African broadcasters to tackle AI, digital disruption at 2026 West Africa convention

The broadcasting industry across West Africa is being squeezed from multiple directions at once. Audiences are splintering into smaller, harder-to-reach fragments. Advertising dollars that once flowed reliably to traditional broadcasters are now chasing global digital platforms. And artificial intelligence is moving through every part of the value chain—from how stories are produced to how viewers discover what to watch. Against this backdrop, Broadcast Media Africa has organized a two-day convention in Accra, Ghana, scheduled for September 22 and 23, 2026, to bring the region's broadcasting and electronic media industry together to confront these pressures head-on.

The gathering will take place at the Labadi Beach Hotel and is designed explicitly for the people making decisions at the top of media organizations. Benjamin Pius, publisher at Broadcast Media Africa, framed the event not as a theoretical exploration but as a practical reckoning. The industry, he said, has moved past debating whether disruption is coming. It is here. What broadcasters need now is honest conversation among senior leaders about what actually works—which new revenue models are viable, how to deploy AI in newsrooms without destroying editorial judgment, how to build sustainable businesses in a landscape that barely resembles the one that existed five years ago.

The convention's agenda reflects the full scope of the crisis and the full scope of possible responses. Sessions will examine sustainable business models for traditional broadcasters and streaming services side by side. There will be focused discussion on advertising innovation and subscription strategies—the two revenue levers most broadcasters are frantically trying to pull. AI-powered audience analytics and measurement will get dedicated attention, as will the automation of newsroom workflows and production processes. The program will also address the unglamorous but essential work of content archiving and preservation, the technical infrastructure of next-generation satellite distribution, and the hybrid cloud-and-satellite operations that many broadcasters are now adopting. Finally, there will be sessions on how AI is reshaping content discovery and the viewer experience on streaming platforms—the technology that determines whether anyone finds your content at all.

The attendees will be the people who actually control these decisions: chief executives, heads of technology, programming directors, and commercial leaders from both public and private broadcasters. Streaming platforms will send representatives. Advertisers and advertising agencies will be present. Regulators will attend. So will the technology companies building the infrastructure that the industry increasingly depends on. This is not a gathering for journalists or academics to observe from the sidelines. It is a working conference for the people steering the ship.

Pius emphasized that Nigerian broadcasters have a particular responsibility in this conversation. Nigeria operates the largest media market in the region, which means the decisions made by Nigerian broadcasters ripple across West Africa. Their choices about which business models to pursue, which technologies to adopt, and how to navigate the AI transition will influence what becomes possible for smaller markets. The convention, in this sense, is as much about Nigeria's role in shaping the continent's broadcasting future as it is about the survival of any individual broadcaster.

Registration and the full program are available at wab-africa.broadcastingandmedia.net. The event is less than a year away. For broadcasters still uncertain about how to respond to fragmentation, platform competition, and AI, the convention represents a rare opportunity to hear directly from peers facing identical pressures and to learn what strategies are actually gaining traction in the market.