by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice is powering up its investment in pan-African TV content with the pay-TV company's M-Net and Showmax divisions producing a new funeral reality show from Ghana, a Nollywood psychothriller miniseries, a Crime & Justice spinoff crime procedural for Nigeria, as well as a slum-set Kenyan crime series about an aspiring football player for DStv subscribers.
As it faces more competition from primarily global streaming rivals like Netflix Africa, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, all rapidly expanding across the continent, MultiChoice is pouring millions into the production of localised content for its three biggest African markets - South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya - where the traditional pay-TV operator is experimenting with new formats and continuing to do more localised spinoffs of existing series for different sub-Saharan countries.
"We are increasing our investment in local content and have new shows across the board in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and our Portuguese markets to look forward to," says Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice CEO of general entertainment and connected video.
"In Kenya, we have a new crime series called Pepeta which captures the dreams and realities of the youth in Kibera which is one of the largest slums in Africa but also known for creating top football players in Kenya."
Pepeta, which translates as "bounce" and which is produced by CJ3 Entertainment, follows the 17-year-old talented footballer Junior torn between crime and soccer, the unforgiving cop Musa, and Biki an ambitious football coach. Pepeta is loosely based on the real-life story of Harun "Rio" Wathari.
"We also have a movie, it's called A Familiar Christmas and it's our first-ever Christmas movie for Kenya, produced by the award-winning filmmaker of our telenovela Selina."
"New content coming to Nigeria include Ditche - it is our first limited drama series," says Yolisa Phahle.
"It's a psychological thriller about a young Nollywood actress who discovers her fiancé murdered. We also have Showmax's first and exclusive Nigerian telenovela. This story is set against the backdrop of the gold-mining industry and we're launching it in the last quarter of this fiscal."
"Learning from the success of Crime & Justice in Nairobi, we're making a new series of Crime & Justice but this time it's based in Lagos where two detectives investigate cases that have been ripped from the local news headlines."
"Coming soon for Ghana is a 5-part reality show called My Perfect Funeral. It follows 5 families in Ghana as they prepare to bury their loved-ones."
