{"id":13509,"date":"2023-10-23T18:30:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T18:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/?p=13509"},"modified":"2023-10-23T18:31:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T18:31:12","slug":"african-entertainment-a-foundation-for-the-continents-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/2023\/10\/23\/african-entertainment-a-foundation-for-the-continents-success\/","title":{"rendered":"African entertainment: A foundation for the continent\u2019s success"},"content":{"rendered":"

The entertainment sector provides a unique opportunity to uplift Africa\u2019s people in various different ways. It can improve lives professionally, financially, psychologically, and ultimately even on a unified national level, writes Fhulu Badugela, Chief Executive Officer for MultiChoice Africa Holdings (www.MultiChoice.com<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Entertainment is primarily fun and enjoyable, but it also reflects and creates culture, which binds people together. It is created by scores of highly skilled, talented people working in several adjacent industries. In addition to this, entertainment fires passion and enthusiasm, which not only creates strong business demand, but it can also be used to inform, educate and inspire positive behavioural change.<\/p>\n

As a business intimately involved in the production and distribution of African entertainment content, Africa Magic (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/46MTSkq<\/a>) is invested in the industry in multiple ways. We have also gained a deep understanding of our audience, our people, the society in which we operate, and the overlapping relationship between these stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The investment we have made in our industry has come to transcend the financial. When MultiChoice Africa established Africa Magic in 2003, it was certainly because we saw an opportunity in the market. But the sheer passion of our audiences across Africa made us appreciate the role our content plays in people\u2019s lives, and the opportunities this creates.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s helped us to see a bigger picture. We\u2019ve come to understand that through Africa Magic, its channels and its shows, we can enrich lives across the continent. We can grow, amplify and multiply Africa through the power of entertainment.<\/p>\n

From where we started as a provider primarily of Nollywood movies through a single channel, we\u2019ve grown to where we can deliver a wide range of content on seven highly popular channels.<\/p>\n

Through shows like Big Brother Nigerian Idol\u2013 our longest-running TV series, or the wildly popular Battleground<\/span><\/em>, Africa Magic has been able to produce more than 25<\/span>\u202f000 hours of authentic Nigerian content in English, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, which we now broadcast to 42 African countries.<\/p>\n

This pan-African penetration underscores Nigeria\u2019s position as an African entertainment leader \u2013 in terms of consumption and production.<\/p>\n

It’s a position the country is consolidating, through our growing global presence as a cultural force, through music artists like Wizkid, Burnaboy, Tems and Davido; writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Okri and Wole Soyinka; and our filmmaking output which is now appreciated across our continent and beyond.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been easy getting to this point, and we have faced numerous challenges along the way.<\/p>\n

Among these was the marginalisation of African content \u2013 on the global scene, and on the continent. Even quality screenwriting and compelling productions were overlooked, and not given the respect they deserve.<\/p>\n

\n

When MultiChoice Africa established Africa Magic in 2003, it was certainly because we saw an opportunity in the market<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

To address this, discrepancy, and to provide a platform to celebrate African excellence, we launched the Africa Magic Viewers\u2019 Choice Awards (AMVCAs) (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/402JCSX<\/a>). Now entering their 10th year, the AMVCAs recognise the creativity, talent, and quality of African film.<\/p>\n

The awards have played a direct role in inspiring professionals within the industry and elevated the production standards in our industry.<\/p>\n

The show itself has also had an economic impact. As such, it forms a microcosm of our industry \u2013 driving economic growth, while it entertains, inspires and launches careers.<\/p>\n

The recent AMVCA Impact Report 2013-2023 (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3M5wuXD<\/a>) assessed the impact of the AMVCAs and found that every edition of the event created around 3\u202f000 direct and indirect jobs. Over its nine previous editions, AMVCA has invested a total of \u20a6<\/span>9 billion into the event, training, <\/span>logistics and more.<\/p>\n

The event has raised the stature of African film, improving standards, gaining international recognition, securing distribution partnerships, developing talent and growing the African economy. Today, 61.9% of film sector players agree that AMVCA has contributed to the growth of the African film sector, and 76.1% say that AMVCA has helped the international recognition of African films.<\/p>\n

The AMVCAs are but a single expression of how the creative sector can capture the popular imagination and also make a direct impact on people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

This has been a great learning for us, and it has inspired us to launch further initiatives to improve lives through what we do, to \u201cmultiply to the power of entertainment through the power of our people\u201d, as we like to say.<\/p>\n

The MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) (https:\/\/MultiChoiceTalentFactory.com<\/a>) is a continent-wide skills-development initiative with its West African academy in Lagos. Through training, masterclasses and industry networks, it upskills young filmmakers, and empowers them to direct their love for production and filmmaking into our industry.<\/p>\n

Several MTF alumni are now already working in our sector, producing the content that has made Africa Magic an African success story.<\/p>\n

As Africa Magic celebrates the 20th year of its existence, I remain convinced that the entertainment sector provides a powerful platform for building partnerships and global networks.<\/p>\n

It all starts with telling African stories for African people. As we embrace our own narratives, and take ownership of how that narrative is shared, we unlock the power of Africa\u2019s people. That is the true African Magic: our people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Entertainment inspires our people, it grabs their imagination and it motivates them to aspire for more, for better. Across our sector \u2013 be it in the music, film, writing, television production or commercial space \u2013 we can drive social progress by taking African stories to the world.<\/p>\n

Entire economies have been built upon that. Entire philosophies. Storytelling is indeed one of the rocks upon which African culture is founded. Let\u2019s continue to build a new era of African success upon the same foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The entertainment sector provides a unique opportunity to uplift Africa\u2019s people in various different ways. It can improve lives professionally, financially, psychologically, and ultimately even on a unified national level, writes Fhulu Badugela, Chief Executive Officer for MultiChoice Africa Holdings (www.MultiChoice.com).   Entertainment is primarily fun and enjoyable, but it also reflects and creates culture, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}