Africa Channel Bows Sept. 1
July 18, 2005
By Anthony Crupi


A team of international television executives is hoping that a new network focusing on Africa will change the way Americans perceive the continent.

Launching September 1, the Africa Channel will offer viewers a look beyond the litany of hardships and terrors Westerners see as the defining characteristics of the continent, presenting instead a mélange of entertainment, lifestyle and information programming never before seen in the U.S.

A brief montage of clips screened by James Makawa, CEO and co-founder of the Africa Channel, suggested a hybrid of the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and any number of general entertainment networks, all threaded through by the region's rich cultural and historic lifeblood.

“We knew that if we were to play on this field in a significant way, then we were going to have to come fully loaded,” Makawa said. The production values of the content, much of which originates from South Africa , is a testament to the channel's mandate to reach a large American audience and a reflection of the executives' TV background. (Makawa is a former NBC News correspondent; President Jacob Arback was once a VP at DirecTV International, and Executive VP, Communications Richard Hammer is a former marketing chief with Sony International Television.

The all-English, ad-supported network will be programmed by dayparts, “much like a basic U.S. cable network,” Arback said. Business news and information programming will lead into lifestyle fare and soap operas--including the wildly popular South African soap Generations--which will, in turn, give way to prime time and late night shows.

Besides exposing Americans to overlooked facets of African life, the network will also help boost African businesses and the local tourism industry. “By changing the image of Africa , we hope to have a direct economic impact on the continent,” Makawa said. That paradigm shift will be nudged along by exposing American audiences “to the positive aspects of Africa , to its music, its dance, its culture,” he said.

Thus far, the channel has finalized a carriage agreement with Cox Communications that will see it launch in the MSO's Baton Rouge and New Orleans systems September 1. Arback said that talks have been ongoing with all the major U.S. cable operators, as well as satellite broadcasters DirecTV and EchoStar's DISH Network.

Video-on-demand will play a significant role “from day one,” Arback added, saying that the Africa Channel will be offered as a linear net and as a VOD play as soon as the switch is thrown in Louisiana . In advance of the launch, Cox has placed the net in its digital “variety” tier. A high-definition feed is also in the works.

Hammer said that beyond pitching the operators, the channel will work to build up demand at the system level through grassroots marketing to civic organizations, church groups and schools.

The independent network boasts some 20 investors, including the Congolese Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo. Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and one-time mayor of Atlanta , is chairman of the Africa Channel's board.