Kana TV

Due to the relative infancy of the television market in Ethiopia at the time of its launch, Kana had to commission its own studies on television viewership in the country. These studies revealed that a majority of viewers were watching foreign language content with channels like MBC 1 and Al Jazeera being some of the most popular.[1] The success of its dubbed content was largely built on this fact that there was a large appetite for foreign content in Ethiopia that was waiting to be satisfied.[3]

In March 2017, Kana released the first independently conducted all encompassing TV market study after launching its channel. According to this study Kana TV had gained a 34% market share and 8 of the top 10 highest rated prime time shows were on Kana TV (as of March 2017).[5]

The channel has drawn criticism from conservative commentators who argue that over-consumption of foreign soap operas dubbed in Amharic will corrupt Ethiopian culture.[3] This led to different associations composed of concerned actors, directors, & writers to formally petitioned the government to shut down the channel prior to it being launched. While appeals to shut down the network were ignored, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority (EBA) did change its policies to mandate that most of the content of television channels in Ethiopia be locally produced content.[7]