In her opening speech at MIPAfrica in Cape Town on Monday, Nomsa Philiso, CEO of General Entertainment at MultiChoice Group, praised the company for creating African stories and content that have captivated a global audience.
Alluding to the rapid rise of Amapiano and Afrobeats, Philiso confirmed that African shows are highly sought after in the global market.
“There’s a good chance that Africa’s film industry is about to have its own global moment. We have already seen that happen with Afrobeats, Amapiano and African music as a whole,” said Philiso.
She pointed out that African shows have continued to thrive globally through MultiChoice’s fruitful partnerships with international distributors such as Abacus, AMC, StudioCanal, The Exchange and Fremantle.
Bourgeois reality TV show, The Real Housewives of Durban (RHOD) was screened on Hayu, Peacock and Bravo. Devil’s Peak was sold to Tubi for North America in January, followed by Spinners, which charted at #6 during its prime time on Canal+ in France in July.
Philiso boasted African shows were not only globetrotting, but they have earned themselves an international reputation by being recipients of international awards.
Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story was lauded with the Audience Award at Tribeca, in New York City. South African series, Catch Me A Killer on Showmax, was the first local series in competition at Series Mania, an international TV festival, where it won a British Production Designer’s Guild award.
Furthermore, Spinners was the first African series at the Canneseries, winning the Best Foreign Series at Shanghai's Magnolia Awards. Additionally, crime series, Reyka, earned two nominations at the International Emmy Awards for Best Drama and Best Actress for its lead protagonist, Kim Engelbrecht.
The crime series was sold to over 150 territories, where it aired on HBO LatAM, Sky Italia, BritBox North America and Canal+.
Despite international strides, Philiso noted producing and disseminating content for African audiences was mandatory.
Such mandates had led to the success of historic drama series Shaka iLembe as the most googled TV series in South Africa last year, followed by Big Brother Naija, which generated 1.8 billion votes. MultiChoice runs in 54 African countries.
“Like everyone else, Africans want to hear their own languages and see themselves reflected in what they watch. As MultiChoice, we have over 84 000 hours of local content to showcase on the world stage. We have been buying content from all the global giants for decades, but increasingly these relationships are becoming reciprocal as demand for African content grows,” said Philiso.
She added: “On Showmax, 9/10 of the most watched shows since its relaunch in February have been local. It took a massive show like House of the Dragon to make a dent.”
The Star