by Thinus Ferreira
In HBO's new prequel series House of the Dragon a continent is once again largely shut out and ignored - not Westeros but Africa - as HBO decided to do big red carpet media launches in Amsterdam for Europe last week and in London for the United Kingdom on Monday night, with nothing but scant attention for Africa.
The attention and effort put in by HBO for House of the Dragon in Africa - primarily for and with M-Net (DStv 101) as HBO's long-time content distribution partner in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa, eye-poppingly pales in comparison with the marketing, PR and publicity work being done in the United Kingdom and in Europe.
With M-Net that has organised a media screening and invited some journalists to a physical House of the Dragon cinema screening in South Africa's Cape Town and Johannesburg, HBO doesn't appear to have been receptive to put in any effort into making House of Dragon cast and crew available for media roundtables, getting press together for a type of media launch event, or setting up talent interviews with South Africa's TV critics and journalists covering television and the show.
In sharp contrast, Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video PR already started publicity work and doing talent roundtable interviews in July with South Africa's media for the debut of its Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power fantasy drama series coming in September to its video streaming service.
The lackluster HBO effort, which is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, with House of the Dragon in South Africa - a George R.R. Martin prequel series based on his Fire & Ice book - is also in stark contrast with the effort done in London's Leicester Square where the show had its premiere on Monday night in the Cineworld and Odeon Luxe cinemas.
To be fair - the bulk of House of the Dragon was filmed across the United Kingdom which make it logical that there would be a big(ger) red carpet and media event in London for the first season of the series where HBO appear to be working much better with Sky as its longtime pay-TV partner in that territory.
That's not however the case for Europe, where HBO still and also held a red carpet premiere and a media launch party for House of the Dragon last week Thursday at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam in the Netherlands - a media event that most of the show's on-screen talent as well as HBO executives attended.
House of the Dragon viewership in South Africa and across pan-Africa will very likely rival or surpass that of the United Kingdom, with more DStv subscribers who will collectively sample or watch it on M-Net than in the UK given the available audience size.
Yet, Africa and South Africa's media have inexplicably once again been largely excluded from any of the build-up, buzz-creating strategies and media interviews which HBO's publicity division tried to create elsewhere in the world outside of the United States.
Africa's media once again has had to look to the UK, Europe and America to see what is happening with the show or news and reporting about it, read interviews done with publications from other countries to find out what the cast and crew of House of the Dragon might be saying - playing catch-up and second fiddle to other media valued more simply because they're apparently not based in Africa and seemingly not worth the effort.
