Tag Archives: Patrick Zuchowicki

Discop gets ready for Lagos

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Discop plans to follow next year’s market at Abidjan in Ivory Coast, where the first edition of the knowledge-transfer and matchmaking programme Discore will be held, with a launch in Lagos in 2019, reports Abraham Osemwenkhae.

The event’s organisers are looking to focus on the booming industry in Nigeria, the world’s fastest-growing entertainment market over the next five years, as predicted by PricewaterhouseCoopers recently.

Discop Lagos will have its own personality, format and agenda. Cross-cultural bridges will be built between this new market and the ones in Abidjan, Dubai and Johannesburg. Identical research, promotional, meeting organisation and travel planning services will be provided to all delegates ahead of each market.

Patrick Zuchowicki

While recession has hobbled the Nigerian economy for much of the past year, forecasts predict continued growth for Africa’s entertainment marketplace. “Within the next five years, the Sub-Saharan African marketplace is expected to grow by 35% and become the fastest-growing world region for entertainment content business,” said Patrick Zuchowicki, general manager of business event organisers Basic Lead.

That growth will be driven by “original, multi-platform entertainment content produced in Africa, reinforced trade between Sub-Saharan African countries and intra-regional coproduction initiatives. People from Nigeria are not going to go to Sweden to sell their content – they’re going to stay in Africa. That’s where their prime market is,” said Zuchowicki.

Nigeria was the first country to take centre-stage at Johannesburg-based Discop Africa in November 2013. A range of dedicated events, screenings and conference tracks took place to mark the 20th anniversary of Nollywood, which highlighted the rapid growth in the Nigerian movie industry.

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Discop 2022 to take place in Kigali

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Pan-African content distribution and coproduction market Discop is slated to hold its 26th edition in Rwanda at the end of November.

Patrick Zuchowicki

The three-day event will run from November 29 to December 1 at the Kigali Convention Centre bring together more than 500 participants from 40-plus countries.

They will comprise representatives of broadcasters, pay TV services, mobile operators, OTT and gaming platforms, app developers, content producers, entertainment and sports rights holders, brands and marketers driving media in sub-Saharan Africa.

The event will reflect Rwanda’s ambition to become a major industry hub, unveil a wide selection of programming from Africa, show the growing relations between Africa and the Middle East and facilitate coproduction opportunities between Anglophone and Francophone Africa, as well as reveal how buyers reflect new business trends across the continent.

There will also be roundtable discussions, hands-on workshops, showcasing of upcoming feature films and TV shows produced in Africa and world premieres. Delegates will have the opportunity to learn more about the talent, expertise, locations and financial assistance they can expect locally.

Patrick Zuchowicki, president and founder of Discop, said: “Big cracks forming in the global distribution and production industries impact countless aspects of markets such as Discop. Identifying leads and planning relevant and more focused meetings is key to our survival.”

According to the organisers, a new educational and networking programme tagged DiscoSport will also premiere in Kigali, focusing on electronic sports and ways to engage video gamers and esports fans through live and on-screen experiences. It will spotlight tactics to create esports esports content and derive new revenues through purpose-driven merchandising.

“We are excited about the prospect of adding to Discop an indispensable ‘one-stop programme’ that will help create memorable esports competitions; produce, package and distribute compelling esports content for multi-screen audiences; and deliver measurable results to sponsors and advertisers,” added Sherri Burnett, sales and marketing executive of event organiser Basic Lead.

To register to be a part of the event, click here.

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Discop Africa returns to the real world

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Pan-African content distribution and coproduction market Discop Africa will hold its 25th edition from December 12 to 14 in Kigali, Rwanda, after the previous two versions were forced online by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patrick Zuchowicki

The event is intended to enhance intra-African audiovisual cooperation with a focus on content distribution and coproduction specifically aimed at sub-Saharan Africa. It will also enable participants to showcase finished content, adaptable IP and projects in development.

According to its organisers, the three-day event will welcome more than 75 global and regional distributors; 175-plus senior acquisition, commissioning and programming executives; over 100 independent producers from Francophone and Anglophone Africa; more than 50 industry influencers; in excess of 300 international delegates and 100-plus up-and-coming film, TV, animation, documentary and gaming content creators.

Exhibitors signed up so far include LAWO, AfrikaToon, ViacomCBS, the BBC, Bonneville Distribution, DIFFA, Deutsche Welle, France Media Monde, Hiventy, Global Agency, African Esports Championship, Televisa, WarnerMedia, RTI Distribution, Voice of America, Dick Clark Productions, Mediawan Africa and Multichoice Studios.

Discop CEO Patrick Zuchowicki said the location of Rwanda would increase the event’s attractiveness to global and regional companies driving Africa’s entertainment and media sectors. “The Kigali convention centre is a world-class venue that will play a central role in the success of the upcoming three-day market,” he added.

Running alongside Discop Kigali will be the Mashariki African Film Festival (MAFF), which will take place from December 10 to 17. It will welcome France as guest country and showcase the vision of young African creators, as well as match projects with global appeal with key international audiovisual stakeholders. There will be live sessions centred on sports broadcasting, coproduction opportunities between Francophone and Anglophone Africa, and the world of video gaming.

Tresor Sengha, founder and president of MAFF, said: “In the aftermath of the pandemic, the entertainment content creation industry is turning a new page in Africa. Creators are leveraging the continent’s rich culture to create authentic content that can better travel the world.”

In addition, there will also be a special programme co-hosted by the Rwanda Film Office that will unveil the country’s ambitious plan to become a strategic filming destination on the continent, and bring to light the country’s locations, incentives, talent pool, facilities and services.

Jérémie Karege, coordinator of the Rwanda Film Office, said: “We intend to capitalise on Rwanda’s diverse landscapes, its booming cultural and creative sector, as well as the country’s accessibility and security, to become a hassle-free destination for global audiovisual productions.”

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Discop, NFC unveil Abuja conference

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TV trade event organiser Discop has inked a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) to launch an industry summit in Abuja in December 2019.

Chidia Maduekwe

The MoU was signed by Chidia Maduekwe, MD of the NFC, and Discop Markets CEO Patrick Zuchowicki at the Discop event that took place last week in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The new event, titled the Discop Business Summit Nigeria 2019, will take place during the annual NFC-backed Zuma Film Festival in Abuja.

According to the two parties, the partnership is evidence of the global TV industry’s belief in Nigeria, which is Africa’s fastest-growing creative economy.

The event will include a number of players from Nigeria’s banking sector so they can be part of the processes that propels the creative industries forward. These sectors are not limited to production, finance, banks or financial institutions but to other industries, with the focus being on finance and economic relevance of the content and creative industries.

This partnership is intended to aid the growth of the Nigerian economy as well as its film, TV and digital content industries, as identified by the NFC.

Maduekwe said: “The importance of this partnership cannot be lost on the present administration’s focus on diversification of Nigeria’s economy away from fossil dependency towards the creative economy.

Patrick Zuchowicki

“The collaboration of Discop and NFC is a welcome development that marks an important milestone in the policy direction of the Industrial Advisory Council on Technology & Creativity under the chairmanship of His Excellency, the Vice President of Nigeria.”

“It should be recalled that His Excellency led Nigeria’s creativity team in a visit to California earlier in the year. The continuous development of quality productions in the Nigerian motion picture industry will be given fresh impetus following this signed MoU between NFC and Discop.”

Zuchowicki added: “It is time for the banks, financial institutions and investment funds to take the pulse of the opportunities available in the African entertainment and media marketplace.”

He added that the new summit would “help lenders understand how important a role they can play in the development of the world’s fastest-growing marketplace for film, television, digital and musical content.”

Discop Business Summit Nigeria adds to France-based Discop’s network of events in countries including Egypt, South Africa, Zanzibar and Ivory Coast.

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