Views TV Blazes Past the 365-Day Mark

Iyke Bede

On August 1, 2018, Views channel aired for the very first time on the Startimes platform as an all-round edutainment channel curated to focus on the needs of millennials and the younger generations. Positioned at channel 108, Views slowly seeped into the homes of its target audience, using exclusive contents.

The channel’s birth is driven by the dearth of television programs directed at millennials in the media; it hopes to fill this void. Identifying the broken link between this age demography, media and family, founder, Femi Ogundoro bought into the idea of empowering young people through original content programming which spans lifestyle, fashion, movies, music, series and reality TV shows. Currently, the station boasts of 47 original contents that make up about 95 percent of programs aired; all, internally produced through the parent company, Maxima Media Group.

“Views channel is a platform where we felt: let’s give young people the opportunity to express themselves.” Ogundoro said, highlighting the idea behind the channel. He continued. “Before we started a year ago, I went to a couple of institutions. I’ve been to University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Ibadan (U), for different projects for different clients. And along the line, we were always getting back to the same point where young people say amongst themselves that media misunderstood them, that attention is not on them. And you can see that in all ramifications.”

To mark the occasion of the one-year anniversary, a themed party was held at their Gbagada office in a light-hearted ambience accentuated by unique shades of purple outfits donned by invited guests – mostly young people. The event swiftly transformed into a social media affair with most of the guest posting to their social media accounts. Noting this trend exhibited, Ogundoro hinted that the channel will be extending their reach to various social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook via live streaming to meet the demands of their target audience.

Though, a newcomer to the broadcasting world, Views has thus far made a mark in the area of entertainment that has helped capture the interests of younglings. However, it has yet to achieve this on the sports front. According to Ogundoro, wheels have been set in motion to meet the demands of sports enthusiasts, and also to help provide a unique platform for local sports talent showcase.

“When it comes to sports; it’s really the passion point. We are working on a number of things for sports: there is no need to do things the way it’s been done. You want to tweak it so that it can be different, so that you can carve a niche for yourself. The content must be unique; it must resonate with them,” he said.

Another avenue it hopes to empower youths is through an upcoming reality show that focuses on youth enterprise, ‘The Adoption’. The reality show, a collaborative effort with O2 Academy, will afford young people the rare opportunity of working temporarily under multinationals and agencies. Ozone Mbanefo, Provost, O2 Academy explained the concept of the reality show, he said:

“We want to see how we can get agencies, companies adopt these young people. Pay for their training, sponsor their training, and they get trained, and of course, they might now absorb them or give them to have a career path.”

With the level of success it has attained the past year, Ogundoro is quite confident about the trajectory of the channel. As he puts it, “we started from the bottom, and we are not going to stop until we get to the top.”

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