Exploring GoTV’s heritage of family entertainment

A father walks into the electronic section of a shopping mall with his son, locates the GoTV outlet with ‘get a GoTV decoder’. This scenario confronts viewers daily as their television screens transmit the new television commercial for the festive season. The visual continues with the excited child bouncing along the busy streets with his father. As reflected in the video, the city life is characterised by a variety of fun-seekers influenced by popular culture.

The city vibes resonate with people of all ages, male and female, although they have different tastes in television content. While the older generation often favours light-hearted family drama, the young want to see action movies, reality shows, music programmes, dance shows and other entertainment channels. For the festive season, there are a number of competing activities that are laden with entertainment. Festivals, theatres and cinemas are loaded for this season but as reinforced by the soundtrack in the GoTV commercial, ‘Africa’ by Yemi Alade, featuring Sauti Sol, there is no place like home.

While it may be gratifying to go out of one’s comfort zone for leisure, the GoTV television commercial highlights other perks to indoor entertainment such as the benefit of family bonding opportunities and budget-friendly fun time. Those values are broken into bits in the multiple shots that tell the story. There is an aged couple, who enjoys each other’s company by watching romantic drama on GoTV. The father and his son, who are at the opening shot, spend time watching one of the sports channels, while occasionally sharing affectionate glances. The mother, who makes for her daughter’s hair, is seen rocking to the music emanating from the television screen.

One may wonder if the TVC for GoTV MAX is presenting a stereotype picture of an African family, where the mother is too overwhelmed with household chores to be found sitting before the television. On the contrary, it shows the busy mother sharing her attention between making her girl’s hair and watching a television drama. The image of the Santa Claus on television in this scene serves as a reminder for viewers that very soon the holiday period will be here and parents owe their children the best treat, which can be in form of GoTV MAX.