Ghana: 3Music execs talk about their plans for new music TV channel

Established in 2017, 3Media Networks also includes an event and youth experiential unit responsible for the annual 3Music Awards, a creative animation and visual production unit, and a digital content distribution arm.

Music In Africa spoke to 3Music founder and CEO Sadiq Abdulai Abu and 3Music general manager Edward Owusu Boafo about the new TV channel’s overall direction.

Music In Africa: How long has this been in the works?

EDWARD OWUSU BOAFO: Since 2017. It has been a dream from day one. 3Music started as an hourly block on TV3 and the vision was to have that evolve to a channel. So it has been a lot of consultation, a lot of dreaming and a lot of talking to people.

SADIQ ABDULAI ABU: We went through the different stages of building a brand. We went into the awards and events space for some time, which helped us to leverage a certain strength or value off the brand. Now there is the channel that has come out of it. But we had a long shot of trying to create a music channel to amplify Ghanaian music here in Africa and use the strength of the brand for international and social impact.

What’s the main vision for the channel?

EDWARD OWUSU BOAFO: The idea is to give Ghanaians a platform that would project our stars to the world. In doing this, quality programming came to mind.

SADIQ ABDULAI ABU: Ghana has not even scratched the surface when it comes to music TV or curating a music and entertainment lifestyle channel for young audiences. Music and culture drives and fuels their conversations, and so we have taken a lot of those insights and we have provided just that.

How has the announcement of 3Music TV been received so far?

SADIQ ABDULAI ABU: We just went live so we are waiting to see. Usually, it will take a bit of time. Internally, we are doing monitoring to gather as much feedback as possible, and then see how we can finetune things along the way. It’s still early days. 3Music has always stood for innovation and enhancing production value and social and international impact. We’ve had a strong commitment to music and driving commerce around it.

What challenges did you face in the build-up to this moment and how did you overcome them?

EDWARD OWUSU BOAFO: Finances were an issue from the beginning. In the past, even though we didn’t have the finances to venture into it directly, we decided to start with low-hanging fruit, and that was the 3Music Awards, which gave us that top-of-mind awareness to be able to go for these types of investments.

SADIQ ABDULAI ABU: Going forward, a lot of challenges will have to do with market orientation in music TV, and creating a niche platform for Gen Z and millennial audiences. We will have to do a lot of orientation and education with many potential advertisers regarding specifically who these audiences are, how and why we are the most influential source for them and why they need to advertise with us. It is something that we anticipate and we are working on how we can ensure making a profitable business.

Part of your goal is to become a music and entertainment hub on an international level. How much headway have you made to reach this goal?

EDWARD OWUSU BOAFO: We have been in touch with many global music executives and some of them are looking to venture into our market. When we started off, we felt like, ‘Okay, we have the space. Why don’t we create the environment for these people to come in and be able to serve the Ghanaian market?’ We are looking to strike partnerships with music aggregators and DSPs [digital service providers], among other players. The idea is to present a space where if anybody comes to Ghana to have a conversation about music, they comes here first.

SADIQ ABDULAI ABU: We have done a bit of reaching out and a bit of talking about how some of these global and African brands can use our space to reach out to the industry and use the existing platforms that we have created to impact the industry.

What is 3Media Networks’ outlook for the next 5 or 10 years?

EDWARD OWUSU BOAFO: From day one we have been driven by excellence, and surprisingly our yardstick hasn’t been anybody within this market. This is because we have that global mentality; everything that we do is driven by what is happening at a global level. I believe if you’re looking at the global stage and doing things, you will be automatically driven by excellence. For us, it’s the idea of trying to break down barriers in everything we do. Five years from now, we should be regarded as one of the biggest music platforms in Africa. The world should hear about us and we should be able to create stars out of Ghanaian talent and empower the Ghanaian music ecosystem. We want to be a thought leader in the space that we are operating in.

SADIQ ABDULAI ABU: In five years, we want to be a major pan-African business driving profits for stakeholders and shareholders and ensuring that we create relevant platforms that amplify and enable our music. In 10 years, we are looking to move from being a TV channel to a digital distribution unit that can be seen as a major global music and entertainment business.