MTV BASE & SILVERBIRD TELEVISION BOOST YOUTH APPEAL WITH CHAT, MUSIC, LIFESTYLE & STARS

MTV Networks Africa and Silverbird Television are to add extra sizzle to the MTV Base block on STV, by introducing an intense new Nigerian ‘flava’ to their early-evening programme line-up.
Starting July 2011, MTV Base and Silverbird Television will introduce a series of brand new, co-produced TV shows on their 18:00-19:00 block, airing Monday to Saturday. The shows will include a host of Nigerian themed music and lifestyle programmes and the partners’ first
ever Friday night entertainment show, to be filmed on location in STV’s Lagos studios.

The new-look MTV Base block on STV will include The Official Club Chart (a weekly Nigerian club chart mixed by top Nigerian DJs) and Street Request, a weekly request show that will see MTV camera crews invading various Lagos hotspots to ask viewers to select their hottest jams.

Tuesday nights will witness the welcome return of MTV Base quiz show Base.IQ, the ultimate pro-am test of music knowledge, while Wednesday evenings will see the makeover of MTV’s famous format MVP (Most Voted Playlist), with a purely Naija twist - as viewers take over the
programming reins to choose their favourite Nigerian videos.

The highlight of STV’s MTV Base block will be an exciting off-the-wall Friday night studio-based show, packed with stars, celebrity interviews, entertainment news and hot new music videos. Starting 5 August 2011, the as-yet unnamed show will be hosted by a top Naija celebrity, ably assisted by VJ “C-VON” Okpala.

As an added treat, through July and August, C-VON will be hosting a special series called Flashback – looking back at some of the coolest Nigerian content from the MTV Base’s programming archive. Full of treats, Flashback is the place to catch sight of exclusive footage of Nigerian stars before they “blew up”, including a younger 2Face Idibia talking about his journey to stardom or a youthful D’Banj before he really hit the big time in 2006!

The late-nite MTV Base’s block, airing on STV 23:00-00:00 Wednesday to Saturday, will continue to showcase international programming sourced from MTV channels around the world including longform music programming, reality shows, documentary series, awards shows and drama series.

Commented Alex Okosi, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, MTV Networks Africa, “We are thrilled to work with STV to elevate the MTV Base block to the next level by introducing relevant and edgy programming that is tailored squarely for the Nigerian youth audience”.

Commented Guy Murray-Bruce, President, Silverbird Television: “STV is very proud to partner with MTV on this venture as not only are they a global brand but one that caters for the youth market which constitutes over 60% of the world’s population. It’s a market that STV believes in and caters for via our content on TV. Together STV and MTV are providing quality content on TV for the youth of Nigeria”.

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The Queens of Africa and Silverbird Communications Present The Children’s Fiesta 2011

There is a major new event in the African calendar. On Friday, the 27th of May in Lagos, Children will be introduced to a fun new way of learning as the ‘Children’s Fiesta’ is unveiled.

The event tagged ‘Children’s Fiesta 2011’ is an annual event kicking off this year with the theme ‘’Taking Tomorrow Today’’, specifically designed to inspire kids as well as enhance their career development skills for the future in a subtle and fun-filled environment.

‘The Children’s Fiesta 2011’ is proudly presented by the pair of The Queens of Africa Project and Silverbird Communications.

Silverbird Communications is one of the largest entertainment Companies in Africa consisting of Silverbird Entertainment, Silverbird Cinemas, Rhythm FM and MBGN [Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria beauty pageant]. The recent partnership with Queens of Africa to bring the fiesta was borne out of the need to give children fun, whilst helping them achieve some sense of self-realisation and a positive outlook to the future. Mrs. Yinka Ogundimu, Programmes Manager for Silverbird Television and Spokesperson for the Silverbird Group, says of the partnership “...We [Silverbird and The Queens of Africa] share the same belief in giving children a fun platform to be educated whilst being entertained’

Entrepreneur and Founder of the Queens of Africa Project, Taofick Okoya, describes Queens of Africa as more than just fashion dolls but an avenue “...to show African children that ‘black is beautiful’ by enabling them to play with dolls that reflect their culture and heritage”. Each doll represents a different tribe of Africa; There is Nneka (Igbo), Azeehah (Hausa) and Wuraola (Yoruba), and they are sold in various outfits, the most popular being those dressed in traditional attire. Okoya comments that “The Queens of Africa dolls were created to inspire and influence the coming generation, especially the ‘Girl Child’, so in designing the dolls and their outfits, the team bore this in mind.” He adds that “To the vast majority of people, toys are mere play items or pacifiers for children and little thought goes into which toys best serve the purpose as a tool for a child's development. Children mentally absorb positive and negative influences which can later be detected in their character, especially in their teenage years. We need to see toys for what they really are…..A fun developmental tool.” He felt it was critical to have dolls that represent African heritage so the Queens of Africa program was born.

Both Companies have the support of an impressive ‘Who’s Who’ list of Nigerian Artistes and Celebrities, many of whom are set to take part in the Children’s Fiesta event. This grand event will hold at the Silverbird premises in Lekki, and will be broadcast live. The event will have about a hundred children in attendance, and guests will be selected through invites sent out to various schools within Lagos State, and also through tickets won over the radio.

The event will also coincide with the launch of the Queens of Africa books based on the Queens of Africa dolls that are already familiar to Nigerian children. According to Okoya, the role of the books is the first step to taking the Queens of Africa project global. Okoya is passionate about giving young black children a strong start in life including making sure that the toys, music and books given to them convey positive messages about their heritage. His team worked with a British children’s writer and NLP (Neuro Linguistic programming) specialist, Judy Bartkowiak (JudyBee) and Yetis (LittlePinkPebble), a Children’s Illustrator from Singapore, and the first is titled ‘Learn Confidence’ as this was the first life skill that Okoya and Bartkowiak identified as being required amongst young Nigerian girls. On 27th May, the first seven books will be available in more than a dozen countries and in many formats from paperbacks, Amazon Kindle and Kobo Books through to iBooks for the iPad. At the moment the dolls are sold all over Nigeria in major toy store chains (like Game, Shoprite, Park ‘N’ Shop and Silverbird Galleria), but they have not been launched in Europe or the USA, yet. The Queens of Africa books are available for pre-order from all good bookstores including Amazon UK, USA, Germany, France, Canada and Japan, Amazon Kindle and other formats.

The Silverbird Group was founded by Ben Murray Bruce in 1980 and has grown to a diverse holding of Radio, TV, beauty Pageant sponsor, and movie distribution via its Cinema holdings in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, and Kenya. The group is credited for bringing back Cinema to Lagos in 2004, and establishing Ghana’s first-ever Cineplex of five theatres fully equipped to international standards and with Dolby digital surround sound and contiguous with a media store.

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