Broadcasters Convention 2026 addresses AI and audience trends

At the Broadcasters Convention 2026 in Accra, industry leaders discussed the technological evolution of the African media landscape, focusing on audience engagement, artificial intelligence, and cloud infrastructure.

Aboubakar Coulibaly, Group CEO of New World TV, argued that broadcasters must move beyond traditional audience reach metrics. He emphasized the need to understand detailed consumption patterns, including who is watching, when they are watching, and their interest in supplementary content such as highlights and photographs surrounding major events.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Shamima Muslim addressed the intersection of AI and journalistic integrity. While noting that cloud-native broadcasting and AI can facilitate language translation and archive retrieval, she highlighted operational challenges such as cloud storage costs, data requirements, and cybersecurity. Muslim also warned of the editorial risks posed by automation, including deepfakes and fabricated content, stressing that verification is essential to maintaining public trust.