I was reading reports from MultiChoice Africa’s content showcase over the weekend and things are not looking good. The showcase aimed to familiarise journalists from across the continent with the content offerings on MultiChoice’s African channels. Many of the journalists expressed their dissatisfaction at the dominance of Nigerian content on these channels.
The channels in question are all Africa Magic Channels as well as MTV Base and EbonyLife TV which recently joined the circuit. According to AllAfrica, an MTV Base representative at the conference admitted that the dominance of Nigerian content was due to the fact that West Africa was their biggest content.
To make matters worse the event was hosted by West African personalities and the panel discussion was dominated by West African panellists. The song which launched the campaign featured Tiwa Savage, MiCasa, Davido, Sarkodie, Diamond Platnumz and Lola Rae – three of these artists are Nigerian artists. Sigh…
It will be interesting to see how MultiChoice responds to the backlash and whether they will take the accusations seriously and make the necessary changes. My standing on the issue is with the journalists. I tune into Africa Magic Entertainment often and each time I tune in, I am guaranteed to see a Nigerian show. While I love the shows, I am definitely open to the idea of seeing content from other African countries and more especially, content produced by me.
The showcase also I mentioned earlier is entitled “Africa Rising” and I first saw the video on Channel O. Check it out below and download the song HERE.
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