Attend any global film event or market these days and you’ll find a lot of people talking Africa. African content, African authenticity, African stories. The Berlinale has hosted the Africa Hub for 3 years now, Cannes is making a lot of noise around their Africa Pavilion, and Toronto, even SXSW have African Pavilions or specialised programs and screenings. Many (maybe even most) of these events are important platforms to showcase African filmmakers and content producers, and to promote a handful of top African titles, however, if you speak to producers who attend these events, the reality is that very few deals are actually being done at these events. These events are wonderful for networking, learning about the latest trends, personalities and organisations working on the continent, but there tend to be very few buyers actually looking for content. The spaces are designed more around education than around sales. A producer or sales agent looking to sell is going to find themselves up against intensely fierce competition within the general sales markets at these events where country high-profile sales companies and well- organised country delegations promote a wealth of diverse content. African producers and sales agents will generally need to make their own way at these global events, competing with much more sophisticated markets – sales agents from Europe, North America, South America and Asia tend to have a lot more content to offer and more money to support the marketing and sales of the content.
At this year’s EFM, Namibia and Rwanda were the only African countries with a noticeable presence amidst dozens of other country stands and exhibitions. This means that African producers and sales agents will struggle to even get the right meetings, and are even less likely to ink the deal with any of the global buyers on site. The business end of actually selling African content into a global marketplace is still, in my view, lagging well behind what the media hype around African content would have us believe. After listening to many of the discussions and even presenting at many of these events, I continue to wonder when the African TV/film/content space will hit the critical mass necessary to truly transform the industry into one that is no longer just surviving, but rather into a growing and thriving creative force that drives economic growth across the continent. So while there is value in attending these global events, what they tend to highlight is the potential of the African market and the global interest in this future potential. However, interest in a potential future is very different to real and wide- spread interest in the purchase of African content on a widespread basis. Buyers of African content are still predominantly African, and while the major global players who have made the most noises about producing African content are streaming or VOD platforms such as Netflix, it is rather the smaller players, the dozens of free to air stations and their pay TV channel contemporaries that are keeping the industry alive.
The international companies with vested interests in the continent, the likes of DW, Canal + and Coute Oueste and Star Times have, for decades licensed and produced African content for their African platforms, and to a smaller extent for diasporic markets. Cote Ouest and more recently, Canal+, through their A+ channel have been dominant in the creation and licensing of francophone content. Canal+ is also clearly moving into English speaking Africa with and the recent acquisition of Nigeria’s ROK Studios and IROK streaming platform. These companies, as well as Multichoice and Showmax, who have bet the farm on Africa, and, don’t have much choice , are the dominant forces in the African content space, with additional players such as China’s StarTimes, and the now African owned Kwese iflix adding to the mix. The only other global company consistently licensing and producing content for the African diaspora, albiet on a very small, is The Africa Channel, who operate on some pay TV bouquets in North America and online via their streaming Demand Africa platform. However, the other major studios, streaming platforms and international production houses have only just begun to test the waters with African content. Therefore, the belief that some in the industry hold that global (read American or European) players are going to somehow ( and rapidly) transform the African content industry is not substantiated in fact.
Despite the very well promoted announcements from platforms such as Netflix, it is actually only a handful of African originals that have been commissioned or co-produced globally, with slightly more being licensed. Making news most recently has been the Mnet, ZDF and Cinemax co- production of Deon Myer’s Trackers. This multi -national production sees a potentially exciting model of partnership that is producing content for multiple audiences and regions. This year, Netflix announced three co-produced original South African series ( Queen Sono, Shadow, Blood & Water ), along with the animated series Mama K’s Team 4 , and the Nigerian film Lionheart . For this, they have received massive attention from media and professionals across Africa; however, in the grand scheme of their global productions, these are not massive announcements, especially when compared to what Netflix Originals is doing in other parts of the world. Compare these numbers to Netflix Originals in India who announced in April that ten new original movies were already in production for 2019, following on from the five previous original movies, and the eight to ten original series that went into production within the Indian market this year. In terms of just numbers, the market potential of Africa matches India, yet the reality is that the Indian market is much more sophisticated in terms of access to streaming platforms and in their ability and expertise in telling and selling their own stories both at home and on a global scale.
Estimates are that in India, Netflix has between 1-2 million subscribers, and has set its sights on this market for its growth potential despite threats from many local competitors. In Asia, Netflix has over 58 million subscribers and has already produced 100 originals in eight countries and already has 17 announced for 2019 that will be produced in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, India and South Korea. Netflix announced 24 new titles for Europe in the fourth quarter of 2018 – that’s equivalent to the total for the region in 2017 and increased the number of European titles it produced by another third during 2019, having delivered 141 projects in 2018. When one looks at the numbers in Africa – not the potential numbers- but the actual numbers, it is clear, from a business perspective why major players such as Netflix are taking things slowly. There are stacks of statistics and data that show the massive potential market that Africa represents, with a population of 1.4 billion and an estimated 77% considered “youth” – and with smart mobile phone and broadband data penetration increasing exponentially – A frica’s potential to sell to itself is self-evident. However, the current realities of technological limitations, the lack of access to broadband and affordable data services, along with the economic inequality and massive poverty still on the contintent, means that the African content market is in a semi- permanent state of “emerging” and yet never quite arriving.
I believe this is also partly due to the pervasive view that we have not “made it” unless we do so on a global scale. Films are only deemed successful or even worthy if they screen at Cannes or TIFF, not at DIFF or AFRIFF. Similarly, producers have also convinced themselves that their only sales and distribution options are through international platforms, forgetting that free to air TV across Africa is still the biggest player in the space and that many of these channels, as well as many of Africa’s newly emerging pay TV platforms, are more likely to commission or license African content. The buzz around streaming, VOD and OTT has also blinded many producer to the reality that most Africans still get the bulk of their content from good old fashioned free to air, and pay TV platforms. Africa is predicted to have 45 million pay TV subscribers by 2024 and 690 million smartphones by the same year. Uzalo, the South African soapie on SABC 1 hit the 10 million viewer mark in June, and has sustained these numbers, with the show breaking the 10.2 million viewership mark earlier this month, the highest ever recorded by a show of any format. In Nigeria, Africa Magic is one of the most popular channels, and an estimated 5 million people in Nigeria (over 40% of the total DSTV subscriber base in Africa) have access to the channel. There are also 28 free to air channels in Nigeria.
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