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PERSPECTIVE

Viewpoints from the frontline of content.

Africa rising

By Danny Fenton 09-11-2015

Last week’s Discop was my first visit to South Africa for a number of years. So long, in fact, there was only one TV channel there last time I visited.

But things have changed massively and now South Africa is the hub of African television. The world is coming to Africa, with several international players, including the BBC, launching channels across the continent over the past year.

Friends Like These

Urban Brew’s version of Friends Like These

Because of the buzz surrounding African television, I had the pleasure to attend the Discop convention in South Africa last week, which was 50% up on attendees versus last year. I was motivated to go having recently signed a joint-venture deal with South Africa’s leading independent producer, Urban Brew Studios, and also the launch of our pan-African TV series Opportunity Africa for Bloomberg TV.

I wanted to find out at Discop what further opportunities existed for Zig Zag Productions in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent.

Arriving in Johannesburg, the welcome we received was second to none and we were immediately made to feel at home. Although I was somewhat surprised to be whisked from the airport straight to an interview with African TV channel ED (playing in 39 countries) to espouse my views on the future of TV in Africa and what part Zig Zag hoped to play in it.

At the Convention Centre in Sandton, everything resembled a typical TV conference, including complicated security arrangements, delegate badges and passes. The attendees included many of the usual suspects, including Sony, All3Media, FremantleMedia and Keshet International. What was very noticeable, though, was the high number of French producers, channels and distributors in attendance, such as Lagardère, Canal+ and France Télévisions all catering to francophone territories in Africa.

Although Africa speaks many languages, the predominant ones are French and English, and Discop very much reflected that. The other noticeable player in the market from overseas was China, with CCTV and Jiangsu TV both having a big presence and China being the country of honour at the market.

Although many of the stands in the convention centre looked international in origin, the organisation and meeting structure was much more local in flavour. Zig Zag was based on the Pact indies stand along with a number of other UK companies and what seemed to be the norm for all of us was meetings either started late, in a different location than stated, or not at all.

In fact, in one case our meeting turned up a day late but still expected to meet. It was much more the norm at Discop for people to turn up when they wanted and expect to have a meeting there and then, which resulted in us having many meetings than we originally anticipated but not necessarily the ones we had intended to have.

Urban Brew Studios, our joint-venture partner, threw an amazing bash at its studio in Randburg on the first night where it hosted more than 100 international partners who were greeted by a troupe of traditional African gospel singers. After a tour of their eight studios, 29 edit suites and a township set built for daily telenovelas, we were treated to a traditional South African braai in the lantern-lit garden.

The facilities on offer were second to none and with the highly qualified personnel and favourable exchange rate it’s not surprising to see why so many foreign producers are choosing to shoot in South Africa.

One of South Africa’s biggest shows is Urban Brew’s adaptation of BBC format Friends Like These. Although the show hasn’t run on UK TV since 2003, it has been SABC’s biggest show for the last 10 years, in which time it has doubled its audience with a 43% share and has gone from 26 episodes a year to 52.

Perhaps it could be the BBC’s answer to that elusive Saturday night gameshow hit – maybe learning from the show’s success in South Africa could prove that looking backwards could be the way forward for its formats – particularly in light of the pubcaster’s decision to opt out of a bidding war for The Voice.

From Zig Zag’s point of view it was a very successful market and a pleasant experience to boot. As well as launching our JV in person and announcing our new series, we were also able to pitch some new ideas and make new sales. We had two firm offers from pan-African broadcasters for two different projects and we shortlisted six projects with Urban Brew that it thinks can be adapted for the local market.

With recent sales figures showing that the African TV market is outperforming BRIC countries in terms of growth, I predict that in the next few years we’ll see Africa rising in stature in the eyes of the international TV industry.

today's correspondent

Danny Fenton CEO & Executive Chairman Zig Zag Productions

Danny Fenton spent five years at the BBC where he worked on a number of award-winning shows including Standing Room Only, Clash of the Titans and Match of the 70s. After a brief time in the independent sector he set up Zig Zag Productions in 1999 with his business partner Kevin Utton.

Zig Zag Productions has produced over 300 hours of programming, ranging from entertainment formats like Change the Day you Die and Bad Boy Racers to factual programming such as Little Prince – Big Fight and Celebrity Gladiators.

Danny has also overseen the launch of Zig Zag Productions offices in New York and Manchester and executive produces all Zig Zag Productions content. He is also the founder of the New Independent Producers Alliance.



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