Multichoice media showcase promotes African content

The second annual media showcase, under the theme ‘Africa’s most-loved storyteller’, was hosted in Johannesburg last week, November 21, 2019, with representatives from across the African continent in attendance.

Organized by Multichoice Group (MCG), the media showcase comes on the heels of rising interest in entertainment witnessed across African. The daily consumption of video entertainment on the continent is around 50 per cent higher than the global average.

The media showcase is also used as a platform where African storytellers can connect with a channel that shares their authentic African stories to a wider audience. Through MCG, development of local content and local talent is enhanced to ensure that the video entertainment industry across the continent thrives and grows to compete with the best in the world.

At a gathering with media and others with a keen interest in film and the African entertainment eco-system, local content that caters to the African audience is about to get better with more investment in production and distribution.

Tanzania, through Maisha Magic Bongo is able to view a plethora of local shows and in the same vein local talents are given an avenue to shine on the global stage through cable television.

At a time when the drive to push African local content wide and across different channels is heating up, the media showcase provides an overview of where Africa stands in terms of pushing its own narrative and telling its own African stories.

“Local content is a key differentiator for us, and we intend to continue producing more of it for our various markets. Our latest set of half-year results showed a 12 per cent increase year-on-year in the number of hours of local content production, and our local content library now exceeds 54 000 hours,” said Yolisa Phahle, Multichoice Group CEO of General Entertainment. “We will continue to shift a greater percentage of spend on local content.”

Developing the African entertainment industry goes beyond film, it encompasses other genres such as sports, music, reality television, and so forth. In order to realize true progression in this sphere, collaboration with more advanced industries from other territories such as Hollywood is pertinent in this journey to develop the African entertainment field. MCG, for example, has collaborated with international producers, Mannequin Pictures – the co-producers of “Rogue”.

“True to the spirit of genuine collaboration, this co-production combines the know how and talent of Hollywood with our local talent and crew, making it a perfect fit with our strategy of elevating our content production to an international level. It also creates job opportunities and improves the economics of film making for everyone,” explained Phahle.