Mary Nnah
As times are evolving to become heavily data-driven and algorithmic, CEO of Consolidated Media Associates (CMA) and a seasoned media practitioner, Tajuddeen Adepetu, in his typical fashion, is setting the broadcast giant in motion to birth a more tech-driven entertainment and media company.
Adepetu leads one of the largest media networks in Africa that also includes a wide range of media production services.
Some of the channels in Adepetu’s portfolio need no introduction – the SoundCity brands: SoundCity TV and SoundCity Radio, along with Urban TV and Urban Radio, Spice TV, Televista, OnTV, OnMax, Correct TV, and Correct FM.
At the moment, his journey appears to be headed for brand new peaks – his moves, no doubt, tallies with a world that is taking on innovative advancements so rapidly.
“I like to use tech to solve problems. I’ve always believed that our broadcasting is to individuals. Now, with technology, we can properly address these individuals.”
This new move takes form in a mega-holding company called Group8, which he founded in 2020.
Group8, Adepetu, said it will bring together all its radio, television, events, and technology properties under one multifaceted umbrella. The original company, CMA, has now transformed into Group8, a lifestyle mediatech company.
In addition to all CMA was known for, Group 8 now also includes a brand-new platform called Viral Pro.
If Adepetu has in the course of 30 years built a reputation for creating hit TV and radio assets, he now plans to deploy Viral Pro to earn new status as a creator of hit viral content – for brands.
So, to make it all simple to his over 500 staff and the rest of the world, he created a different category for each segment of Group8: radio channels as Radi8, television stations as Cre8, event projects as Activ8, tech properties as Innov8. Together, they are managed as Group8.
All of this, one may argue, is the next stage for Adepetu and his enterprise. While the organisation, of course, has had a grasp of the market for more than three decades and can look to the future to grow with the times, the media and audiences are changing.
For instance, TV in 2021 is a more on-demand and highly mobile experience; the future of media will be more tech-enabled and hyper-targeted, and there will be an abundance of choice.
Thus, Group8 appears to bring the best of the company’s media offerings to the everyday life of African audiences.
It is important to note that as a digital content company, Group8 will find itself contending in some way with other content companies such as Netflix and Amazon, which are taking increasingly major steps in Africa.
But Adepetu believes that Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are different from Group8, because Group8, as a wholly-owned African company that began as a modest radio production outfit in Jos, Nigeria, can “intuitively create for Africans the sort of entertainment and commercial experiences that feel authentic to the and native to the continent.”
Group8 does indeed span the length and breadth of the continent already, with free to air TV and radio channels in Nigeria, a radio network in Kenya, and direct to home transmission via DSTV, the African satellite broadcasting provider.
But the journey to this point, Adepetu said, is deeply personal, a triumph of will over cultural and environmental limitations.
When he launched CMA in 1990, the same year he graduated from the University of Jos, the vision he recalled was to build a business around a pastime he had enjoyed from childhood — critiquing TV. He wanted to make TV that would be more engaging and world class for Africans.
Ready with a certificate from the NTA (Nigerian Television Authority) TV College and a degree in Film and Television from the university, he immediately forayed into the startup life, starting with the first pieces of work he could find: radio promotional ads.
“I’ve always loved to do business, and the first business that came my way as a young man was to do radio promotional materials for the National Veterinary Research Institute,” he remembers.
Soon, brick by brick, he formed a system that led him to work with more radio producers, videographers, and TV production. It was a special period in his life, birthing his vision and walking in his passion.
He speaks fondly about his brother’s role during this period in his life. “As a young man, fresh from leaving the University, of course, you get this job, but sometimes you would have finished spending the earnings before your next job. So, during those times, he really supported me.”
In 1995, Adepetu left Jos for Lagos. Not long after the move, he produced the company’s first situational drama, Family Circle, which not only became quite a hit, but is also noted these days for its groundbreaking casting and resonant storytelling.
Since then, Adepetu, apparently, has gone on to make even more successful shows. With a global mindset and knowledge of media, his goal was to “grow the seed of the company from its beginning stages to a media company with solid African roots and a rich global outlook.
With a love for media running through him, Tajuddeen spent the following years expanding the scope of what the media could achieve, identifying talent, opportunities, and new stories to tell.
With the millennial generation coming of age, he created ecosystems involving radio, TV shows and digital that catered to that generational demographic, and not only that, he continued to build platforms that provided real progressive value in the market.
In 1999, another stage in the journey, the company went into partnership with DSTV, producing movies and content across Africa for the giant media broadcast platform. This fit right into the outlook of the company to grow beyond geographical borders.
“We’ve never really thought of ourselves as just a local entity. It’s just the way we are built.”
All these achievements – future-forward thinking, identifying new opportunities and succeeding with them, providing platforms for people to grow and succeed – speak largely to mogul status, and it goes without saying that Tajuddeen is a true mogul of our time.
And now, it is poised to penetrate more geographies with Group8, the lifestyle mediatech company Africa – and now the world – has its eyes on.
