond the analytical scope of cultural-linguistic markets, institutional cultural intermediaries imagine other types of proximities between alternative drama series and audiences in their understanding of the popularity of alternative drama series in sub-Saharan Africa and media buying decisions. One key element of the proximity conceptualized by content planners and television buyers is the universality of human social experiences in alternative drama series, with themes like love, hate, betrayal, and intrigue, making the stories relatable to a general audience (Kima). Tano gives an example: “Consider a story where a girl grows up with strict parents, goes to university, gains her independence, starts a relationship, gets a job, and eventually experiences a conflict with her boyfriend, who ends up choosing her friend. These are familiar stories that can occur in Asia just as they can happen in Africa.”

In addition to the universal appeal of storylines rooted in common human experiences, melodramatic plotlines have consistently captivated audiences across continents. The professionals, drawing on years of experience with licensing drama series, observe that their viewers respond strongly to narratives centered on emotionally intensive themes, such as revenge, love triangles, powerful female characters, and conflicts, tapping into shared social experiences and emotional resonance across cultures. For instance, the professional Frida states that the popular alternative dramas are often “highly dramatic, filled with endless arguments, and feature shocking, over-the-top storylines.” The high viewership suggests to the media buyers that “the more dramatic the drama series, the higher the audience rating” (Frida). The aesthetics of melodrama, such as heightened emotional engagement and sensational narratives, are prevalent in the narratives of commercial mass media production in post-colonial societies, where formal or advanced education is limited for the majority (Adejunmobi 2010). Television buyers at ViewNet operationalize the notion of shared human experiences embedded in melodramatic representations across diverse alternative drama series as a marketing strategy that closely aligns with the socio-economic background of their audiences. Leveraging these elements of proximity that resonate in post-colonial societies, the institutional cultural intermediaries promote the regional circulation of international dramas that transcend diverse cultural and linguistic boundaries.

While the universality of human experiences and emotions and the appeal of melodrama form a fundamental attraction for audiences of alternative drama series, additional proximities in storylines—the representation of the shared life experiences related to a particular social class—make these series resonate with the sociocultural realities that viewers encounter in everyday life. The media manager Tano elaborates on how the audience can relate to “the stories portraying the sufferings, the mistreatment of the poor by the rich, and the inequality in society.” Beyond the representational proximity, “they can even give you a solution to what you thought was a problem because you can see how the other person on screen handled it and say, ‘Oh, I think I can do that.’ So that is what really makes us close.” Reflecting on the popularity of Filipino dramas on ViewNet’s platform, Anna, who participated in content planning, shared her insights: “Western content feels too highbrow and out of touch with local audiences. The viewers prefer drama series over ones depicting elite lifestyles that they cannot relate to . . . Filipino dramas often show a more relatable environment, with probably less affluence and with characters wearing ordinary clothes, like oversized shorts and flip-flops, and showing settings that feel chaotic and messy” (Anna). The alignment of socio-economic background associated experience on screen and in audience’s lives provides an imagined proximity for institutional cultural intermediaries to rationalize their content selection decisions favoring alternative drama series.

The proximity of lived experiences transcends not only cultural, linguistic, and geographical boundaries, but also racial differences. To illustrate such connections, Tano gave an example of his child watching alternative drama series, in which the shared experiences can resonate beyond surface-level differences. He states consuming the alternative drama series makes audiences like his son see that “having light skin does not mean having everything in this world.” Tano continues: “He knows that even when you have light skin, you suffer. You also cry. You also go without a meal. So he associates with things he sees. It makes it much easier for him to relate.” The multiple types of proximity imagined by television buyers as underpinning their audience’s motivations are a kind of phenomenological proximity, which is the perception of substantive relevance in struggles and conflicts, rather than a recognition of proximity in the sense of local cultural heritage (Adejunmobi 2010).

Besides the phenomenological proximity, the proximity of values in social institutions such as family and religion is viewed as another important factor influencing content approach and buying decisions. Television, often watched in a living room setting, is a collective medium for many households in sub-Saharan Africa. According to a report from the World Bank, 36 percent of the population in Africa had access to broadband internet in 2022, and the reach of broadband infrastructure and the quality of services still lag behind other parts of the world (World Bank 2023). While many places in the Global North with internet connectivity have transitioned into the mobile media or streaming era, where media content is consumed individually on mobile phones or personal computers, watching television remains an important communal and social activity in Africa (Lumo and Anle). Taking into account the viewing environment as shared and collective, television buyers mediate content flows and cultural representations with adherence to moral values at the local societal level. The institutional proximity makes alternative drama series from certain regions that share similar moral values be perceived as more socially appropriate and proximal to the receiving communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Considering some key markets of ViewNet are predominantly Muslim populations in West and East Africa, such as Northern Nigeria and Tanzania, where audiences are within a collective culture, hold strong family values, and are relatively modest or conservative, television buyers suggest that drama series featuring family stories and personal growth resonate strongly in these markets (Sharon and Marcus). The proximity of moral norms and cultural values has made drama series from India and Turkey especially popular and widely accepted by the local audience. The communal nature of television watching in the region amplifies the potential influence of television representations and values embedded in them among the community. This leads to naturally favoring international content that adheres to local shared beliefs. For instance, besides the fact that the representation of Islam in Turkish dramas appears proximal to Muslim viewers in East and West Africa, content editors from these Muslim-majority regions provide an insider view that Turkish dramas are appropriate to watch for the entire family, as they are “safe for children” and “have no private scenes” (Lumo and Teba). On the contrary, both professionals particularly point out that the use of profanity in some U.S. productions is considered inappropriate for translating and dubbing into local languages. Also, family scenes in Western productions occasionally depicting children arguing with or even insulting their parents are rejected by Muslim audiences in Tanzania and Nigeria (Lumo and Teba). Social institutions such as family and religion shape moral values and normative practices privileged by local societies, and these institutionalized beliefs, serving as normative frameworks, in turn not only constrain the types of representations and discourses circulating in media but also set a reference point of cultural legitimacy that shapes perceived moral proximity in media narratives. Television buyers’ understanding of the role of moral value alignment and institutional proximity is another factor mediating the circulation of alternative drama series imports in sub-Saharan Africa.

In addition, the success of alternative drama series relies on historical trajectories and path-dependent patterns of appropriation. Despite differences in religion, language, and culture, Hindi films continue to remain popular among Muslim northern Nigerians due to shared cultural motifs like family dramas, love triangles, and song-dance traditions (Adamu 2007). Zuri, a professional with expertise in content planning for the Hausa community, indicated the similarity of screen media representations of Indian and Hausa cultural patterns, such as women wearing sarees and the marriage culture, despite the religious differences. Compared to Hollywood’s themes, Indian film emotionally aligns more closely with Afro-Asian values and provides visions of a parallel modernity to the West, “one intimately concerned with the changing basis of social life, but rooted in conservative cultural values” (Larkin 1997, 410). The historical popularity of Indian content creates a market precedent and serves as a reference point for current television buyers to continue investing in such content with proven audience appeal.

The imagination of proximity articulated by television buyers between target audiences and the characteristics of storylines and visual aesthetics of alternative drama series manifests across transnational, phenomenological, and institutional dimensions. Similar dynamics have been observed in other contexts of the global media landscape. For instance, the transnational popularity of the Korean wave has been understood as a combination of “universal sociocultural experiences, including social inequality, youth culture, beautiful storytelling, and fascinating choreography in the late-stage capitalist society” (Jin 2023, 10). The resonance of alternative drama series with audiences in sub-Saharan Africa is attributed to the universality of human affect, the substantive relevance of experiences in struggles and conflicts embedded in melodramatic plotlines depicting post-colonial societies, the relatable social reality closely tied to class dynamics, and the alignment of institutionalized moral values mediated through television. The institutional cultural intermediaries’ reimagination of proximity offers a more contextualized and nuanced approach to understanding the rationality of transnational television mediating alternative drama flows in African television markets.