As at 2pm on 31 October, the first day of the DISCOP AFRICA multiplatform content market held at Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre, 1 197 people had registered for the event, 85% of whom had collected their badges.
This 7th edition of DISCOP AFRICA and the first ever to be held in South Africa, boasted 173 exhibitors from China, South America, Europe, UK and Africa. Some 354 companies registered as buyers of content.
Screen Africa spoke to Patrick Jucaud-Zuchowicki, general manager of Basic Lead, the Los Angeles-based organisers of DISCOP AFRICA, just prior to going to press. “We’re delighted by the large turnout and expect more visitors for the remaining two days of the event. I spoke to some of the exhibitors this morning and everyone was thrilled by the fact that the industry is much more vibrant than it was this time last year.
“Our conference programme got off to a great start with 200 delegates attending the opening keynote session on the benefits of digital migration for the African continent.
Our guest speaker was Jason Njoku of Nigeria,’ said Jucaud-Zuchowicki.
The first morning of DISCOP AFRICA saw the signing of an agreement between the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) of China and South African commercial free-to-air broadcaster e.tv.
Said e.tv CEO Marcel Golding: “We’ve been cooperating with the Chinese for some time now and are the only African broadcaster to have a news bureau in China. In the past e.tv has embarked on a few co-productions with Chines broadcaster CCTV but the agreement we signed today is with the state. We see this as the start of a collaboration that may lead to more co-productions between China and e.tv. SARFT has kindly offered us some Chinese films for broadcast on the e.tv channel.’
Kenyan conglomerate A24 Media is a veteran of DISCOP AFRICA events and was armed with a big catalogue of content at the 2012 event.
“We had a promising meeting this morning with a mobile company from South Africa that is looking for suitable programming. In fact, all the meetings that we’ve had at this DISCOP AFRICA so far have been positive. It’s clear that everyone wants to get their hands on African content and A24 is uniquely positioned to supply content to meet any need,’ said A24 Media’s Natasha Kahiu.
Nigerian based satellite and cable broadcaster Trend Tv was at DISCOP AFRICA specifically to sell the programming it has produced for its three local content channels.
“We’ve found that more and more people are wanting content from Africa,’ commented Trend Tv executive director and producer Fathia Ansah Plange. “Because of the increased number of TV networks in Africa, local audiences want to see themselves reflected on the small screen instead of having to watch overseas content.
“People have come to our stand at DISCOP AFRICA to enquire about putting their channels on our platform. Conversely we’ve also had enquiries from companies in Gabon, South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe who want some of our channels on their own platforms. We are also open to straight content exchanges, mostly with independent producers.’
The Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) sponsored the attendance at DISCOP AFRICA of 25 filmmakers whose projects had received GFC funding.
Said the GFC’s Tumi Ntshingila: “We thought that DISCOP AFRICA would be a great networking platform for our filmmakers and have already fielded a lot of enquiries about their films.
“On the GFC side there has been interest from producers from Nigeria and Kenya regarding our locations. The GFC is looking forward to more business and more content coming out of Gauteng.’
Sky News International exhibited at DISCOP AFRICA for the first time. Said head of Distribution Sian-Elin Davies: “We see Africa as a growing market and are looking to extend our reach across the continent. The fact that Sky is already a strong brand is obviously advantageous in this regard.
“At DISCOP AFRICA we’ve met with a lot of new start-up platforms in Africa, especially from Nigeria, who are trying to find creative models of sustainability. It’s up to the channel providers to provide them with compelling content.’
Screen Africa magazine – November / December 2012
