• Chad partners with Egypt to modernize state TV and train media staff
  
  
• Project aims to improve Télé Tchad’s content, skills and viewer experience
  
  
• Foreign media dominate; RFI and France 24 reach most professionals weekly

Chad will partner with Egypt to modernize its national television channel, part of a broader effort by the president to overhaul the country’s media sector. The news was reported on November 19, in a report quoting Communications Minister and government spokesman Gassim Cherif Mahamat after his visit to Maspero, home to Egyptian Radio and Television.

The partnership will focus on training staff from the Ministry of Communication, the National Office of Audiovisual Media (ONAMA) and the Chadian Press and Publishing Agency (ATPE). Training will cover journalism, writing, editing and television news presentation, skills the government considers key to improving Télé Tchad.

Mahamat said the visit was also intended to improve the broadcaster’s programming. “Our citizens want better entertainment and a more modern viewing experience,” he said.

Chad’s media sector remains severely under-resourced. According to the 2022 directory of the High Authority for Media and Audiovisual (HAMA), the country had 137 media outlets. Télé Tchad operates with limited means; in 2023, its production budget was 800 million CFA francs (about 1.4 million dollars), forcing it to repeat nearly 20 percent of its schedule, according to data from Tchad Vision.

International broadcasters remain highly influential. In N’Djamena, RFI reaches nearly 90 percent of executives and senior professionals each week, while France 24 reaches 74.6 percent of the same group, according to a 2021 Kantar-TNS Africascope study cited by France Médias Monde. The figures underline the lasting influence of foreign media among key audiences.

Félicien Houindo Lokossou