Streaming and TV platforms improve lives through the power of entertaining content. However, the true value of an established African TV network comes from the industries it drives, the jobs it creates, and the rich culture it supports.
In these challenging economic times, consumers find themselves looking at every aspect of their lives, assessing every expense, and deciding whether they are getting real value. The area of content creation is no different. We must look at the broadcast and streaming platforms we subscribe to and decide whether they are providing real returns on our investment.
It’s indeed useful to think of an expense as an investment – and not just a transaction where we swap a cash payment for a product or a service. That is especially relevant in the area of entertainment. The value we derive from entertainment is not just about the service we receive. Ideally, it’s about investing in an ecosystem that provides value for audiences, for a wider industry of working professionals, as well as a rich cultural community.
The power of local content
A powerful impact that a TV platform can have is in creating local content. Producing homegrown African content – as opposed to licensing ready-made international shows – means that an entire industry of workers must be engaged to work on that body of work. From producers and directors, all the way through to actors, hair and make-up artists, catering crews, hospitality workers, and transport drivers, all of these livelihoods are supported when a TV network commissions a local show.
In Nigeria, Africa Magic commission shows in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and English, creating hundreds of thousands of hours of original local content, pumping billions of Naira into the creative industry, and providing around 10,000 jobs in adjacent industries.
Reality TV shows like Big Brother Naija in West Africa and Nigerian Idol, the popular telenovela, Mpali in Zambia, and a true-crime documentary like The Last Door in East Africa have similar economic impacts. The shows directly employ creatives and service providers, and the content attracts viewers, which supports vast numbers of downstream industries.
By way of example, in Zambia, within seven years of the launch of the Zambezi Magic channel, more than 20 local production houses have formed business partnerships with the platform, helping to produce more than 1,600 hours of local content.
In Kenya, more than 150 production companies supply content to Maisha Magic platforms, employing writers, directors, editors, actors, and technicians. These professionals and the industry investment have helped to build the local film industry – now known as “Riverwood”, for its base along River Road in Nairobi.
Across Africa, MultiChoice – the parent company of dozens of these local channels – has created a local content library of around 84,000 hours. This resource grows by around 12% a year, which makes the group the largest producer of original content on the African continent.
A pipeline of culture
To ensure there is a healthy pipeline of new, homegrown productions, every MultiChoice subscription also helps to fund MultiChoice Talent Factory academies in Lagos, Nairobi, and Lusaka, where future African film professionals are trained through fully funded one-year film and TV courses.
This is the true value that comes from subscriber investment. Every monthly subscription goes towards creating film-sector jobs, supporting extended families through this income, creating content that reflects African culture, growing African pride and self-respect, and taking our deep storytelling tradition to new levels, with the power of new technology.
World-class MultiChoice sports coverage also reflects the culture and passions of the continent – whether it be for watching Champions League football, the Rugby World Cup, or the Olympic Games. All are shown at a fraction of the price paid in other parts of the world.
Enriching communities
But adding true value must also involve giving back to the communities that sustain a business. Being part of a community means meeting social responsibilities in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) sphere.
In Botswana, MultiChoice was able to play a key role in the opening of Studio 4 at the Mass Media Complex in Gaborone, helping to train and empower local talent and promote economic growth in the region.
In Ghana, the Group has donated television and decoder equipment to a Correctional Centre in Accra and partnered with the Tariq Lamptey Foundation to donate sports equipment to local schools.
In Tanzania, MultiChoice has partnered with Kids Finance to organise a youth financial literacy and digital skills bootcamp. In Kenya, it sponsored the first-ever Presidential Charity Golf Tournament, and in Namibia, donations of TV and decoder equipment were made to two local schools.
In Maputo, MultiChoice Mozambique employees celebrated World Food Day by joining forces with the Makobo Kaya Project, volunteering their time and effort to support less privileged groups.
In Uganda, MultiChoice Uganda helped to refurbish the Bless A Child Foundation and participated in the Uganda-South Africa Trade and Investment Summit, while in Zambia, the group donated sanitary towels worth $2 000 to incarcerated women, for the International Day of Prayers and Action for Prisoners.
This wide range of financial, community and social investments are all made possible by the investments of subscribers in the MultiChoice project.
Subscription packages may change, technology may evolve, and prices may be adjusted, but the goal and outcomes remain unchanged – to improve lives across the African continent through the power of entertainment.