Canal+ Group has acquired a stake in Marodi TV, a Senegalese production company which is a leading purveyor of TV series across Africa and a force within the continent’s creative economy.
The deal pursues Canal + and Marodi’s ongoing partnership, as well as further strengthens the Paris-headquartered company’s position in French-speaking Africa, where Canal+ producesover 4,000 hours of African contentand has 30 channels dedicated to the continent in 10 languages.
For the last five years, Marodi TV has broadcast its catalogue as part of Canal + Group’s channel line-up. It has produced exclusive series that premiered on the Sunu Yeuf channel in Wolof, and went on to launch on the pan-African channel A+. Both channels are available to Canal+’s 8 million subscribers in Africa. Marodi TV and Canal+ have also co-produced together a number of successful series, such as “Emprises” and “Déchéances.”
Founded in 2012 with the ambition of making quality African content accessible on all media, Marodi TV boasts a catalogue ofover 600 hours of content, as well as a community of 6 million subscribers on YouTube. Some of its biggest series hits include “Pod & Marichou,” “Maitresse d’un homme marié” (“mistress of a married man”) and “Karma.”
With Canal+ Group as its new shareholder, Marodi TV will continue being managed by its founder and majority shareholder, Senegalese entrepreneurSerigne Massamba Ndour. The partnership will allow Marodi TV to expand the library’s distribution across Africa and beyond via synergies with Canal+. They will also establish an original catalogue for Canal+’s future channel in Pulaar, the language spoken by the Fulani community which has a strong presence in Senegal, Guinea and Mali.
Canal+ Group is already a majority shareholder in the production companies Rok Studios in Nigeria, Plan A in the Ivory Coast and Zacu Entertainment in Rwanda.
“based in Senegal, this producer benefits from an artistic, technical, linguistic, and climatic environment that is particularly conducive to audiovisual production,” said Fabrice Faux, director of channels and content at Canal+ International. “This investment again demonstrates our enduring commitment to growing Africa’s creative industries and our excitement and commercial optimism in its creative and media sectors,” Faux continued.
Serigne Massamba Ndour, Marodi TV CEO, said the “alliance will enable us to strengthen our production and broadcasting capabilities and export our model across the continent.”
