Canal+ Group Buys Stake In African TV Production Company Marodi TV

Canal+ Group has acquired a stake in Marodi TV, a Senegalese production company which is a leading purveyor of TV series across Africa and a force within the continent’s creative economy.

The deal pursues Canal + and Marodi’s ongoing partnership, as well as further strengthens the Paris-headquartered company’s position in French-speaking Africa, where Canal+ produces over 4,000 hours of African content and has 30 channels dedicated to the continent in 10 languages.

For the last five years, Marodi TV has broadcast its catalogue as part of Canal + Group’s channel line-up. It has produced exclusive series that premiered on the Sunu Yeuf channel in Wolof, and went on to launch on the pan-African channel A+. Both channels are available to Canal+’s 8 million subscribers in Africa. Marodi TV and Canal+ have also co-produced together a number of successful series, such as “Emprises” and “Déchéances.”

Founded in 2012 with the ambition of making quality African content accessible on all media, Marodi TV boasts a catalogue of over 600 hours of content, as well as a community of 6 million subscribers on YouTube. Some of its biggest series hits include “Pod & Marichou,” “Maitresse d’un homme marié” (“mistress of a married man”) and “Karma.”

With Canal+ Group as its new shareholder, Marodi TV will continue being managed by its founder and majority shareholder, Senegalese entrepreneur Serigne Massamba Ndour. The partnership will allow Marodi TV to expand the library’s distribution across Africa and beyond via synergies with Canal+. They will also establish an original catalogue for Canal+’s future channel in Pulaar, the language spoken by the Fulani community which has a strong presence in Senegal, Guinea and Mali.

Canal+ Group is already a majority shareholder in the production companies Rok Studios in Nigeria, Plan A in the Ivory Coast and Zacu Entertainment in Rwanda.

“Based in Senegal, this producer benefits from an artistic, technical, linguistic, and climatic environment that is particularly conducive to audiovisual production,” said Fabrice Faux, director of channels and content at Canal+ International. “This investment again demonstrates our enduring commitment to growing Africa’s creative industries and our excitement and commercial optimism in its creative and media sectors,” Faux continued.  

Serigne Massamba Ndour, Marodi TV CEO, said the “alliance will enable us to strengthen our production and broadcasting capabilities and export our model across the continent.”

WildEarth To Cutback On Live Shows Following Its Possible Exit On MultiChoice's DStv

WildEarth is an interactive wildlife channel which brings viewers closer to nature with live safaris within the hotspot of Africa. Founded in 2007 by Graham Wallington and Emily Wallington, WildEarth has developed a global community of viewers.

Not long ago, it was reported that WildEarth would be looking to take their channel off DStv by the end of April. This comes months after the channel's current CEO was negotiating with MultiChoice over adding carriage fees to the channel.

As some readers are aware, WildEarth hosted a live event where several notable figures were briefing audiences on the future of the brand. Aside from the departure from DStv, they are looking to no longer offer any live content and transition to short form.

This means shows like Sunrise Safari and Sunset Safari will continue to exist but will be pretaped. On top of that airtime for these shows will be further reduced as they try to offer more short form content as they eyeing potential deals who feel the offering is lacking. 

SafariLIVE was one of their signature shows and what helped them garner an online presence. For that to be minimized or possibly scrapped, consumers are led to wonder if this would bring about its end on YouTube where part of their content resides.

They are looking to film some of these shows in other countries as opposed to limiting their stance in South Africa and Kenya. Of course, they'll need further donations to remain on the air and get some of this content of the ground. 

If you're interested in donating: click here

If you're looking to save WildEarth from being removed on DStv: click here

With WildEarth looking to add more variety to their lineup and eyeing potential deals. Some of this content will likely be deprived from consumers if not minimized something that wasn't discussed as much.

Press Release: Come Back To Me Premieres This April On Telemundo Across Africa

NBCUniversal International Networks & Direct-To-Consumer today announced the South African premiere of the new series, Come Back to Me, premiering on Monday 8 April at 22:00 (CAT), exclusively on Telemundo. Starring William Levy (Resident Evil, Addicted), Samadhi Zendejas (Falsa Identidad, Rosario Tijeras), Kimberly Dos Ramos (El Rostro de la Venganza, La Desalmada), Ximena Herrera (El Señor de los Cielos, Buscando a Frida) and Ferdinando Valencia (El Nombre del Amor, La Verdadera Bonita) Come Back to Me is a drama full of romantic entanglements in which a mother's unconditional love for her son becomes the common thread that drives the story.

Set in Ciudad de Juárez and Ciudad de México, this romantic drama follows Nuria, a woman of humble means, who begins a relationship with Braulio without knowing that he is one of the owners of the company where she works to support her son and sister. The lives of the main characters begin to intertwine after the tragic kidnapping of Andrés, Nuria's son. Her strength is only proportional to the love she feels for her son. At the least expected moment, Santiago enters her life to become not only the pillar that keeps her hope alive in a journey full of obstacles, but also the great love of her life.

The original series, produced at Telemundo Center’s state-of-the-art soundstages in Miami, also stars Laura Flores, Christian de la Campa, Rodolfo Salas, Geraldine Galván, Amaranta Ruíz, Christian Ramos, Anthony Álvarez, Anna Sobero, Ariana Saavedra, with special participations by Fernando Ciangherotti and Diego Klein, and André Sebastián.

Produced by Telemundo Global Studios, this original story is written by Sergio Mendoza and Amaris Páez, and directed by Danny Gavidia, Felipe Aguilar and Uandari Gómez. The direction of photography is by Damián Aguilar and José Velarde, with Pedro De Larrechea as production designer. Telemundo’s Karen Barroeta, Ximena Cantuarias and Elizabeth Suárez serve as the production's executive producers.

The brand new series, Come Back to Me, premieres exclusively on Telemundo on April 8 at 22:00 CAT, with new episodes every Monday.

Channel Closure: WildEarth Will Stop Airing On DStv By The End Of April, Freeview And ROKU Might Follow Soon

WildEarth is an interactive wildlife channel which brings viewers closer to nature with live safaris within the hotspot of Africa. Founded in 2007 by Graham Wallington and Emily Wallington, WildEarth has developed a global community of viewers.

Since December, the channel's future in Africa came into question after WildEarth uploaded a survey which would help determine if the channel should remain aboard the DStv platform. At the time, the channel didn't share any of their findings on the matter.

This past weekend, WildEarth held a live event which was accessible on YouTube. It was there were more details about their survey had come forward. 

According to the surveys, WildEarth serves as one of the top 3 favourite channels by 76% of its viewers with 90% voting it as one of their favourite local channels. Despite the positive reception, the channel is not able to retain its position on DStv.

Andre Crawford, the current CEO of WildEarth had been engaging conversation with MultiChoice to try and recieve payment for the channel. Unfortunately, they couldn't come to an agreement with the channel looking to exit DStv by the end of April.

WildEarth has been struggling to sustain itself within the current economic climate where platforms like Netflix and TikTok reign supreme. With that in mind, they're look to restructure their business model in the coming months in order to stay afloat. 

If you're interested in donating: click here

Following news of its possible closure on DStv, a viewer had created an online petition which not only requires them to get compensated but keeps them on the air for the foreseeable future: click here for the petition. 

Should MultiChoice not come to a new agreement with WildEarth, this would be the 10th TV channel to have exited their platforms. It would join M-Net's Me and 1Magic alongside Ginx eSports TV channels which had exited a month prior. 

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New Series Alert: Sommerdahl Moorde, eExtra's First Series From Denmark And Germany Debuts In April

Following the rollout of Soos Nag En Dag, eExtra's Kuiertyd continues to expand their local portfolio in more international territories with the addition of mystery drama Sommerdahl Moorde. It is also known as The Summerdahl Murders or Dan Sommerdahl - Todliche Idylle.

Synopsis for Sommerdahl Moorde:

DCI Dan Sommerdahl investigates murders in a lovely Danish coastal town with his best friend, Detective Flemming Torp, and his wife, Marianne, a criminal technician. But Dan's years of devotion to the job have hurt his marriage, and with Marianne wanting a divorce, Dan discovers his rival for her affections is none other than his best friend. And they all must still work together to solve crimes.

It starred Peter Mygind as Dan Sommerdahl, André Babikian as Flemming Torp, Laura Drasbæk as Marianne Sommerdahl, Mathias Käki Jørgensen as Benjamin, Lotte Andersen as Hanegaard, Diêm Camille as Lina and Martin Svaneborg as Thor.

Sommerdahl Moorde debuted by March 2020 and since then 32 episodes had been produced so far with over 4 season. A fifth season is also said to be in development as free-to-air households gear up for the first season in the coming weeks.

In other developments, eExtra will be rolling out a local youth comedy titled Die Fakulteit in April. This will be followed by rural infused soap Keiders Van Geheime on e.tv in May which will serve as a rival offering/replacement to former soap, 7de Laan.