Its time for Africa to rejoice as Nick Wilson, head of projects and content at African Animation Network (AAN) announced the launch of Africa's first animated and pop culture kids channel AAN at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The official launch is set to be held at DISCOP Johannesburg later this year. According to Wilson, the channel is said to launch the channel in the last quarter of 2019 with African produced content which he mentions will grow overtime as the country's capacity grows.
The name of the kids channel is called African Animation Network as mentioned earlier. AAN is a pro-profit, talent-driven social enterprise and open network with a core mandate to empower African animation professionals and build a sustainable African animation industry.
As you African animation has going through some challenges over the years due to the lack of funding and animation studios you've come across series that have been produced overseas like Supa Strikas. Regardless animation has been growing exceptionally in Africa with critics seeing potential in the market.
Animators particularly in Africa have perused hobbies or part time jobs to put food on the table. Over the years some of them will take part in an animation festival to boost their creative spirits and keep them close to their passion. Usually the winner's work gets a lot of attention from across the world only to get shelved with hope of trying to find a studio that will fund and expand the program footprint. This new channel will broadcast many of these animator's hardwork.
For now, there's currently no details on whether this channel will be accessible on MultiChoice's DStv or ODM and StarTimes Media's Starsat platform since both are your best pick to boost the channel's brand and audience reach. More details on this might be available in November.
The programming remains a mystery as well for now only two shows were highlighted at Annecy 2019 such as L'arbre Palimpseste and Wool Wool Town (not sure these series will be available). Expect exciting, new and old programs just don't expect this channel to get as much new content in the year as any other kids channel would have gotten in the United States regardless the people associated with the channel are working hard to bring to boost productivity. Most of the channel's lineup MIGHT consist mostly of acquisitions including Jabu's Jungle (SABC 1), Jozi Zoo (e.tv), Silly Season (e.tv) and URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika (SABC 3) to just to name a few.
AAN didn't bother engaging with journalists or the media (some of which are reliable) about it so they chose to leave them in the dark. Even I am one of the people who felt left out but chose to let it slide since this kind of behaviour has been ongoing over the years with other companies.
Anyways congrats to Wilson and his team for the new linear channel. Africa and other parts of the world are rooting for you, I hope you engage more with the media when you do get some exciting news to share on the channel and not let us down, good luck.ch
No comments:
Post a Comment