African Content Is Ready for Its “Global Moment,” MultiChoice Executive Tells MIP Africa (Exclusive)

“There’s a good chance that Africa’s film industry is about to have its own global moment.” That’s the bullish take shared on Monday about the state of African film and TV programming by Nomsa Philiso, CEO of general entertainment at African pay-TV giant MultiChoice Group, the owner of African streamer Showmax, in her opening speech at MIP Africa. “We’ve already seen that happen with Afrobeats, Amapiano and African music as a whole.”

She also said that more African TV series and movies are being aired globally than ever before, pointing to what the company calls “a string of breakthroughs for African content last year,” according to highlights of her speech, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. Among them are the likes of university drama Wyfie, crime thriller series Reyka, and Shaka iLembe, the epic story of an iconic African king.

Plus, a record number of African films screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2023, and Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story won the audience award at the Tribeca Film Festival last year.

MultiChoice has also been taking African stories to the world through its sales arm MultiChoice Studios, as well as partnerships with such distributors as Abacus, AMC, Fremantle, StudioCanal and The Exchange, which is repping MultiChoice’s MIP Africa’s opening film The Fix. 

After Reyka opened the Monte-Carlo Television Festival and earned International Emmy nominations in the best drama and best actress categories in 2022, Fremantle sold the first season to more than 150 territories, including BritBox in North America, Channel 4 in the U.K., and HBO in Latin America, Philiso mentioned. 

Philiso also called out other examples of success, such as The Real Housewives of Durban which has screened on the likes of NBCU’s reality streamer Hayu, Peacock and Bravo, The Real Housewives of Nairobi, vigilante killer thriller Devil’s Peak which sold to Tubi for North America, and crime thriller miniseries White Lies, starring Natalie Dormer, which sold to the likes of Sundance Now, Stan in Australia and Channel 4 in the U.K.

MultiChoice says it is Africa’s largest content producer, with a presence in 50 of Africa’s 54 countries and telling stories in 45 languages.

MultiChoice’s African streamer Showmax relaunched in February with a focus on an expanded content lineup, including local originals, Hollywood hits and English soccer, attractive pricing, and plans to “change the game” in streaming on the continent. The relaunch followed an early 2023 deal between MultiChoice and Comcast’s entertainment arm NBCUniversal and its European pay-TV unit Sky for a deal and partnership to “bring some of the world’s best content and technology to streaming customers” across sub-Saharan Africa “at a time when Africa is approaching an inflection point in terms of broadband connectivity and affordability.” The Showmax group has since been 70 percent owned by MultiChoice and 30 percent owned by NBCUniversal.

MultiChoice, for which Vivendi’s Canal+ business has made a public tender offer, currently has more than 84,000 hours of local content to showcase on the world stage, Philiso highlighted on Monday. “We’ve been buying content from all the global giants for decades, but increasingly these relationships are becoming reciprocal as demand for African content grows,” she explained. Our scale and proven track record makes us an ideal partner in Africa for anyone as excited as we are about diversifying the global content mix.”

Philiso emphasized though that while international reach is important, MultiChoice’s primary goal remains producing content for its core audience across Africa. “Like everyone else, Africans want to hear their own languages and see themselves reflected in what they watch,” she told MIP Africa. “On Showmax, nine of 10 of the most watched shows since its relaunch in February have been local. It took a massive show like House of the Dragon to make a dent.”