AYV Press Release
In a new development, the Africa Young Voices (AYV) on March, 22nd 2019 announced a new partnership with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the world service programme in London. This is the first AYV partnership with a global broadcaster in Sierra Leone.
‘’I feel extremely delighted. This is an historic moment. This new partnership harnesses our global reach and broadcasting capabilities to bring our audiences good content. We are happy for this partnership. It’s a win-win for both AYV and BBC. We look forward to a fruitful partnership with the BBC to bring good programmes to AYV,” said Anthony Navo, Founder and CEO of AYV.
‘’We are really privileged for extending your relationship with us. We are very proud of what we are offering Africa at the moment. We have made historic investment in increasing the amount of TV and radio programmes. I hope this will help solidify the relationship between the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone’’, said Jamie Angus, Director of BBC World Service.
AYV will be working with the BBC to promote media development in Sierra Leone. AYV is tapping the most powerful BBC platform and massive BBC World service programmes and newsgathering to create more programmes for audiences in Sierra Leone in a more creative and cutting-edge formats. The BBC has already begun production of programmes that will be aired on AYV, a new series of innovative and amazing programmes. The AYV and BBC partnership will initially deliver seven key programmes:
1. Sport Today
2. Focus on Africa
3. World Hacks
4. The Compass
5. Crowd Science
6. Health Check
7. BBC minutes (Pidgin)
The BBC Senior Business Development Manager for Southern and Western Africa, Steven Martin described the programme as ‘’first in Sierra Leone’’. He said: ‘’It means a really rich mix of new programme that will be available to listeners on AYV. I hope listeners will be tuning in regularly for sport and news, and for some really exciting programmes that we have recently introduced from the BBC. And for the first time listeners to AYV will be able to hear BBC minutes, in Pidgin language’’.
The BBC World Service will provide AYV current news and content that complement its global programmes in Africa. This partnership offers AYV a world-class broadcasting platform for its audiences. The BBC will support the development of new programmes and training for AYV as part of the new partnership. This is the first stage in a long-term mutually beneficial partnership involving the BBC and AYV, with the aim of supporting media development projects reflecting the special relationship between Sierra Leone and United Kingdom.