The experts believe the lack of competition at the national level is the main problem of the Tajik state TV channels, the ratings of which have been plummeting in recent years.
Dushanbe resident Ardasher Gulmurodzoda, 23, says he does not watch Tajik republican TV channels because there are no entertaining or analytical TV shows of high quality.
“The broadcast content of TV channels is also monotonous: the same news piece is broadcast on all TV channels at once. The foreign TV channels are different. They compete for the audience’s attention and create good content,” says Gulmurodzoda.
According to him, unfortunately, the attempts to specialise TV channels have not yielded positive results.
“Shabakai Avval” (previously TV Tajikistan) has now become politicised and does not even broadcast movies and music. Although the Channel One Russia does it sometimes to entertain the audience,” says Gulmurodzoda.
Gulmurodzoda says he has not watched regional TV channels for several years as well.
“Once, I watched SMT TV (the first and the only private TV channel in Dushanbe – Ed.). The regional TV channels have less airtime than the republican ones. SMT TV broadcast the news from the Current Time TV, two or three music videos and advertisements, but it had little airtime,” Gulmurodzoda said.
According to Dushanbe resident Bobojon Shafe, 64, nothing is interesting for him on the republican TV channels.
“Sometimes, I watch the shows about literature or culture,” Shafe said.
The news on the republican TV channels seem very tiresome to him.
“Sometimes, they shoot a long news piece about some livestock breeder, but it looks like a documentary about agriculture,” says Shafe.
He says the video graphics used on some republican TV channels make him feel uncomfortable.
“Many news tickers on Jahonnamo TV channel can strike a person blind. I do not know if other people feel the same way,” Shafe says. According to KTM, a company analysing media consumption in Tajikistan, the Tajik audience watches national TV channels less often than foreign ones.
A recent KTM’s Analysis of TV Consumption in 2021 showed that the share of all Tajik TV channels is only 49% of the national audience.
According to the research, 51% of the audience watch foreign TV channels, 38% – national TV channels, and 11% – regional and local TV channels.
The researchers note that the decline in the Tajik audience’s interest in national TV channels is a stable trend in recent years. For example, in 2015, 46% of the population of Tajikistan watched national television, in 2020 – 42%, and in 2021 – 38%.
According to KTM, the most popular foreign TV channels are Russian, Uzbek channels, and a group of Persian-language satellite TV channels GEM TV.
At the same time, television remains among the most essential sources of information. 81% of the population of Tajikistan watch television every day.
A marketing expert and founder of the Total Advertising Group agency Sherali Jurabaev believes international businesses refuse to place advertisements on the air of Tajik TV channels due to the decrease in their audience.
“We do not know the exact amount of the budgets that international companies plan to spend on the Tajik TV. Therefore, we can only estimate. This amount can be up to one million US dollars,” Jurabayev told CABAR.asia journalist.
The President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon has repeatedly spoken about the low quality of the local TV channels. The last time he brought this topic up was in 2019, at a meeting with representatives of state media (independent and foreign media were not invited), saying that they were uncompetitive in the current environment.
As an example, President Emomali Rahmon mentioned the work of Euronews and Al-Jazeera TV channels, which broadcast news on time; he instructed the Head of the Presidential Administration Ozoda Rahmon to monitor television shows. Currently, it is unknown whether such monitoring was carried out, and what its results were.
All national TV companies in Tajikistan are state-owned. The attempts to create non-state national TV channels were unsuccessful due to the denial of registration.
All private TV channels are regional; most of them are located in the Sughd region. These TV channels broadcast mostly entertainment content; there is almost no content on the latest news, political, economic, and social problems.
The Experts Advise Television Workers to Study the Audience
More than two years have passed, but the work of Tajik TV channels has not improved, judging by the results of research and feedback from the audience.
A head of one of the state TV channels anonymously told CABAR.asia journalist that he agreed with the opinion of the head of state, and they were trying to rectify the situation.
“Where there is work, there is criticism. The government pays great attention to the work of television. We also try to improve the content of our shows. However, the work of journalists and technical staff cannot be ignored. There are good shows on TV. We are preparing shows about famous people, there are good shows about politics, economy, and culture,” said a source.
The critics say the government continues to perceive television as the main propaganda channel, which affects the content of republican TV channels.
A journalist and media expert Shahlo Akobirova believes the lack of a competitive market is the main reason for the stagnation of television.
Today, our TV channels do not realise for whom they prepare the content.
According to her, most of the heads of TV channels in Tajikistan do not know how to identify their audience and do not even know about the existence of tools for it.
“Today, our TV channels do not realise for whom they prepare the content. It is necessary to study the audience to know what kind of people are watching the certain channel or show, when and why they change the channels,” Akobirova said.
She also underlined that the republican TV channels are funded by the state, regardless of the quality of their media product.
“Financing TV channels from the state budget makes them lazy to some extent,” says Akobirova.
Double Standards and Poor TV Personnel Training
Shahlo Akobirova believes the authorities apply double standards to state and independent TV channels. For example, the first group does not need licenses, while the process of obtaining one for a private TV channel is not simple.
Among other difficulties of the private TV channels, she mentioned a decision made in May obliging independent TV channels (which do not have large budgets) to pay 1% of their annual income to the State Committee on Television and Radio.
Akobirova is also disappointed with the quality of training in journalism faculties at Tajik universities.
“There are private training studios, but they teach only video filming. However, the students do not receive the basic knowledge essential for working with video on television. Most of their courses cover philology: style, language, and literature. In general, we do not have most of the disciplines needed to train journalists at the journalism faculties,” Akobirova said.
Abdukodir Talbakov, who headed the capital’s Poytakht TV channel for several years, said that state-owned TV channels are losing the competition due to a lack of professional specialists, limited financial resources, and excessive politicisation of TV shows.
“Most of our national TV channels are now employing students. The heads and managers of these channels hire employees for their good looks, and not for their knowledge and experience,” he said.
The expert considers the lack of cooperation between large global companies and TV channels as another problem of local television.
“Globally, the major commercial businesses are partners of most of the television shows. There are almost no such examples in our country,” Talbakov said.
The experts believe the monopolisation of airtime by the state TV channels is the main problem. According to Shahlo Akobirova, it is necessary to simplify the conditions for the registration of private TV companies, which could compete with state-owned national companies.
“Today, our TV channels are competing with influential foreign channels. The only incentive to produce high-quality content is to create a competitive market,” says Akobirova.