DISCOP AFRICA 3, a market dedicated to Sub-Saharan Africa’s television sector, concluded on 26 February in Senegal, with a majority of suppliers reporting significant volume deals.
The event was attended by 75 international suppliers of television content, including 15 African-based companies, as well as acquisitions and programme executives representing 92 African TV Stations and Pay-TV platforms.
According to the DISCOP AFRICA organisers, overall participation remained equal to the previous edition held six months ago in Nairobi, Kenya, but the average number of meetings between participants increased substantially with all market areas busy throughout the event.
“The acquisitions teams attending reported that although they were still operating with limited budgets, they had far clearer views on how best to optimize them during their visit to DISCOP AFRICA 3′ said Patrick Jucaud, general manager of DISCOP.
“Competition between suppliers is driving the marketplace in the right direction,’ he continued, “The recent “presidential’ visit to Senegal by a major Bollywood Star has contributed to the continuing popularity of Indian content and an increased number of suppliers of Indian soaps and films are now competing well against the more established Latin American telenovela distributors’.
Major industry highlights of the DISCOP AFRICA 3 event included the announcement of the first association dedicated to the protection of copyright and the enforcement of copyright laws in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Attending DISCOP AFRICA 3’s opening ceremony, Senegal’s Minister of Information expressed confidence in the future of television content produced in Africa, confirming the government’s decision to build dubbing facilities in Senegal in response to the overwhelming demand for programmes dubbed in African dialects, as well as in French, English and Portuguese.
Held twice a year, the next DISCOP AFRICA will take place in Nairobi, Kenya from 1 to 3 September 2010.
Since the beginning of 2009, DISCOP events have brought together a combined number of 2160 participants, a 33% increase from 2008, demonstrating the growing importance of world regions such as Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa for audiovisual content business.
After 15 years of operating independently, DISCOP events partnered with the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) in 2005. NATPE is a global non-profit organization dedicated to the creation, development and distribution of televised programming in all forms, across all mature and emerging media platforms. www.natpe.org
