BY DAVID SHORT The third edition of DISCOP Africa is set to take place at the Taranga Pullman Dakar Hotel in Dakar, Senegal, February 2426, 2010. After the success of the first DISCOP Africa in Dakar last February and the second edition in Nairobi, Kenya, conference managers are hopeful for an even greater turnout. DISCOP aims to bring together programmers, producers, distributors and advertisers to stimulate the growth of the television industry in Africa. “Holding two events so close to each other has definitely increased the reach of our DISCOP platform across the continent, with half the African broadcasters and pay-TV platforms attending in Nairobi being new to the market,” said Paris-based DISCOP general manager, Patrick Jucaud. As for the second Dakar event in 2010, Jucaud reported that, as per last month, 100 programming and acquisitions executives were already registered. The year 2010 is poised to be a hot one for TV in Africa, with the World Cup being held in South Africa. Basically, there will be two DISCOP Africa editions in 2010: one in Dakar in February, and the other in Nairobi in September. From 2011 on, there will be only one edition per year, alternating between Dakar and Nairobi, in September. Jucaud added that DISCOP Africa is having a knock-off effect on more established markets, noting that fewer Africans are traveling to MIPTV, MIPCOM and NATPE. “Recent surveys have found that TV content buyers from Africa account for less than two percent of international acquisitions executives traveling to the major trade shows,” he said. Cost is also a factor. Many African currencies are weak, few of them are convertible, and some countries have restrictions on how much money one can take out of the country. Even Angola, awash with billions of oil bucks, recently restricted access to dollars. Nevertheless, audiovisual content production, distribution and funding are fast becoming of high-importance in an emerging nation with 53 countries, more than eight official languages spoken, and where 33 percent of Africans are between the ages of 10 and 24. Only 5.2 percent of the people have access to the Internet, while 27 percent have mobile access and one person in 10 has a television set. Because of the lack of infrastructure, cellular phone services really took off and, with them, great opportunities to upgrade to broadband services such as Wi-Fi and Wi-Max, which gives IPTV a clear advantage over cable. DISCOP Africa is organized by Basic Lead, the Paris-based group that organizes DISCOP East in Budapest, Hungary, and is associated with the Los Angeles-based NATPE. Despite limited programming options in the past, television advertising opportunities in Africa will grow by double digits due to better programming, and will reach more than 977.1 million people, according to a 2008 DISCOP study. In addition, according to DISCOP, the average gross domestic product in all 53 African countries is up five percent from last year — and growing. Buyers at the inaugural DISCOP reported to organizers that they were seeking various types of programming, including series (71 percent), TV movies (59 percent), documentaries (58 percent), telenovelas (55 percent), sporting events and educational content (53 percent each), game shows and features (49 percent each) and animation (45 percent). In addition to buying and selling, market organizers also guarantee networking opportunities with seminars, galas and parties. Key conferences include: “Digitalization: Leading Africa into a New Era” on the first day, followed by “Health Content that Sells.” On Day Two, one can attend four separate case studies of “Successful Formats for Africa.” On the last day of the event, the seminar program opens with the “Attracting Advertising Revenue Workshop,” followed by the “Made in Africa Workshop.” The conference sessions will be held (with one or two exceptions) at the beginning and end of the day at the nearby Novotel. As for how much business will be done, delegates who went to the first DISCOP in Dakar reported different experiences. For Micheline Azoury, International Sales manager for Africa and the Middle East at Italy’s Mondo TV, the market was “a great new successful experience for us. I would do it again and again.” She added that African broadcasters have to be approached and pitched differently. “We pretty much need to understand the culture there,” she said, adding that African buyers concentrated on the budget they had rather than the concept of what the market needed. What the buyers wanted intrigued her. “I was surprised to see that the Latin American telenovelas and animation programs were a big success in Africa,” said Azoury, who spoke to VideoAge before the Nairobi event. “I’m really looking forward to Nairobi,” she said. “I believe we can do a lot more business with Kenyan broadcasters.” She commented, though, that the first DISCOP lacked a strong trade press presence. “There was a lack of the international magazines which usually cover all the markets,” she said, before adding that some African countries weren’t represented at all. For Bill Peck of Star Media Group in London, Dakar was a different story. “It was a brilliantly well-organized market, and had a lot of buzz and enthusiasm. Sadly, the aftermath has been disappointing — with zero responses from the various people I met.” Peck did not go to Nairobi, and has no plans to revisit Dakar. It’s little wonder it takes time to get to know the African marketplace, and how it does business. Africa has more countries than any other continent, even more ethnic groups, and hundreds more languages than the main colonially acquired ones of English, French and Portuguese. Sub-Saharan Africa has roughly 1,000 tribes or language groups; Nigeria has almost 400 tribes. Not only that, the media landscape changes all the time. The DISCOP organization compiled the first-ever guide to the African TV industry for the first Dakar event, now published separately as Disbook. Cherise Barsell, head of Audiovisual Sector/Africa at DISCOP explained: “The book is filled with our database of African contacts and a lot of time and energy is put into updating and validating them — the African market changes so quickly! Normally, it is only available to our participants, but with a growing demand, we decided to make it available at the market.” Senegal, where the market takes place in February, is a case in point. According to Disbook, five new TV stations have sprung up in the last seven years alone. In 2002, the public service broadcaster, Radio Tòlòvision Sònògalaise, launched a third station, SN2, joining existing stations, RTS1 and RTS2 — themselves only set up in 1992. All three are general interest channels. The following year saw the launch of Senegal’s first commercial station, 2STV, which has now a 92 percent share. In 2006 alone, three channels went on air. They were two generalist stations, RDV (76.5 percent share) and Walf TV (93 percent), followed by news channel Canal Info (62 percent). According to Disbook, Senegalese TV is watchable because of factors usually more associated with North America and Europe, “The competitive landscape driven by available ratings and audience data contribute to quality TV.” David Short is a consultant on communications for the African Development Bank. He writes here in a private capacity. V I D E O • A G E DE C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 16 A F R I C A T V M A T T E R S DISCOP Africa 3 Races to Dakar Scenes from Discop Africa 2009
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