MONICA KAYOMBO, Lusaka

MULTICHOICE Group will soon be licensing its content to networks in the United States,Europe and Australia due to high demand.MultiChoice Studios content, sales and distributions director Mauro Black said in an interview recently that the institution has continued to receive massive support from various parts of the continent.“Demand for our content continues and spans a variety of genres from our dramas such as Still Breathing, to our telenovelas to documentaries,” said Mr Black.The Wife, another awardwinning telenovela, will be licensed to Canal+ and will be dubbing in French for viewers in French speaking countries.“MultiChoice Studios represents content from all the clusters where it produces content,” he said.Telenovelas such as Emmy-nominated The River,showing on Mzansi Wethu,which is now in its fourth season and won six South Africa Film and Television (SAFTA) awards in 2021,has continued receiving overwhelming response from the viewers.Black said the titles that have been successfully licensed abroad are The River , House keepers,The Queen,Legacy , The Wife,Trackers, Gomora, Chasing the Sun, Devils Drop, GrassRoots,Waterfront,4Mure and Battleground.Although getting into a new territory takes time, Black is confident that MultiChoice has demonstrated the creativity and talent on the African continent.He said assets for dubbing and subtitling are available should the original language not be available for the licencees’audience.“Good stories are found in several genres from scripted dramas to reality.There are no specific criteria,” Black said.MultiChoice Group has remained the largest producer of authentic African stories produced and starring the best in African talent – making it the most sought after globally.The group is Africa’ s leader in video entertainment with more than three decades of production and showcasing local and international content, boasting of over 21 million subscribers on the continent.And Mr Black said Zambezi Magic will feature content from all the clusters where MultiChoice Group produces content.He was responding to a question on why Zambezi Magic, a channel that was thought to be exclusive to content from the southern African region, has been consistently featuring content from other regions including the dominant West Africa.Over the recent increase in subscription fees, Black said his institution is not directly engaging or implementing rates in the countries it operates in but that the rates are determined according to the prevailing economic indicators in respective countries.Zambia recently witnessed an upward adjustment in subscription fees for DStv. CLICK TO READ MORE