Cote Ouest, a leading TV content distributor in Francophone Africa, headquartered in Abidjan, has announced a sub-distribution partnership with South African pay television station M-Net.
According to a press statement from Cote Ouest, the company has traditionally focused on Hollywood and Latin American productions. However, the partnership with M-Net will allow Cote Ouest to expand its catalogue to include cutting-edge African TV content for sale and distribution to the Anglophone market, which provides a unique opportunity for the company to celebrate Africa’s rich axis of cultural excellence.
M-Net’s historic African Film Library (AFL), is the world’s largest archive of award-winning African cinema, and has been more than three-years in the making. The AFL comprises of a vast catalogue of short films, feature films and documentaries from across the continent.
The films are available in a variety of languages and includes films by Senegalese legend Ousmane Sembene (Borom Sarret, La Noire De…), Egypt’s Youssef Chahine (Le Destin, Saladin, The 6th Day, The Land and The Sparrow), Senegal’s Djibril Diop Mambety (Badou Boy, Hyenes, Le Franc and Touki Bouki), Haile Gerima, Kwaw Ansah, Flora Gomes, Jean Rouch and Idrissa Ouedragou.
M-Net has spent years researching content and has made significant investment in acquiring copyright to key African audio-visual content. The AFL also includes popular TV series such as Changes (originally from Kenya), Tinsel (from Nigeria), Egoli (M-Net’s longest running soapie), African documentaries including Great Africans, TV magazine show Face of Africa, as well as a selection of Nollywood hits.
Bernard Azria, Cote Ouest’s CEO, after having created the first distribution entity in West and North Africa, said: “We are proud to enrich our offer to English-speaking African markets with more than 1,000 hours of first class African TV content’.
Mike Dearham, Head of Sales & Library, M-Net adds: “The African Film Library truly showcases the diverse content being produced on the continent. M-Net is dedicated to the growth and development of the African production industry, and we are excited to be working in partnership with Cote Ouest to take rich African content to the Anglophone market.’
