SECTOR 3 the government. Some panellists pointed out, however, that these exclamations - which are usually made in the process of budget discussions - might rather be motivated by populist self-promotion than by serious intentions to interfere. The current Director General has made significant improvements in the funding and running of the NBC towards financial sustainability. With regards to the current Director General of the NBC – Albertus Aochamub, one panellist noted that “He has a much better standing [than previous DGs] and is able to explain and defend budgets”. For instance, he made it clear to the Parliamentary Committee on Public Funding that the government cannot expect the NBC to cover all government events – including expensive outside broadcasts – if they are not willing to fund these accordingly. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 2.1 (2005: n/a; 2007: n/a; 2009: 2.2; 2011: 1.8) 3.7 The state/public broadcaster offers diverse programming formats for all interests including local content and quality public interest programmes. While the NBC has made vast improvements with respect to financial sustainability, it has not yet managed to mirror these improvements with sustainable high quality content. “Now we have 3 channels with no content” since the digital switchover, commented one panellist. There have, however, been several noticeable improvements in terms of the content, look and feel of NBC programmes in recent years. Local music programmes have improved and diversified and there are different programme formats such as live shows like ‘Free Your Mind’, talk shows, and magazine programmes such as ‘Business One on One’, ‘Business Today’ or ‘The Week that Was’( when it was still on air). The NBC also ran ‘Elections Talk’ during 50 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2015