The 2015 edition of African TV content market and exhibition Discop Africa Johannesburg recorded a 50% increase in attendance, and saw a number of major deals struck and announcements made during the event, which ended on Friday, 6 November.
“The African TV industry is showing exponential year-on-year growth, and the over 50% increase in attendance at the 11th edition of Discop Africa Johannesburg is reflective of the growing international interest in African produced content,” the organisers said in a statement on Monday, 9 November.
Major deals and announcements
Over 2 000 TV content producers, distributors and other industry players from across the globe were in attendance at the Sandton Convention Centre, where three days of intense meetings, conferences and business dealings yielded the following deals and announcements:
- Six major collaborative deals were signed between South African and Chinese production companies during a special China Showcase event on 4 November.
- Euronews announced the launch in January 2016 of Africanews, an independent, multilingual pan-African news network.
- M-Net and RTI, the publicly owned radio and television authority of Côte d’Ivoire, signed a major deal in terms of which M-Net will secure a significant amount of content from RTI.
- African kids’ TV network Turner Africa announced a deal with Nigerian Pay TV channel ConSat to air its new children’s channel, Boing Africa.
- TV4 Entertainment in the US announced that it will be licensing Kenyan VOD platform Buni.tv for streaming on US and UK platforms such as Amazon.
Country of honour China comes to the party
Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa, addressing a gala dinner on 5 November, said that Discop Africa “helps to activate the television and film industry into embracing the knowledge that surrounds us and is also to be found within us”.
The event also brings countries together, Minister Mthethwa added, making special mention of China, which was country of honour at both Discop Africa Johannesburg and the inaugural Discop Africa Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in June.
Of the 20-plus Chinese media companies that attended the Johannesburg event, six signed collaboration agreements with African television companies which will see Chinese TV programmes being dubbed and located on the African continent in the near future.
Discop Africa Johannesburg also hosted the inaugural Meet Your Stars TV upfront presentations from SABC 1, 2 and 3 as well as from etv and StarOne. Over 25 shows were presented to media buyers, planners and industry influencers over three days of presentations that featured 68 top South African TV stars.
The second edition of Discop Africa Abidjan will take place from 31 May to 2 June 2016, with Morocco as the official guest country, while the 12th edition of Discop Africa Johannesburg will take place from 2 to 4 November 2016, with the United States as official guest country.
Discop Africa is endorsed by the City of Johannesburg and Cote D’Ivoire’s Communications and Arts and Culture ministries. Sponsors include the Gauteng Film Commission, KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission, National Film and Video Foundation and Film and Publication Board.
More information on Discop Africa:
Source: staff reporter