Public Notebook: Digital Media in Africa
The most interesting things happening in the African media industry.
Notebooks on The Flint contain summaries of the most interesting technology-related happenings in an industry in Africa. This Notebook covers what’s happening in African media.
Last updated: January 30, 2017.
YouTube launches first Sub-Sahara Africa Creator Awards (Nov 2016)
“YouTube celebrated its first-ever Sub-Sahara Africa Creator Awards in Johannesburg, South Africa to recognize the achievements of influencers across the continent in 22 categories such as comedy, education, fitness, and pets.”
The number of hours of video content in Africa being uploaded has doubled year over year for the past two years. And the audience has grown with it. Watchtime on mobile phones is growing 120% year over year. — Teju Ajani (YouTube Partnerships, SSA)
ESPN signs long-term sports media partnership agreement with Kwesé (October 2016)
Kwesé (owned by South African telecoms company Econet) has entered into a huge partnership with sports media juggernaut ESPN. The deal includes:
- the simultaneous launch of a sports channel in 19 African countries
- thousands of hours of exclusive sports content
- a jointly owned African edition of the ESPN website and mobile app called KweneESPN.com
The new KweseESPN.com, and its accompanying app, will combine ESPN’s industry-leading coverage of global sports and world-class digital platform with local African sports news, analysis and perspectives from Kwesé… With the conclusion of this agreement Kwesé adds NCAA American football and basketball to its existing broadcast rights for the NFL, NHL and the NBA, making it the home of American sports in Africa. — ESPN Press Release
Nigeria’s iRoko launches channel on UK’s Sky TV — largest PayTV operator in Europe (September 2016)
ROK Studios is the original content creation arm of Nigerian streaming company iRoko. In Septemer 2016, Rok Studios launched a channel on Sky TV, bringing original Nigerian television shows to 10 million homes in the UK.
Just to put into context DStv/GOtv has 10.4m subscribers across the whole of Africa. This is really, really a big deal.
http://www.jason.com.ng/post/150439645080/mrs-njoku-reaching-for-the-sky
Business Insider launches in Africa in partnership with Pulse
Digital-only business news publication Business Insider is launching an Africa edition in partnership with Pulse, the media brand owned by Ringier Africa Digital Publication. Business Insider’s Africa edition will initially be focused on Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Ghana’s OMG Digital gets into Y Combinator (2016)
In early 2016, Ghanaian media company OMG Digital got into the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator, which counts major companies such as Dropbox, Reddit, and Airbnb as alumni.
Their entertainment vertical (OMGVoice) is live in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, and they get upwards of ~7 million visitors a month (unclear if this is total visitors or unique visitors). They often get described as “Buzzfeed for Africa.”
CNN International is investing heavily in digital media operations in Africa
They’ve hired Stephanie Busari (Twitter: StephanieBusari) to head CNN’s Nigeria/West Africa Bureau.
Huffington Post launches South Africa edition in partnership with Media24 (November 2016)
Huffington Post has launched a South Africa edition in partnership with Media24, South Africa’s largest digital media publisher.
Media Party Africa brings over 300 digital media experts from around the world to South Africa (October 2016)
Media Party Africa was a 3 day conference “hosted by the continent’s largest data journalism and civic technology federation, Code for Africa, in partnership with Hacks/Hackers Africa. Together, we’re gathering some of the world’s most exciting civic technologists, digital journalists and other social justice watchdogs from across the world for three days of workshops and talks.”
SABC put together this great collection of presentations and resources from the event:
Other reflections from the event:
