The BRICS bloc, a rising economic force, is flexing its media muscles in Africa with the launch of TV BRICS, a Moscow-headquartered network aiming to counter Western narratives in the Global South.
Led by Russia’s Vladimir Putin in 2017, this initiative seeks to broadcast the group’s activities and perspectives to a vast potential audience of 3.5 billion in BRICS nations alone.
Owned by Russia’s Interstate Corporation for Development, TV BRICS already partners with media outlets across China, Russia, and Latin America.
Its 24-hour Russian channel serves as a home base, while recent partnerships with media companies in Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, and Mozambique mark a strategic shift towards Africa’s fast-growing populations.
“The international media establishment doesn’t tell our stories well,” Ayanda Hollow, President of TV BRICS Africa, told Semafor Africa.
He emphasizes their focus on bringing development, cultural, and human-interest narratives from BRICS nations to global audiences, not simply countering existing media viewpoints. “No one can tell our own stories like we can,” he asserts.
However, dethroning established Western giants like BBC and VOA in Africa won’t be easy. The BBC, with its decades of experience and a “trusted brand” reputation, boasts 63 million viewers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya alone. VOA claims to reach 25 million across radio, TV, web, and social media.
Yet, TV BRICS aims to carve its own niche. Emphasizing local partnerships, diverse programming in languages like Kiswahili, Zulu, and Sepedi, and collaboration opportunities for African content creators, TV BRICS seeks to offer a fresh perspective and platform for previously unheard voices.
Whether TV BRICS can successfully challenge the dominance of Western media in Africa remains to be seen.
However, its arrival undoubtedly marks a new chapter in the continent’s media landscape, offering a platform for BRICS nations to tell their own stories and engage African audiences on their own terms.
This could potentially reshape the information landscape and foster a more diverse and multipolar media ecosystem in the Global South.
