Africa: Côte Ouest moves into production

The first innovative concept, Africa Zapping is a compilation of ‘3 extracts from various TV channels in French speaking Africa, depicting the social, media and political life characteristics of Franco-phone Africa.

The company also revealed its very first co-production, Saburi (13x’48), a home-grown multi-platform African comedic detective series conceived by Côte Ouest and Dv8 Films for SABC2, South Africa’s multi-lingual free-to-air channel. The series follows the conventions of a detective comedy genre where the heroine, uses her deductive ability, social skills, and prowess to solve problems and maintain peace in the world of the story.

Mike Dearham, SVP, Côte Ouest, said:  ‘These are exciting times for Côte Ouest and the African TV sector in general. For the first time in the continents history of TV, we are witnessing an unstoppable combination of technical push and commercial pull. Therefore the production and distribution plan for Saburi and the other Côte Ouest productions will be responsive to this important shift’.

‘Given the fantastic growth in the African media sector, our decision to move into production was a natural progression. The Côte Ouest production strategy aims to deliver a variety of pan-African audio-visual products intended for global distribution across a variety of traditional and digital platforms. In turn, leveraging the best human, creative and technical resources across African regions and countries is the cornerstone of our strategy’, added Dearham.

Africa Zapping is a collection of clips from popular culture and television from last 24 hours. The three minute shows will include outstanding, moving and even strange TV moments that have been previously broadcast on French speaking African channels.

The Côte Ouest team will be available during Discop Africa 2013 to present all projects in development in more detail, between 6th and 8th November at the Sandton Convention Center, in Johannesburg.