CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1            BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigeria Television Authority Enugu was established in the year 1960 by the Premier of an Eastern region of Nigeria Dr. Michael Okpara. It was the oldest television station in Nigeria. It was received in the thirteen states of the federation. The station has two studios and each of them equipped with video cameras and microphones, because of the tempograph of Enugu the studio and the transmitter are not con-sided.

The transmitter is located about 15 kilometers away from the studio. The station transmitters on 201.75mhz video and 196.25 audio, both local and network programmes are received from the station. In the year 2003 the station was upgraded to a zonal network center. The implication of the above is that the station not only now receives both, also transmitte’s both network news and programmes. The zone covers Abia State, Akwa-Ibom state, Anambra state, Benue state, Cross-River state, Ebonyi state, Enugu state, Imo state and Rivers state. It can be said that the zone and its stations are fulfilling their primary functions of informing, educating and entertainment.

The secondary function of NTA is that it creates employment opportunities

Economic situation in Nigeria today and its attendant problems especially on the purchasing power of her citizens has greatly affected television usage.

In line with the above is the incessant arrests and sometimes close down of some media organizations in the country resulting from their beautifully designed progremmes targeted at attracting viewers but found provoking by the government.

The above mentioned problems in no small measure affected the smooth running of the mass media organization in Nigeria.

Therefore, towards ensuring continuity in the business, it behooves the management of the mass media organization to evolve survival strategies via diversification of activities.

A remarkable survival strategy often adopted, especially in terms of returns on the business and the creation of awareness is advertising.

i.                   Trust worthiness of the mass media organization one hand that of the sponsor n the other side.

ii.                 Prestige of the sponsor of the advertisement.

iii.              The quality of product being advertised etc.

The above mentioned variables or factors individually cannot influence advertising effectively but rather concerted interactions of efforts of these variables. Thus positive result can only be achieved by careful implementation of these variables systematically by the mass media.