Onzaian Central News Agency

OCNA

Country	Onza
Headquarters	OCNA HQ Kunta, Onza
Programming
Language(s)	Onzaian
Ownership
Owner	Sadagh Media Group

The Onzaian Central News Agency, commonly known as the OCNA, is an Onzaian cable and satellite news channel owned by Sadagh Media Group. The OCNA was founded in 1971 by Jabr Akpofure as "National News Daily," a news-only channel featuring live news coverage throughout the day and re-runs at night. It was the first of its kind in Onza at the time of its inception and quickly became one of the most watched news channels at the time.

The agency has several affiliates, including numerous international affiliates, that broadcast local news at certain hours and Onzaian television programming during others. Thus, the channel has studios all around the world, but the primary Onzaian studios are located in Kunta, Oshaxas, and Akhmis. Several other studios exist solely for the non-news programming the channel now broadcasts.

The OCNA is available to over 100 million households worldwide thanks to its network of international affiliates and its international channel. In addition, the channel livestreams many of its shows over the internet, making programming available to even more people. Other shows are only able to be streamed with an appropriate subscription, however.

History

The channel was first founded in 1971 by Jabr Akpofure as "National News Daily." The entirety of its programming consisted of news and talk shows, which were broadcast live during the day and reran at night. Akpofure founded the channel after discussing the idea of a channel devoted solely to news with a friend in a bar. He pitched the idea to investors, who after some hesitation, invested enough to enable him to purchase a small studio. A few months later, Akpofure had successfully negotiated contracts with several cable companies at the time, and thus began broadcasting to a number of homes within the same year.

The channel gained traction due to its unique concept after a year in operation. At the time, no other channel existed that played nothing but news. While ratings were abysmally low for the first year -- to the point that the company struggled to pay its staff -- the channel's coverage of then-President Noora el-Moussa's sweeping tourism initiatives during hours where other news stations were off the air won a large share of regular news viewers. By this time, several hotels and restaurants also began tuning TVs in their establishments to NDD, which artificially inflated the channel's ratings.

In 1975, the channel rebranded itself as the Onzaian Central News Agency, or OCNA, thanks to increasing success. In conjunction with the rebranding, the channel diversified its lineup of programs, and recruited several big-name reporters to work as anchors on the channel's various shows. The channel also gained unprecedented publicity in 1976 when President Masqud Ali offered the network an interview, which would become one of the most-watched television broadcasts in Onzaian history.

File:OCNA News Segment.jpg

A picture of a live OCNA news broadcast in 2017.

The channel continued to maintain its popularity thanks to its live coverage of breaking news -- something that competitors only adopted beginning in 1975. Competitors struggled to perfect the OCNA's formula, however, and by this point, the top producers in the industry were staffing OCNA studios around the country. Akpofure took on an advisory role in the company, and Lishan Manyara was hired as CEO in 1981. Manyara launched a sister channel, OCNA2, in 1982, which sought to present news in a documentary style format rather than the live coverage of the channel's primary lineup.

In 1985, as details unfolded about Saraibian terrorists hijacking a passenger jet, the OCNA broke records for viewership as many tuned in around the nation to its live coverage of the incident. By this point, the channel was nationally known in households, and for many was the only source of television news they knew.

The OCNA secured the contract with the National Election Commission to moderate and broadcast the 1989 Presidential Debate -- another event which drew a tremendous amount of viewers -- and all subsequent presidential debates. The network's live coverage of election nights beginning that same year took a distinctive format, complete with analysts in the newsroom being able to successfully predict the electoral outcome long before the NEC could certify a winner.

The network's reputation suffered in 1992, when it broke a story about then-President Kayin Ayodele claiming that she had aborted a pregnancy to run for office. The report, which turned out to be false, was based on falsified medical records supplied to the network by a pro-Liberal political group posing as a team of doctors that claimed they had performed the abortion. The network again lost credibility in 1993 when it incorrectly awarded the election to Dem Soc candidate Ashraqat Janan when Azhar El-Amin was the actual winner. The network apologized profusely, and promised to rework their electoral prediction algorithm. However, an explanation of the mishap was never offered publicly.

Although the channel maintained consistent viewership throughout, it began to be perceived as having a left-wing bias among many Liberal viewers who felt the network gave excessively negative coverage to their candidates during election cycles. This was particularly underscored by the network's series of negative reports on Liberal president Mirza Arendse, who, in a rare move, challenged the incumbent of her party, Azhar El-Amin, and successfully won the presidency. Some of the network's anchors remarked on-air that they thought the move was classless, with some going as far as to say it underscored a lack of political consistency within the party.

The network responded by suspending its Chief Political Officer, Gazbiyya Nazli, and revisiting its editorial standards to ensure fairness across the board. Many producers, anchors, and other staff left the agency as a result, saying they felt they were being asked to not report on real issues.

The channel began a drastic expansion process in 2006, where it began soliciting up-and-coming news agencies in other countries to subsidize as an affiliate network. The goal, according to the network, was to expand its ability to gather information relevant to stories. In 2011, the channel launched its online live-streaming service, where viewers with appropriate subscriptions can log on through their television provider and watch the news live. The feature is only available for the network's primary channel and international affiliates -- local affiliates are currently unavailable.

Programming

The OCNA's current programming on its main channel consists of live news coverage from 6:00 AM to 1:00 AM on weekdays. On weekends, live coverage runs from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with primetime programming filling in the gaps. Programs filling these gaps are usually factual programming presented in a reality-style format, including the following:

• Globetrotting with İlkin Sulayman -- İlkin Sulayman travels to various locations around the world, presenting segments on issues affecting local communities that may be overlooked by other news outlets.
• Community Table with Salha Fajr -- Salha Fajr goes to all corners of Onza to talk to voters of all socioeconomic backgrounds and get their perspective on issues.
• Tech at 7:00 -- Airs Saturday nights at 7:00, Danya Nida and Mu'tamid Oluwaseyi discuss technology and video game news.
• Open Mic with Eldar Ra'd -- Eldar Ra'd interviews a variety of guests who come on to discuss a massive variety of issues.
• Inspired with Aaliyah Masuma -- Aaliyah Masuma tells inspiring, positive stories about Onzaian citizens around the world.

The network otherwise has a fairly large cast of anchors and replacement anchors that host the live coverage during the week. Some of these shows occasionally break from their live coverage to present a special segment, especially in recent times as the all-day live news broadcast concept has come under fire in varying corners of politics.

Platforms

While the majority of the OCNA's revenue continues to be earned thanks to advertisers on its channels, it has expanded its variety of mediums of coverage considerably since its inception, with its main webpage being one of the most visited websites daily in the UDE. The website hosts a large variety of stories presented in a newspaper-style format, similar to one of its competitors, The Kunta Chronicle. The channel also has a few different radio stations that broadcast the news live in addition to a few opinion-based talk shows. These radio stations have seen a decline in listenership, along with the rest of the radio industry, over time, but nevertheless remain among the most popular of radio stations in Onza.

A room in the Ivory Tower, the cable room, as it is called, features a number of televisions tuned to the major news stations of Onza. Notably, the OCNA's main channel is on the largest of these TVs, and the only actively providing sound at any given moment, which underscores its status as the most widely recognized news agency in the country.

Affiliates

While the OCNA has a single international channel for a general look at news beyond Onza that is available worldwide, it also subsidizes various affiliates in other countries that serve solely to report news local to the nation where they are located. Some affiliates are partly owned by media groups local to the respective nation. Often, these stations operate independently of OCNA administration, but accept subsidies in exchange for hosting Onzaian advertisers and airing Onzaian news and prime time broadcasting at certain times of day. Although the stations are widely available in the countries in which they are located, they are oftentimes omitted from major cable packages in the UDE itself. The following are some of those affiliates:

Country	Name
Asura
Aleia	KCMR
Template:Country data Aquidneck Aquidneck	WONZ
Brilliania	WQMX
Template:Country data Carcossica Carcossica	OXKN
Crylante	XWWM
Midrasia	WKTB
Navack	NINK
Vestrim
Template:Country data Democratic Federation (Aeia) Democratic Federation (Aeia)	KKRQ
Isolaprugna	KMOX