The Africa Channel (TAC), the longest-running independent, minority-owned media company focused on presenting pan-African contents to global audiences, announces a wide-ranging licensing and distribution deal with ROK Studios, a Canal+ company, bringing premiere Nollywood films to the US and global audiences.
The licensing and distribution partnership will cover new releases and hundreds of hours from the catalog of Nollywood releases, ranging from 2015 to 2020. Popular movies premiering in North America for the first time, include The Secretary, Ovy’s voice, Picture Perfect, Dear Mummy B, A Woman’s Scorn, and more.
Select premium content from over 370 licensed titles will be programmed on The Africa Channel cable platform in North America and the Caribbean, while a majority of the catalog will be made available on Demand Africa through subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) as well as the Free Ad-Supported Streaming (FAST) platforms globally outside Africa.
“We are delighted to partner with ROK Studios to bring North American audiences this expanded selection of content from Nollywood – the second-largest movie industry in the world,” said Narendra Reddy, Executive Vice President & General Manager, The Africa Channel.
“Canal + and Thema TV’s commitment to presenting multicultural content to global audiences aligns with our own, and this is a first step in building an expanded relationship with one of the preeminent media companies in the world.”
The deal was facilitated and closed by Thema, a Canal+ group company and leading distributor of thematic and multicultural content.
“We are very excited to have teamed up with the Africa Channel and ROK Studios on this content partnership for the Americas. TAC’s robust library speaks to the understating of the need for change in U.S. which will allow us to better respond to the ongoing conversation surrounding content diversity and multicultural productions,” said Patrick Rivet, CEO Thema America.
“At Thema America we believe that content with a strong cultural identity is crossing boundaries to grab diverse audiences and start conversations.”
Launched in 2005 and 2017, respectively, The Africa Channel and digital streaming platform Demand Africa, showcase the African continent’s most outstanding English-language television series, specials, documentaries, feature films, music, biographies, and cultural and historical content. The channel aspires to build bridges between cultures while reinforcing positive narratives of Africa through diverse content and programming.
