Cote Ouest, Africa’s leader in the distribution of content, announces a special partnership with L’Organisation de la Francophonie (OIF), which will see the two parties collaborate in a major operation aimed at reviving more than 3,000 audiovisual programmes.
As part of the project, these documentaries and archive content, which were originally backed by the OIF Film Fund and constitute an important part of the African cultural heritage, will be fully digitalised. The project’s goal is “to select the finest gems, to retrace the identity of the rights’ holders, and to ultimately distribute and promote the content’.
The project will cover 20 African countries and is set to take place over three years – from 2014 to 2016. Cote Ouest will be responsible for the marketing, distribution and rights management of the newly digitised archives.
Mike Dearham, senior vice president of Cote Ouest, commented: “In the face of a serious African content deficit, the advancement of this project will provide much-needed relief to the pan-African audiovisual sector. This project is incredibly important for Africa as it will revitalise and preserve the memories and history of the continent.’
Managed by OIF, the project involves several partners such as Conseil International des Radios et Televisions d’Expression Française (CIRTEF); Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, France (INA); Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest-Africaine (UEMOA); Institut Imagine, Burkina Faso; and Soon, Senegal.
Pierre Barrot, programme specialist in charge of audiovisual, OIF, said: “The supply of hundreds of hours of archived content, that will come about as a result of this project, in addition to the current production of African TV series and documentaries will stimulate the demand from TV channels for African content. This will also encourage production.’
