Africa Top Success Ils font l'Afrique
The boss of Canal+, Bertrand Méheut announced on Thursday at a press briefing in Paris, launching on 24th October of «A+», a new entertainment channel for French-speaking Africa.
According to the explanations of the latter, A+ aims at « targeting the promising market of La Francophonie on the continent ».
With 1.3 million subscribers already in Africa in more than 30 countries, M Méheut supported that the Group wants to « double this number very quickly » after already multiplying it by two between end 2011 and end 2013.
In other words, the launching of A+ aims at stimulating this dynamic.
The new channel A+ that will offer programs realized by Africans and for Africans, will add to the paying basic bunch of CanalSat, offered at 5,000 FCFA per month (about 8 Euros), that already includes 65 channels.
The program schedule of A+ that will cost « several millions Euros« , will include 70% of African French-speaking series but also English-speaking, Portuguese-speaking and African-American, dubbed in French as well as fictions like Nollywood movies, the cinema of Nigeria.
It will also present a talent show, « Island Africa Talent », « Star Chef« , a competition of African dish, fashion magazines, «Blackamorphose», where women relook for an evening or even a great hairdressing competition.
A+ will also publish the sequel of « My family« , cult series in French-speaking Africa directed by the Ivorian actress Akissi Delta.
A+ will be based in Abidjan with a team of about 15 people. Its development also wishes to increase the number of homes having access to electric of quality, limited for the time being at 8-10 million but expected to reach 12 million within 4 years.
Kindly note that half of subscribers to CanalSat in Africa also subscribed to Canal+.They generally have a prepaid monthly subscription and voluntarily reactivate it each month.
Canal+ already realized 40% of its operating profit on the international level of which Africa is an important component, such as Vietnam (more than 700,000 subscribers) and Poland (more than 2 million subscribers), said Mr. Méheut.
The Group just settled down in Quebec also.
The production costs are modest in Africa: series can be shot for a few thousand Euros per episode and up to 40,000 Euros for those shot in South Africa.
The number of French-speaking subscribers in the world is expected to triple by 2050 for 750 million people, including 85% in Africa.
Original text by: Blaise AKAME
