"The idea is to get a wider audience to transmit the (AIT) vision of sharing the African experience," says Ifeanyi Anyanfulu, General Manager, Televison Services, at Daar Communications Limited, owners of AIT and Ray Power 1 (FM 100.5) and 2 (FM 106.5) radio stations.

AIT, says Anyanfulu, is currently broadcasting to the whole of Africa, with about 95 percent of its programmes being African. Commencement of broadcasting through DST follows the signing last Tuesday of an agreement between AIT and Multichoice Nigeria Limited to this effect.

Multichoice Nigeria represents the parent company, Multichoice of South Africa, owners of DST. Other channels owned by Multichoice include M-Net, a movie and entertainment channel, and Super Sports, an all-sports channel.

Daar Communications is also working towards commencement of specialised channel broadcasting, says Dr Raymond Dokpesi, its chairman. He hopes to mount an all-news channel, and all-sports channel, and another to be devoted to drama/movies and soaps.

The aim behind these programming innovations, he says, "is to project the African continent to the rest of the world in a positive light. Africa will henceforth be represented by Africans."

Asked if AIT had the manpower to embark on these projects, the chairman said: "We can never be 100 percent complete in this direction." He said his company plans to tackle the problem on two fronts: staff training and collaboration with other media organisations.

Already, he said, AIT is pursuing collaborative arrangements with various organisations in different regions of the African continent. In Southern Africa, it is collaborating with the South African Broadcasting Company, and in East Africa, it is working out arrangements with Kenya's Independent Television.

In West African, Dokpesi said his company is collaborating with Ghana TV, as well as the Senegalese TV. And in North Africa, it is collaborating with an organisation in Libya. These arrangements, he says, are "with a view to strengthen information exchange", and are in addition to subscribing to various news wire services.

AIT and Ray Power Radio stations returned to the airwaves a few months ago, after being off the air for sometime, following a disagreement between Daar Communications and a consortium of banks that provided funding to its projects.