The Zanzibar International Film Festival – taking place from 18 to 26 July 2015 – will be hosting a forum focused on the challenge of producing local content in the processes of digital migration.
With the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and the East African Community, ZIFF will be organising this three-day Digital Migration Forum which will bring filmmakers, TV executives and policymakers to Zanzibar to discuss the impact and implications of policies around the digital migration and the impact on film and TV production in East Africa.
Africa’s digital transition in broadcasting has the potential to improve both the quantity and quality of what is available on TV and to increase the number of people who will be able to watch it. Digital migration is an important milestone in world media and this forum will create the opportunity for many of these high-powered stakeholders to discuss both the challenges and opportunities it presents.
Participants in the event will include television executives and policy makers from the region, including Meredith Beal of AITEC who will also give the keynote speech at the forum. Beal is a media owner in the United States and a master media consultant with the African Media Initiative (AMI) in Nairobi.
Other guests will include Patrick Quarcoo – CEO of Bamba TV (Kenya), the media group which recently launched a free-to-view decoder targeting homes that have either not yet migrated to digital, or do not wish to pay monthly subscriptions for the service.
Also participating will be Bob Collymore of Safaricom and Joseph Kusaga of Clouds Media Group which has been expanding its digital portfolio with the launch of new African channels in the diaspora.
Richard Alden, CEO of Wananchi Group Holdings (Kenya), who will also be attending the event, explained Zuku’s role in this space, “Quality programming is a key part of Zuku’s strategy. As a pay TV provider we have witnessed audience’s appetite for quality local content that has recently experienced a shot of adrenaline because of the digital TV migration. This has spurred great interest in producing and distributing local content. Whilst Zuku invests very selectively, we are one of the very few TV networks in Africa that is consistently willing to pay producers for content – and that way we can keep 100% control of our schedules. We will be discussing this topic during the workshop and hope that the talk will encourage and facilitate the growth of the broadcasting sector.’
Talking about the importance of this forum being held at ZIFF, the workshop’s moderator, Wangeci Murage of Media Pros Africa noted, “ZIFF is not only a platform for distributing films and networking, but also an important platform for exchanging ideas and developing policies and strategies that affect the creative industries.’
She added, “We, as the East African film community, need to ask ourselves what models of business would there be when the migration has happened and how can we take advantage of it? Given the cost of broadband and poor smartphone prevalence in much of Africa, TV will remain the most appropriate tool for reaching bigger audiences with image and sound. Production of content, the creative utilisation of digital technology, and the policy environment are three of the main issues that film industry needs to discuss and will discuss at this important event.’
Further details on the Digital Migration Forum can be found on the ZIFF website. The public is welcome to attend.
Date: 23 to 25 July
Times: 09h00 to 17h30
Venue: TBC
Contact: workshops@ziff.or.tz
