On 19 August 2015, the dot com AfroLandTV was bought by Zimbabwe born Michael Maponga. AfroLandTV is a South African online streaming TV channel dedicated to showcasing paramount African content. It features independent South African and African films, shows and documentaries.
“The vision and mission is to grow the African film industry via online television and expand to creating quality original content,” says Maponga. Since the age of 10, Maponga has lived in Dallas, USA and he is a professional actor with more than 20 credits to his name, including starring alongside Hollywood actor Stephen Baldwin.
The concept of AfroLandTV came from a friend of Maponga’s, Ron Valderrama, the CEO of Stream Now Pro, a US streaming platform. “As an actor I’ve always wanted to give my talent back to my native land. Through AfroLandTV I aspire to give African filmmakers a platform to showcase their content. Most major distribution companies such as Netflix, Hulu etc, focus on westernised content. I want to give filmmakers in Africa a platform that builds a buzz around and centralises on South African and African content,” explains Maponga. “Our content includes extremely compelling and original stories that would otherwise go unnoticed without AfroLandTV. Our filmmakers won’t have to depend on third party distribution companies to showcase their content to audiences that are not relatable to African content.”
A modernised website was launched in May 2016 with the greatest challenge the company faced that of creating a user friendly website interface. Their web developing team is based in Zimbabwe, called Ennovate Systems, which is headed by Valentine Chonyera.
“We have faced numerous challenges bringing this vision to optimal life,” says Maponga. Contained by continuous research into web development, web applications and analytics. Marketing posed another challenge, “Being that this project is currently self-funded I’ve had to really break down my target audience (millennials age 18 to 34) and use the funding diligently,” says Maponga. AfroLandTV has an audience based predominantly in Africa, and a majority in South Africa.
Furthermore content is a challenge. “We have a set plan to increase our catalogue through local and international film festivals,” explains Maponga. He says that AfroLandTV is distinguished by their quality indie catalogue featuring content on the continent. The SABC’s 90 per cent local content quota makes them AfroLandTVs biggest competitor.
AfroLandTV aims to increase subscription numbers to 20 000 by the end of the year and expect to be creating original content by summer 2017. “We plan to work with local film producers to make this happen. By the end of 2017 we are aiming to have big studio films on our platform. Since we’re independent and self-funded at the moment, we’re looking for relevant partnerships with other organisations to form synergies for expansion,” explains Maponga. “The plan is for continuous growth and interface improvements on our website platform and mobile app.”
Support for the steaming service has been received from bloggers and independent media outlets in South Africa who have brought in a good amount of following. AfroLandTV have partnered with the South African digital broadcasting company StreamTV who launched a streaming channel android app at the end of July. AfroLandTV will be hosted on this app as a channel.
“We have reached thousands of people and we are continuously building a strong following. Social media has been our biggest audience driver so we’ll continue feeding the flame,” says Maponga. He plans to open a branch in South Africa. “This will make it easier to work with local filmmakers and productions,” he adds.
