Videoage International December 2018

Zee Entertainment’s Sunita Uchil Kanal D’s Selim Turkmen and Kerim Emrah Turna Record TV’s Delmar Andrade Calinos Entertainment’s Belinda Wango December 2018 DISCOP Review T he sixth annual edition of DISCOP Johannesburg, held November 14-16 at its usual location, the Sandton Convention Center, welcomed over 1,000 participants from 40 countries. The exhibition floor, housed in the glitzy convention center, which is adjacent to the renowned Nelson Mandela Square, was once again divided into individual stands (the largest belonging to companies such as Zee Entertainment, Côte Ouest, Deutsche Welle, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, and Africa Channel), meeting tables, and viewing boxes, as well as umbrella stands that grouped distributors under similar banners (like TV France International, the China Pavilion, and the Turkey Pavilion), for a total of 130 exhibiting companies. Many Turkish distributors were in attendance, including first-timer MADD. Some of them were willing to invest extensively in dubbing before securing any sales for their long-running series in order to better cater to African broadcasters, who still don’t pay particularly high license fees. This is the case of ATV’s Emir Düzel, who explained that he wasn’t too concerned with the low prices, and noted that his company tries to reach the widest audience possible through free- to-air sales so that the familiarity and success of ATV’s content yields further demand with a so-called “domino effect.” Inter Medya’s Ahmet Ziyalar, on the other hand, said that since the economic landscape of Africa is still so uncertain, his company prefers to invest in dubbing into languages (such as Arabic and Spanish) for territories that are better established. Despite his concern for the long transition stage Africa is going through, Kanal D’s Kerim Emrah Turna was in Johannesburg to continue negotiations for their upcoming Kanal D Drama channel, which he hopes to see implemented in Africa within a year, with the help of partner Thema (part of Canal + Group). VideoAge asked several distributors if they were satisfied with the outcome of the market and they all agreed that DISCOP Johannesburg participants included Paris-based Mediatoon and the above-mentioned Kwanza. Indeed, animation was a big focus at this year’s DISCOP, with a series of daily panels under the Discomics banner, as well as a pitching competition that culminated with an Animation Du Monde awards ceremony held on the market’s last day. In terms of conferences, the first day started off with a panel on the promotion of homegrown content for the vast Swahili-speaking audiences of Eastern Africa, while the rest of the day focused on the global animation industry, including sessions on videogames and the influence of pop culture. The second day kicked off with a conference spotlighting the classification guidelines for content in film, video games, and certain publications, with the aim of providing age ratings and consumer advisories. Other sessions that day included a discussion on how to make an impact with original primetime shows made in Africa, one on the importance of music in film/TV/digital content, as well as a talk about the e-sports business and its viability in Africa. The seconddayalsosawapress conferenceheld by Zee Entertainment’s Sunita Uchil to promote their newest project, Deceptive Measures , the African adaptation of popular Indian drama series Pavitra Rishta. The series, co-produced with Ghana-based Multimedia Group, as well as Nigeria’s MACE, is directed by Uduak Obong and is currently being filmed in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana, with post-production in India. The first three episodes of the new series will be completed by the end of November. The third and final day of DISCOP Jo’burg presented participants with an opportunity to hear about the pop culture, animation, and gaming industries of Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as the co-production relations between France and South Africa, which are currently facilitated by a film treaty that could be expanded to television. MG is an efficient marketplace for selling content to African buyers, despite the usual no-shows and the additional difficulties created by visa issues for participants coming from Eastern Africa’s countries, including Kenya and Nigeria. ABS- CBN’s Laarni Yu mentioned a noticeably reduced number of buyers from those countries. The general consensus was that DISCOP participation seemed somewhat diluted by the frequency of its sister markets, meaning that future market dates will have to be chosen carefully. Ghana-based Michael Gyang of Tumpaani TV — who has been attending DISCOP as a buyer since its very first edition — explained that “African buyers won’t go to both Zanzibar and Johannesburg.” Instead, they’ll pick just one. Most of the exhibitors interviewed reported that they had at least 20 scheduledmeetings over the three-day-market, and many, like Kwanza’s Ilan Karfati — exhibiting at the TVFI stand — found the DISCOP platform particularly helpful to set those meetings up. As a matter of fact, TV France International registered an increase in participants among its members, with 11 distributors (up from nine at last year’s edition), who mostly showcased animated content. New Content Market Gets Animated in South Africa 12