By: Fred Yaw
Sarpong- Daily Express
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of M-Net, Mrs. Yolisa
Phahle has stated that their focus is about telling local stories in all local
languages for viewers across the continent.
“We are constantly looking at ways to increase our
investment and offering to ensure we tell more African stories through the eyes
of local producers and actors. We
currently produce in nine languages and have local channels telling local stories
in East, West, and Southern Africa,” said. Mrs. Phahle.
According to her, M-Net believe that there are more
stories that need to be told in more languages.
“Currently we are focusing on the Africa Magic channels
in West Africa, the Maisha Magic channels for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda,
Zambezi Magic for the English-speaking SADC region and Jango Magic for our
Portuguese markets in Angola and Mozambique.
The Mzansi Magic and kykNET channels tell local South African stories,”
she mentioned.
While
celebrating Africa Month, the Daily Express and two other journalists from
Ghana, Nigeria and Malawi got the opportunity to interview Mrs. Yolisa Phahle to
discuss their involvement on how local TV content successfully showcases
African stories from an African perspective.
After two years of managing M-Net and touching on some of
the challenges she face, Phahle said challenges are inevitable in any business.
“The key is to find solutions that improve the viewer experience, that
surprise, delight, entertain and inform audiences.”
She said M-Net is no stranger to challenges. “We have had
a few difficult moments this year but seek to learn valuable lessons that can
help us improve what we offer viewers in the long-term,” she added.
“Our Africa Magic, East Africa SADC and Portuguese
channels have been impactful in their respective markets. The Africa Magic
Viewers’ Choice Awards which has affectionately become known as the Oscars of
Africa, is a testament to growth of our African footprint, as the number of awards,
quality of productions and categories have increased year on year,” Phahle
stated.
She pointed out that they seek to work with local
partners in every market, to add value to the countries in which they operate
and this remains a priority to them.
She emphasized that their strongest impact continues to
be the opportunities they offer to film makers and producers and the continued
investment into local production companies to produce content made by Africans
for Africa. “As a group our investment
in local sport and local content is testament to our desire to make a
meaningful contribution,” she noted.
Answering a question whether they are not targeting a
specific market, Mrs. Phahle said the M-Net channels through MultiChoice
operations in nearly 50 countries and they offer content in nine languages.
“Our focus is not just on the big markets, but focusing on being a diverse and
representative African brand. This year,
there is a big focus on Zambia and Tanzania, our investment in Mozambique is
also representative of our commitment to the continent,” she mentioned.
Moving away from been a South African company, she noted
that they are employing people on the ground in the countries where they
operate. “We have channel managers from
Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe and will continue to work with a diverse and
representative group of people from across the continent.”
Answering questions on how programmes on M-Net will
advance the course of women, she noted that “it is important that we showcase
stories which represent diverse female characters that reflect the lives of a
wide variety of women. We also seek to
tell stories that contain inspirational women who overcome major obstacles as
these stories are motivational, educational and resonate well with our
audiences.”
She announced that there will be no Big Brother Africa
show this year. “This year we have produced Big Brother for Angola, at this
stage we do not have plans for Big Brother Africa,” she added.
Comments
Post a Comment