UK deal for Dormer drama White Lies as global demand for African content grows

Natalie Dormer in Cape Town-set crime thriller White Lies

MIP AFRICA: UK public broadcaster Channel 4 is the latest to acquire South African drama series White Lies, starring Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones, Picnic at Hanging Rock) and Brendon Daniels (Four Corners).

The eight-parter is a coproduction between MultiChoice-owned pay channel M-Net, South African prodco Quizzical Pictures (Reyka) and global content outfit Fremantle, which is also handling distribution.

The UK channel’s acquisition of the show adds to the list of previous buyers, which includes Nine Entertainment-owned streamer Stan in Australia and AMC Networks-owned Sundance Now and AMC+ in the US and Canada.

Set in a wealthy neighbourhood in Cape Town, White Lies follows an investigative journalist (Dormer) who gets caught up in the ugly underbelly of the picturesque city, dragging her back to a turbulent past.

The UK sale was touted by MultiChoice execs at Mip Africa today as further evidence of burgeoning demand for African content from audiences outside the continent.

MultiChoice has been taking African stories to the world through its own sales arm, MultiChoice Studios, and partnerships with distributors like Abacus Media Rights, AMC Networks, Fremantle, StudioCanal and The Exchange, which is repping Mip Africa’s opening film, The Fix.

Nomsa Philiso, CEO of general entertainment at MultiChoice Group, cited the 150 territories where Fremantle has licensed MultiChoice’s 2021 crime drama Reyka as well International Emmy nominations for Best Drama and Best Actress for the series’ star Kim Engelbrecht.

Buyers for that show included BritBox for North America, Canal+ in France, Channel 4 in the UK, HBO Latin America and Sky Italia. The second season of Rekya launched in February 2024.

Other examples of MultiChoice shows travelling mentioned by Philiso were reality show The Real Housewives of Durban being picked up by streamers Hayu, Peacock and Bravo; thriller Devil’s Peak going to Tubi for North America; and drama Catch Me A Killer acquired by BritBox for North America, UKTV in the UK and SBS in Australia.

Acorn TV has also recently licensed title Recipes for Love & Murder to UKTV’s Alibi Channel, with the murder mystery series now available in 95 countries, including in Japan on the NHK-owned Mystery Channel.

“We’ve seen Chinese martial arts films have a moment globally. And Bollywood. And Scandi-noir. And K-dramas. And anime… There’s a good chance that Africa’s film industry is about to have its own global moment,” said Philiso. “We’ve already seen that happen with Afrobeats, Amapiano and African music as a whole.

“As it stands, at MultiChoice, we have over 84,000 hours of local content to showcase on the world stage,” said Philiso. “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.”

MultiChoice describes itself as “Africa’s largest content producer,” with a presence in 50 of Africa’s 54 countries, telling stories in 45 languages.