TV MEA MIPTV 2016

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APRIL 2016

MIPTV EDITION

Original Production / EbonyLife TV’s Mo Abudu

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CONTENTS FEATURE

Becoming Exclusive

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From the creation of sophisticated drama to local adaptations of unscripted formats, the production sectors across the Middle East and Africa are abuzz with activity.

As pay TV continues to grow across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and competition between broadcasters heats up, the battle for exclusive rights has become increasingly fierce.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Managing Editor Sara Alessi Joel Marino Associate Editors Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh Sales & Marketing Manager Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV MEA © 2016 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvmea.ws

According to a recent report from Digital TV Research, the number of pay-TV homes across the 20 countries surveyed in the MENA region will double between 2010 and 2021 to reach 20.9 million. About a fifth of TV households in this part of the world legitimately paid for TV signals by the end of 2015, and this proportion is expected to reach 24.2 percent by 2021.

Piracy does remain rampant in many countries across the region, so signing up new pay-TV subscribers is no easy task.

Adding to this difficulty is the fact that established pay-TV players are now facing competition from new platforms.

Netflix has finally launched in parts of the Middle East, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and the service also made its way into South Africa. These challenges have left many in the region’s pay-TV landscape to look toward exclusive programming as a way to drive subscriptions.

A number of pay-TV broadcasters are already hard at work lining up exclusive programming partnerships and pacts. OSN, for example, has a deal with Warner Bros. for first-run and exclusive content, and recently signed a similar agreement with MGM. This followed on the heels of a new and extended long-term deal with NBCUniversal that includes rights for the first pay window in the region, in addition to exclusive OTT content access on OSN Play and GO. The U.S. pay-TV network Starz developed an OTT video-streaming service for MENA, Starz Play, and scored the exclusive digital rights for Showtime and CBS content in the region. This list of examples goes on and on.

Outside of exclusives, pay- and free-TV channels across the region have been increasingly eyeing original programming for their schedules, as viewers want to watch programs that reflect their own cultures and stories. In this issue, TV MEA explores the buzzing local production sectors in the Middle East and Africa. We also hear from EbonyLife TV’s CEO and founder, Mo Abudu, about the types of programming she wants to offer viewers in Africa and abroad.

While the region is certainly facing its fair share of challenges—economic, social and political—TV continues to find a way to prevail.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

INTERVIEW

12 EbonyLife TV’s Mo Abudu

The founder and CEO of the pan-African pay-TV network shares her strategy for expanding EbonyLife TV’s reach and influence.

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Arab Telemedia Group Malek Bin Al Rayb / The Promise Over the past 30 years, Arab Telemedia Group has produced more than 5,000 hours of drama programming, much of which has aired on major broadcasters across the Middle East with ratings success. Through its attendance at MIPTV, the company is looking to enlarge the presence of Arabic drama on an international stage. It heads to the market with the drama series Malek Bin Al Rayb, which chronicles the life of a poet and knight from the Bani Tamim tribe who would steal from the rich to collect food for the poor. The series explores the historical period in which he, his family and tribe lived. Arab Telemedia Group will screen the historical drama series at MIPTV for the first time. Talal Awamleh, CEO and producer at the company, also spotlights The Promise, which tells the story of a British Orientalist who visits the Arabian Desert to record Bedouins’ habits and traditions. He becomes involved in their lives and shares in their battles, witnesses their love and relationships, and experiences their years of drought.

He writes about what he saw and learned. Awamleh believes that global buyers will be interested in bringing these “high-end productions with humanitarian values” into their local markets. The company’s slate also includes The Invasion, Shahrazad and Al Hajjaj.

“Our aim for this year is to expand the exposure of Arabic drama in the global market.”

—Talal Awamleh

Malek Bin Al Rayb

Caracol Internacional The White Slave / River of Passions / La Cacica Caracol Internacional is positioning the series River of Passions as a top pick for buyers attending MIPTV from across the Middle East and Africa. It tells the story of Felipe Guerra, a young foreman of a cattle ranch who discovers true love with the beautiful Lina Maria Henao, who comes from a wealthy family. Aware of the economic differences between the two, Guerra decides to capture the drug lord Miguel de Jesus Ortega in order to collect a $1 million reward. During the length of his mission, the young man will assume a new identity and forget about the city where he was born. Also on the slate is La Cacica, which follows the life of Consuelo Araujo, who touches the world with her music. Her story is one filled with romance, struggles, victory and defeat. Rounding out Caracol Internacional’s scripted highlights for the region is The White Slave, the story of Victoria, a white woman raised by slaves after the brutal assassination of her parents. These slaves become her family, though she is eventually taken from them and sent to Spain because, according to society, a white woman could not live with slaves. Victoria then assumes a false identity as she returns home in order to free her loved ones from slavery and confront her parents’ killer.

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FremantleMedia International The Young Pope / Jo Frost: Nanny on Tour / Football Nightmares The 8x1-hour drama The Young Pope stars Academy Award nominee Jude Law as Lenny Belardo, Pope Pius XIII, and Academy Award-winning actress Diane Keaton as Sister Mary. The show, which FremantleMedia International believes has strong sales potential in the Middle East and Africa, comes from Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino.

“The Young Pope has become one of the most highly anticipated dramas of 2016 and is already in high demand,” says Anahita Kheder, the company’s senior VP for the Middle East, Africa and Southeastern Europe. “The thrilling series combines an outstanding story with an A-list cast and the best in behind-the-camera talent. This is set to be a hallmark title.” The new series Jo Frost: Nanny on Tour features the well-known parenting expert Jo Frost as she helps families in desperate need of her expertise. “The series is very transparent, honest and is sure to have audiences both laughing and crying as the Nanny sets about helping struggling families across the U.S. with their children,” says Kheder. A big new format launch for FremantleMedia International is Football Nightmares, in which two ex-professional sports stars embark on a mission to transform and restore the confidence of failing grassroots football teams. “Football is the most universal and popular game in the world; so naturally, this format has high global appeal,” Kheder says.

“Jo Frost is a globally renowned talent and this series is her at her best. Jo Frost: Nanny on Tour shows the real Jo.” —Anahita Kheder

Jo Frost: Nanny on Tour

SDI Media Dubbing / Subtitling SDI Media offers clients an end-to-end localization solution for feature films, episodic series, interactive games, digital media and corporate needs. “With the world’s largest ownedand-operated network of facilities, incorporating over 150 recording rooms and more than 85 mixing rooms, SDI Media provides dubbing, subtitling, access services and other media solutions in more than 80 languages worldwide servicing 40 markets in 37 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas,” says Roy Dvorkin, the company’s senior VP of global business development. With the proliferation of SVOD and OTT platforms globally, content owners and distributors “need to consider localization at the onset when creating production budgets,” says Dvorkin. “As content owners are now looking at windowless sales opportunities, subtitles and/or foreign audio tracks should be considered a sales asset similar to the video, script and original-language audio.” SDI Media has offices in the Middle East, providing it with in-territory resources to deliver assistance for all types of localization projects. “We are currently localizing content that is distributed across the Middle East and Africa, as well as taking content originally created in those territories and localizing it for distribution across the world in many languages,” says Dvorkin.

“Partnering with SDI Media adds to the production workflow a one-stop shop for any and all localization and related metadata services.”

—Roy Dvorkin

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ON LOCATION Jay Stuart explores the buzzing local production sectors in the Middle East and Africa.

Filming on Arab Telemedia’s The Promise.

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rom the booming Nigerian film sector to the burgeoning Arabic-language drama business to the vibrant demand for entertainment formats, the local production community in the Middle East and Africa appears to be firing on all cylinders.

Producing original television content for a large region of the world is a challenge, even when audiences speak the same language. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where 340 million Arabic-speaking viewers comprise anything but a single homogeneous market for programming. Sometimes different countries even want their own versions of the same Arabiclanguage shows based on imported formats. In the Middle East, this sort of demand has generated its own unique spin on localized production.

Alliances have cropped up, with groups of broadcasters getting together to bring a format to life. A pay-TV player will commission a format, for example, and bring on additional producers and smaller free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters from across the region. “This is an interesting dynamic in the market,” says Anahita Kheder, FremantleMedia International’s (FMI) senior VP for the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Europe. “In one of these deals, there are multiple parties investing, which also results in an increased reach for the format. This really helps us when we’re trying to get new formats on air. It’s a nice way of working as smaller FTA players, who don’t necessarily want to take that risk in going alone, are partnering with a pay-TV player.”

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CREATIVE COLLABORATION Kheder explains that there are also producers grouping together and working on the production of one format, and then going on to involve multiple commissioners across the region for that one single production. What’s really remarkable is that often the broadcasters of these joint formats are all on the same satellite network.

“A good example is the Egyptian networks,” Kheder continues. “Their focus and target is the Egyptian market only, so joining up on a production with a Gulf broadcaster, on the same platform, isn’t a big worry; they don’t see [Gulf broadcasters] as competition. The Gulf viewers and Egyptian viewers consume this content very differently and have loyalties to what they would consider Gulf channels and Egyptian channels.

So CBC in Egypt, for example, is seen as an Egyptian channel, even though it’s available on a Gulf television feed. The Saudis would very rarely switch on CBC, as they would prefer to watch MBC. Then you have smaller players like the Lebanese, who make Lebanese entertainment for a Lebanese audience. You can bundle FTA broadcasters who sit on the same satellite network together and they can air the same show at the same time. They feel that the benefits outweigh what would normally be considered competitive cannibalism.”

Generally, Kheder says, the format market continues to be dominated by the key FTA players such as MBC. For several years now, these networks have been moving towards producing more local content.

Pay-TV players such as OSN are consistent when it comes to choosing formats and have become “quite the catalyst in sparking the format-licensing business in the region,” Kheder adds. “The Middle East is traditionally a market where broadcasters pick up formats and then decide which producer

produces them, so OSN invests in local production companies to produce on their behalf. MBC has its own associated production arm in O3 Productions.”

ECONOMIC REALITIES It has to be noted that the MENA region is not in the rosiest of health as a production environment right now. This has more to do with the macro elements than specific television industry problems. Political instability from a few volatile countries is adversely affecting advertiser confidence and sales. Overall advertising spending in MENA could fall by more than 10 percent this year after a decline in 2015, according to ZenithOptimedia. The decline in oil prices in the biggest market, Saudi Arabia, is also causing economic uncertainty around the region. “Whenever there are times of uncertainty, most people think twice and hold their budgets,” Kheder says.

“I feel that everyone has been bracing themselves for 2016, since we saw early signs of these challenges in 2015.”

It is challenging, however, to generalize about conditions across the Middle East.

“Commercially there is no one Middle East market,” says Fadi Ismail, the general manager of O3 Productions and Dubai-based MBC Group’s director of drama production and distribution. “The biggest in terms of ad revenue is the Gulf, followed by Egypt and then others. There has always been competition among FTA stations and networks, but since last year we have seen more fierce competition—with the pay channels spending so much more than before on content, and with the entry of international and regional OTT players.

This is, in principle, good news for local producers, as every player requires local programming more than anything else.”

But the good news has a dark cloud behind it. “The industry is still suffering from lots of irrational and uncommercial behavior and somehow remains commercially immature and not sufficiently well organized,” Ismail adds. “I expect that competition will only make the industry a bit more chaotic and unpredictable in terms of plans and viability.”

Ismail says the two crucial genres for his group are the big talent-spotting entertainment formats and local dramas.

“Both are pillars of the programming grid and both are indispensable appointments to view for viewers. When you have the best of both, then you are unbeatable. However, while entertainment relies on international formats, most if not all drama depends on local original stories, with very few exceptions. No matter the quality or sophistication of the script and production values, their local [nature] makes them more relevant and more emotionally engaging than Western dramas.”

Carlos Tibi is founder and CEO of one of the big newer players, Dubai-based streaming service Icflix, which delivers Middle Eastern programming around the world. He acknowledges that formats are important in the Middle East.

“Over time, international formats have positively affected TV viewing habits and created local hits such as Arab Idol, Arab’s Got Talent, The Voice and Top Chef,” he says. There have also been successful localized versions of sitcoms, soap operas and other TV series.

“I think there’s room and definitely a lot of appetite for more scripted formats across the market,” says FMI’s Kheder.

“There is a pool of strong producers and script writers in the region—scripted formats are a great way to support homegrown talent. It is a wave that we are definitely looking to be

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Image Nation is behind Justice, an ambitious Arabic-language original series being produced in Abu Dhabi.

part of, and we are highlighting our scripted-format offering at every opportunity. We have had some serious discussions about our very successful drama series Wentworth, and our scripted-format brands Deceptions, Birds of a Feather and Web Therapy are also gaining some serious traction.”

Talal Awamleh, the CEO of Jordan-based production company Arab Telemedia Group, which won an International Emmy in 2008 for its original series The Invasion, notes, “TV channels in the Middle East are focusing on acquiring formats mainly for talent shows and game shows, and these formats are attracting huge audiences. As for the drama formats, it’s still the beginning and not much has been produced yet, especially with all the competitive Turkish series that are being aired on the Arabic TV channels.”

NEW PLAYERS While local content is prevalent on FTA, pay TV and the emerging VOD and SVOD platforms are mainly investing in theatrical content and imported drama from the U.S., Kheder says. “The introduction of the new platforms to the market is very interesting,” she says. “Netflix has launched and Starz Play is now gaining traction.”

Rival OTT service Icflix is currently working on several original drama productions in partnership with Morocco’s Centre Cinématographique Marocain. The most ambitious project is Come Back, which will be the first movie to tackle the Daesh (ISIS) problem and its ramifications for the Arab community living both abroad and in MENA. It is being shot in Belgium, Turkey, France and multiple Middle Eastern countries in English, French and Arabic. Completion is slated for early summer 2016.

Tibi says that one of the big challenges of local production is that film funds for Arabic productions are still limited in scale and scope. “This makes financing of local films difficult.”

Other challenges in the market tick boxes that would probably be expected. “When it comes to talent, Egypt and Lebanon are known for having suitable talent, but the GCC is still below par,” he says. “The diverse landscape and natural beauty of the Middle East and North African countries [mean that they] offer good locations [for filming], but the production infrastructure is not well developed.”

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“The real challenge for the production industry in the Middle East is the budgets,” says Arab Telemedia’s Awamleh. “TV networks are not willing to invest in the pre-production phase.

They prefer to acquire content that is completely produced and financed by the producers and the production companies.”

LEGAL DRAMA Perhaps the most ambitious Arabic-language original series made in the region to date is Justice (Qalb Al Adalah). Image Nation, the production arm of government-funded Abu Dhabi Media in the United Arab Emirates, is behind the legal drama, now in post-production and set to be ready to air in late autumn 2016.

“Nothing like this has ever been produced in the region before,” says Image Nation CEO Michael Garin. “My shorthand description of the show is L.A. Law meets Dallas in Abu Dhabi.”

The 20x1-hour series is produced by UAE company Beelink Productions, based in Abu Dhabi (100 percent of Image Nation’s production is done through private-sector companies). The concept came from Walter Parkes of Parkes/MacDonald Productions, and the scripts were written by Billy Finkelstein of NYPD Blue and L.A. Law fame.

Garin says that while the “significant” budget is not equal to that of a comparable U.S. series, it’s definitely similar to budgets of big shows made in Mexico, Brazil or Turkey.

Image Nation’s strategy is to generate profits from its bigbudget international projects (especially movies such as the upcoming sci-fi picture The Circle starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson) to invest in building a local production industry, not just in the UAE but around the region.

According to Garin—a 40-year industry veteran who cofounded Lorimar-Telepictures in the 1980s, headed media investment for ING and was CEO of Central European Media Enterprises before shifting his focus to the Middle East—the lack of broadcaster budgets for production in the Middle East is built into the TV business as it currently operates.

“Television is an advertiser-supported medium. The key issue in determining production budgets is ultimately how much of the ad revenue ends up with the broadcasters rather than with the media buyers or other intermediaries. In the U.S., it’s about 90 percent. In Central

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Europe, it’s about 60 percent. In the Middle East, it’s lower.

This is what happens when a handful of companies control the ad market through volume discounts. It was the same in France in the early days of commercial TV. It’s true in any developing television market, including Africa.”

MONEY MATTERS MBC’s Ismail asserts that the big challenge for local production is not financial, at least for drama production.

“There is definitely more supply than demand in the market,” he says. “The total number of 30-episode series produced exceeds 100 per year, while only 15 to 20 broadcasters can afford to buy first-run from among hundreds of TV stations in the region. Lots of production companies plan to, and in many instances actually do, produce without a wellstudied and realistic sales-and-distribution strategy. Even if they had one, in many cases there are financial difficulties that make some broadcasters delay their payment or extend it to more than a year, which puts a heavy burden on producers to fund their productions.”

He continues, “The main current problem is not the production budgets or production values, but rather the quality of storytelling, which in many cases is repetitive in theme and does not offer enough innovative ideas. One reason for that is the short time that writers have to write their 30episode scripts and have them ready for the first-run season in Ramadan every year. There is not much time to be innovative and improve the compelling aspect of your stories when you only have around three or four months at best to write 1,200 minutes’ worth of script.”

Image Nation’s Garin asserts that “our talent in the Middle East is comparable to anywhere else in the world. But this

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is a new industry. What is lacking for our young people are entry-level opportunities and mentors. That is part of the role of Image Nation. That’s why I’m here and why other Western colleagues are here. We have a small population of about 2 million Emiratis. We have an abundance of financial capital but a shortage of human capital. The passion for the film and TV business among the young people is the same as elsewhere. They won’t lose that passion, and the country wants to be sure that it doesn’t lose these people to Hollywood or London or wherever they might go if they don’t have a local industry.”

One of the achievements of Image Nation has been bringing more financial transparency and discipline to the production business. “We are defining the profit margins as they need to be,” Garin says. “So we have an educational role for local producers, who haven’t always been receptive to change.”

Image Nation has also launched the first non-news, nonsports pan-Arabic regional channel, Quest Arabiya, in association with Discovery Communications.

EXPORT POTENTIAL If producers are finding it hard enough to produce for their own markets, are there prospects for exporting programs?

“Our target for Justice is television audiences around the world who are used to seeing quality programs from HBO or CBS or BBC or ITV,” Garin says. “The key thing is that TV audiences in countries that use dubbed programming don’t care what the original language was. They care about stories and production values.”

MBC’s Ismail says that export possibilities for Middle Eastern productions appear limited at present. “But the doors are open if we are smart in how we design our production

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MBC actively invests in scripted originals for its platforms, rolling out titles such as the Egyptian drama Sahirat Aljanoub (Witch of the South).

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Arab Telemedia’s Awamleh has high hopes for his company’s historical series based on Arab historical figures and events. “Our distribution plan is focusing on Asia, Latin America and Europe, and we believe that, with the appropriate approach, we can gain a large segment of the audience in these markets.”

At Icflix, exporting its programming takes on a different meaning. “Because we are a global streaming service, our original productions are also available outside of MENA for the expat Arab diaspora living abroad,” Tibi says.

AFRICAN PARALLEL

Entertainment formats, among them FremantleMedia’s The X Factor, have been strong sellers across the Middle East.

projects and how we write our scripts. Perhaps today the production values of many series aren’t good enough to travel globally, but there are still lots of opportunities for our stories to become scripted formats for others. There is nothing in the essence of Arabic drama that makes it incapable of traveling the world. We just need to be sure we get the right expertise so that our stories are selected and developed in a way that makes them compelling not only to over 300 million Arabic speakers and viewers, who have such diverse tastes and cultural backgrounds, but also to a worldwide audience. At O3, we are seeking and planning for that time when we have content that is attractive to international viewers and we have different initiatives and experimentation going on.”

One initiative recently announced is O3’s consultation agreement with Los Angeles–based Anonymous Content to co-develop such dramas.

TRAVELING TALES “The beauty of television over features is that you sell it and then you make it,” Image Nation’s Garin says. “So there’s more flexibility in the projects. We very much have a regional focus. People move around in the Middle East. Stories travel. We see a lot of potential for television co-production, and we’re exploring this.”

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There are several entities investing in African production, among them pay-TV heavyweight Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), which operates ten channels in the region. It already produces content for southern Africa, mainly sourced from South Africa and Kenya, and West Africa, coming mainly from Nigeria.

After launching BET Africa in April 2015, VIMN jumped right into local production of a marquee competition show for the channel, Top Actor, made in South Africa with auditions in Kenya and Nigeria as well.

“Producing in Africa can be less expensive than elsewhere, but it can also be more expensive if you are working in a lessdeveloped market and have to bring in the equipment and crews and talent,” says Alex Okosi, the senior VP and managing director at VIMN Africa. “We work both with inhouse teams and with external producers.

There is scale beyond the three big markets.

We activate all over Africa—Ghana, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola.

Our music videos are sourced all over Africa. Of course, there is a quality threshold we need to respect.”

VIMN already produces a scripted series, MTV Shuga, about the impact of AIDS. The first two seasons were made in Kenya, and then the show moved to Nigeria for the past two seasons. It is produced in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations as a not-for-profit project.

Now VIMN is looking at scripted as a commercial driver.

“We are actually looking at a sitcom for Comedy Central in Africa,” Okosi says. “We are evaluating what we can do. We want to diversify our platform. In Nigeria and South Africa there are tax advantages and subsidies to access. A drama series is part of our ambitions. We have strong reality shows already. We are looking at other formats. We want to go deeper into more reality and more drama.”

In effect, that means going deeper into being more local.

Be it in Africa or the Middle East, viewers want to watch programs about their own people and stories rooted in their own cultures. But the challenges of original local production in large and diverse emerging regions remain.

“To develop a production industry, you need an environment where expats and locals can work together,” Garin advises. “Countries that don’t have an established industry need to be able to attract people from outside who can lend a hand.”

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Dissatisfied with how Africa and its people have been portrayed in the media, talk-show host and entrepreneur Mo Abudu launched EbonyLife TV. Billed as the African continent’s first global entertainment and lifestyle network, EbonyLife TV reaches almost 50 markets in the region on the DStv platform, and has been steadily building its presence internationally. Abudu, chairman and CEO of EbonyLife TV, talks about the channel’s mandate and weighs in on what’s ahead for

By Mansha Daswani the African media landscape.

TV MEA: Following your experience as an on-air personality, what made you want to launch EbonyLife TV? ABUDU: Moments with Mo, which was my main baptism by fire as an on-air personality, remains an amazing study in self-belief and self-discovery for me. I had no media experience whatsoever, besides a deep-seated passion and genuine interest in the industry. But I have to say that the desire to own a channel predates EbonyLife TV because as far back as 2006 I had approached platforms like DStv, and even Sky in the U.K., requesting a channel. Well, EbonyLife TV was launched on July 1, 2013, seven years after all those initial requests! I wanted a TV platform with the mission to help project a new, stronger and more confident Africa: a continent that speaks for itself, that celebrates its people and their achievements, that solves its own problems. And we wanted to do this through some of the most inspiring, original and compelling homegrown entertainment and lifestyle content that spotlights a young target demographic of Nigerians, Africans and the black diaspora the world over.

TV MEA: Tell us about the kinds of content you’re producing and acquiring for the channel.

ABUDU: Essentially we encourage a great deal of curiosity, irreverence and ambition in our content, which of course must be of the highest production quality and standard, be it homegrown or acquired. Our values are team spirit, originality, vibrancy, innovation, boldness and excellence. These help us to insist on programming that is both stimulating and highly creative. EbonyLife TV boasts a rich capacity to showcase the continent’s most inspiring content that resonates with a very demanding and discerning young target audience. We therefore embrace all genres of exciting entertainment and lifestyle programming that tells compelling and universally human stories with an African attitude.

TV MEA: How are you building the EbonyLife TV brand internationally, either by way of channel launches or program sales?

ABUDU: We believe we are doing everything possible in this regard. Obviously we are still a very young channel, but we

are very excited about our footprints locally and globally. In just over two years of launching the EbonyLife TV channel, we have been ranked as one of the most watched channels on the DStv platform in 49 African countries, including South Africa and the southern African territories. In terms of channel launches, we are available to viewers in the U.K. via Lebara Play, we have an agreement with the Ethnic Channels Group for broadcast in Canada and we have also made inroads into the Caribbean markets. In addition, technical checks are in progress with Virgin Media for further channel extension to the U.K., while our VOD platform is available [via iOS and Android apps to] viewers across the U.S., Europe, Canada, Asia and the Middle East, as well as at vod.ebonylifetv.com. We have also [maintained a presence at] international content and distribution markets like MIPCOM, DISCOP, etc., in the quest for carriage distribution and syndication deals. So I can say we are making steady progress in this regard.

TV MEA: Do OTT platforms create new opportunities for a brand like yours, allowing you to perhaps bypass the old cable gatekeepers?

ABUDU: OTT provides us with an opportunity to reach the world. We have had so many offers for the EbonyLife TV channel to travel via this platform, and various discussions are still ongoing with several providers. There are Africans in every corner of the universe, and we have a duty and responsibility to ensure that they have an opportunity to connect with the best-made original African programming available today.

TV MEA: In this crowded, highly segmented market, what have been the greatest challenges in building a new channel brand?

ABUDU: It has never been easy although it has been both exciting and rewarding. First you have to face the issues that confront the majority of investors in Africa, such as power, financing, broadband and the right manpower, problems that are gradually ebbing away as more investments are being made in those areas. Besides these issues, being a pioneer in your category is itself a challenge. When

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The Nigerian theatrical hit FIFTY, executive produced by Mo Abudu, is being turned into a TV series for EbonyLife TV.

we set out to build our brand, we had to start from ground zero. [We were] driven by the vision to be the preferred global network for premium African entertainment by creating original, inspiring content with an African soul that showcases the best of the continent for a global black audience. In carrying out this mission we had no model, no touchstone, no exemplar; we found we had no one but ourselves to learn from. We spent many sleepless nights and many rigorous strategy sessions trying to eke out the very soul and infrastructure of the brand. We had to fit that into the essence and personality of the brand while not losing focus on the fundamental description of our target demographic. You rightly noted that the market is crowded and highly segmented. Again, we needed to differentiate ourselves from the category and break through the clutter by identifying a clearly underserved market: African youth aged 18 to 34. We observed no one was speaking for and to them in a compelling and unique way.

We therefore crafted a programming strategy [based on] a concept we called “Global Black,” a definition that embodies the new spirit of African youth, the relentless passion, energy and the driving force of a defiantly vibrant, bold and irreverent generation. This cuts through the very soul of the EbonyLife TV channel, its character, its content and its core value propositions. The rest, as they say, is history.

TV MEA: What are the greatest opportunities you see for the African continent’s media sector?

ABUDU: As a continent, Africa has remained creatively silent for centuries. Our stories are seldom told outside of our families and villages and often from the perspective of someone looking in. Yet, the continent is a mammoth store of narrative gems—from our history to our myths, our legends, our heroes, our adventures, wars, conquests, our lives, our societies, our music and fashion, our entrepreneurship, our youth. There is an abundance of opportunity in this aspect and I believe a strong partnership needs to emerge between creative and business leaders across the divide, which will enable the stories of Africa to get told

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with authenticity and produced to the best international standards, but those stories cannot be told effectively without our input as Africans. If these stories are told from both perspectives there is a captive audience on both sides of the Atlantic waiting to be entertained as never before. The creation of content, distribution platforms and channels is still in its infancy on the continent of Africa, but with the recent expansion of the likes of Netflix, there is an encouraging reaction from audiences yearning for relevant entertainment to fill the demands of today and tomorrow. Africa does have a role to play in the world and we feel certain that through international collaborations Africa can add tangible value to the space of content creation and distribution.

TV MEA: What are your goals for EbonyLife TV in the 12 to 18 months ahead?

ABUDU: Halfway into the third year of our operations at the channel, we are very excited to be expanding our operations from our headquarters in Calabar—the capital city of Cross River State, home to Africa’s biggest purpose-built studio, the Tinapa Studios—to even more Nigerian cities, including Abuja and Lagos. Calabar, for instance, is now our home of drama, with major homegrown drama series set to be produced all year round from the city. Production is already in progress for some of our upcoming series, including The Governor and Cinderella. Other [originals] include [local versions of] two of our latest acquisitions from CBS Studios International, Dynasty and Melrose Place. FIFTY The Series is also being commissioned based on the amazing success of the feature film. In addition, we are working to bring to the big screen Death and the King’s Horseman, the epic work of the Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka.

Our viewers can equally look forward to homegrown reality shows such as Looking for Mr. Right, African Queens—in search of a new girl band—and many more, including Chocolate City Unsigned, created to hunt for Africa’s next big music star. This is a collaboration between Chocolate City, one of Africa’s biggest indigenous record labels, and EbonyLife TV.

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