Videoage International November 2017

12 DISCOP Joburg However, Zuchowicki reported that “DISCOP Johannesburg 2018 will be held from November 14 to 16 in order to no longer overlap with MIPCOM.” He further explained: “We expect consumer spending on entertainment content in Sub- Saharan Africa to reach U.S.$5 billion by the end of this year, and, most importantly, according to recent reports, to double to $10 billion by 2021. “This growth will translate into $3 billion to $4 billion in annual wholesale distribution revenues for the territory and will be unquestionably driven by homegrown content and intra-regional trade. “This is why we have decided to accompany this expansion by launching two new markets, one in Zanzibar in July 2018, and one in Lagos in April 2019 in order to cover Sub-Saharan Africa’s four distinct marketplaces: West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and Nigeria, which is a marketplace on its own.” Meanwhile, DISCOP Africa in Johannesburg will open its doors once again at the Sandton Convention Center, registering over 2,000 participants and 180 exhibiting companies that will be housed at stands, meeting tables, and pavilions. All in all, “we are expecting a total of 300 companies that sell content to 200 buying companies operating in Sub-Saharan Africa and the 300 acquisition and programming executives who represent them,” said Zuchowicki. He then added: “We are also expecting all the new ‘kids in town’ that have launched broadcasting and streaming operations in the last 12 months — and the number of new buyers year-to-year is more important than ever in the past.” As a new service, DISCOP is now featuring an online “Content Catalog,” which facilitates the setting up of meetings. “[With this feature] we hope to lift the average number of pre-arranged meetings between sellers and buyers from 35 to 45,” Zuchowicki explained. “However,” he added, “the true yardstick is the number of meetings leading to deal closings, considering that the difficulty in Sub-Saharan Africa is closing a deal. So, we’ve devised two yardsticks: Delivering strong leads (we guarantee 10 out of 40 pre-confirmed meetings) and delivering deal-closing meetings (we guarantee five out of 40).” In terms of investments by exhibitors, Zuchowicki said that newcomers spend an average of U.S.$4,375 to exhibit at the market and the cost of a lead that could result in a deal is $438. For veterans, who will spend an average a reasonable fee.” As for the DISCOP market itself, Schulze pointed out that there isn’t “enough space to sit down and meet informally.” The Africa Channel is buying between 750 and 1,000 hours per year. Narendra Reddy, the company’s Los Angeles-based EVP and General Manager, said they “prefer half-hours (for unscripted) and hours (for scripted).” He also added that, “With regard to our new SVoD platform (Demand Africa), we are interested in movies, dramatic series and short-form content such as scripted web series and animated programs.” As for the tradeshowitself,Reddy ratedDISCOP as “one of the best for the African marketplace. Our principle reasons for attending DISCOP are threefold: to sell our library of HD content from our production arm (TAC Studios) — we are interested in both individual title sales, as well as potentially launching our channel in Africa; to license new content for our global platforms (The Africa Channel and Demand Africa); and to identify producers, projects and talent that we can develop and shape into future projects that TAC Studios can produce.” As far as the biggest challenge as a broadcaster, for Reddy it “is finding high quality, HD content from Africa that is produced with a global aesthetic.” Finally, with Germany as the official guest country, a good number of German companies will be in attendance this year, including Beta Film and Deutsche Welle. of $8,850 to exhibit, the cost is $442 per deal- closing meeting. He also added: “Please note that this calculation does not take into consideration the ‘intelligence’ and ‘services’ exhibitors get, such as an updated database of all the top buying companies in Africa with all the relevant contact details.” Although free TV in Africa is still the main market, in 2015, all African countries switched to digital, andwhile they are now transitioning, the complete switchover won’t happen for a couple of years. Digital channels are proliferating in Africa, but many distributors are primarily selling pay-TV rights and secondarily selling free TV. Content distributors have to sell all different rights to compensate for the low license fees that African companies pay. However, the proliferation of platforms has somewhat counterbalanced these reduced prices. Marli Schulze, a program buyer for South Africa’s e.TV acquires about 1,000 hours per year. For her Openview HD channels she selects dramas, comedies, kiddie fare, movies and reality series. But the biggest challenge, she said, “is to access a variety of good quality content for (Continued from Cover) The registration area at the Sandton Convention Center We’ve devised two yardsticks: Delivering strong leads (we guarantee 10 out of 40 pre-confirmed meetings) and delivering deal- closing meetings (we guarantee five out of 40). Discop boss Patrick Zuchowicki Kanal D’s Selim Türkmen and Kerim Emrah Turma November 2017