We found Digital Congo TV’s campus as we drove into the hills that rim Kinshasa’s gritty core, leaving behind the organized chaos and overwhelming police presence that marks world’s largest Francophone city.
Their offices and studios sprawled out over an old colonial style compound, complete with servant quarters and a dilapidated swimming pool.
Digital TV's Station Manager (left) talking to Obul Okwess, jhr's Country Director in the DRC
In a country that has more than its fair share of TV stations (over 50), Digital TV stands out from the pack. It is a private station with huge budgets, world-class cameras, 147 staff members, 67 journalists and 21 roaming correspondents (18 of which work in local language) making it the largest and most technologically sophisticated station in the DRC, and surely one of the most impressive in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
Reporters at Digital TV. The President's face looms large above them.
Most media organizations we visited in the Congo complained about paying their $300/month generator bill. Here, they pay 11,000 Euro a month to broadcast their signal on satellite.
The main control room of Digital TV's studio. Kabila is never forgotten.
High production values means stronger viewership. The ears and eyes of the Congo in are glued to them.
The globe in the TV news set (left) was made from leftover posters of President Kabila, cut out and then painted.
I’ll let you figure out why they can hire the staff, pay the salaries and buy the equipment that other stations cannot.
A gentleman (right), who used to be Mobutu's personal photographer, is showing off their remote broadcast equiptment.
