Since African pay TV giant MultiChoice launched the continent’s first homegrown SVOD service Showmax in 2015, the streamer always planned to enter the kids content market with original animated productions.
Now, its dream will finally become reality.
After an 18-month development and production phase, Showmax’s first original animated series, Jay Jay: The Chosen One, is set to premiere on April 6. Based on the childhood of Nigerian football legend and animal lover Augustine “Jay Jay” Okocha, the 13-episode kids series (pictured) reimagines Okocha as both an aspiring tween footballer and a superhero who fights against illegal poaching.
Though the fantasy-adventure story is fully African, Showmax drew inspiration from Star India’s animated show Super V.
“Super V is based on Indian international cricketer Virat Kohli and reimagines him as a superhero with a massive passion for cricket,” says Yolisa Phahle , CEO of Showmax and connected video at MultiChoice. “So the original idea for Jay Jay came from the Indian producers of that show, but we loved the idea and thought, how could we make something like that work in our market?”
Showmax ultimately chose one of Super V’s animation producers, I-Realities, to animate Jay Jay, along with two other Indian studios—Nihilent and 5th Dimension. But in sticking to its local strategy as much as possible, the SVOD brought in its local Nigerian team and Jay Jay himself to keep the show authentic. Showmax is also the sole investor in the project, it hired an all Nigerian voice cast and enlisted popular Nigerian singer and vocalist, Waje, to record the show’s soundtrack.
Phahle says it was the right time to get into original animation, due to factors including Africa’s young population, and the overall popularity of animation locally and globally.
“Africa is massive, and in terms of population it is a very young continent,” she says. “More than 60% of its population is under the age of 25 and by 2030, young Africans are expected to make up 42% of global youth, according to the World Economic Forum.”
Additionally, Phahle points to the declining cost of data in Africa and its rising average GDP as reasons more Africans will be able to watch content via streaming. “We believe that our industry and environment is ready for exponential growth,” she says.
Though Showmax doesn’t publish its subscriber numbers, the service now has a 50-market footprint in sub-Saharan Africa and is available in a raft of international territories including Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Indonesia and the UK.
Showmax currently makes around 6,000 hours of local programming per year across all genres to differentiate itself from other streamers, explains Phahle, and its primary production regions are Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
“Short term, we want original animation for West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa,” she says. “And depending on how successful the [projects] are we will probably think about other regions.”
She notes that the SVOD’s next original animated kids series will hail from East Africa and be animated in Africa, but is mum on further details.
As for production budgets or how much money Showmax will be spending specifically on original kids animation, Phahle won’t say, but generally speaking, she says the SVOD will be investing more money in local production across sub-Saharan Africa and wants its original animation to resonate locally and abroad.
“Our long-term goal is to build the animation industry on our continent and to give our children characters and stories that reflect, educate and inspire them, and content they can enjoy with their parents,” says Phahle. “Ultimately we believe that if we do this well enough, the stories will also find audiences outside of Africa.”
Along with original animation, Showmax has other plans to scale up. Earlier this month Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky took a 30% stake in the streamer (MultiChoice has 70%). The partnership will enable MultiChoice to launch a new Showmax service, leveraging Peacock’s streaming technology and gaining access to more premium content.
A launch date, content and pricing details are yet-to-be-revealed, but the new platform will combine Showmax’s local content, general entertainment, sports and family programming—which already includes international shows and movies from NBCUniversal, Warner Brothers International, HBO and Sony—with more new content licensed from NBCUniversal and Sky, as well as live English Premier League soccer matches.
“We will be taking kids programming from NBCU, and we already do to some degree, so we will continue to have a good mix of local kids and YA programming along with the best of international,” says Phahle. “Peacock is a very stable platform that scales to millions of subscribers so we’re excited to work with their tech teams as we look to reach millions of new subscribers in Africa.”
In terms of potential international co-pro partnerships on original animation, Phale says Showmax is open to the possibilities. “It’s wonderful to work with experts who have different experiences and skill sets, and it’s great to be able to consolidate budgets and serve a bigger audience in one go, so yes, we are open to it,” she says. “But our core focus is on empowering African creatives to tell African stories for Africans.”
Looking ahead, Phahle says her biggest challenge in terms of original animation will be scrutinizing timelines and deadlines.
“Animation takes much longer to produce than reality or talk shows, for example, so we are going to have to plan quite far ahead if we want to have a good pipeline,” she says. “The opportunity, if we get it right, is absolutely huge because there’s massive demand for animators worldwide. We know there are animators in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa who are working with big studios. But I think the industry could grow a lot more.”
