There’s nothing more inspirational to us than South African pride and African pride. When we see people who look like us telling stories that resemble where we’re coming from, that feeling is the reason we say “representation is everything”. When Africans tell stories about Africans, we’re not the side characters, we are the spotlight – our stories mean something, our values are supported or challenged by people with a deep understanding of why we are who we are.
We like international series just fine. Honestly, we’re hardcore fans, but being able to have our own versions of shows like Idols, The Bachelorette and even Love Island – both of which are launching on DStv this February – puts our interest on a whole other level.
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For South Africans, it’s the difference, for example, between watching an England vs Wales rugby game as opposed to watching The Springboks vs anyone. Even with sport, the ability to tell a story about what it takes to achieve success as South Africans drove the runaway enthusiasm for the rugby documentary series, Chasing The Sun in 2020.
Clearly, we love ourselves! And the more versions of ourselves we see, the better. The more authentic voices we let into our lives, the richer our experience of life becomes. Besides our pleasure as viewers, knowing that South African and African artists have a platform to express themselves and dazzle us with their African excellence is an inspiration. Their success is our success and our hope that our children will be able to tell their stories too, one day.
In line with The MultiChoice Group’s Hyper Local Strategy, DStv is committed to bringing customers those stories and supporting local artists. We’ve invested over R2 billion in local content production across the African continent. And over the next 2 years, we plan to take DStv’s local content from 38% to 45%.
In January 2021, MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela told CNN’s Eleni Giokos, “As Africa’s leading video entertainment company, we create millions of stories each year in a multitude of languages, featuring a diverse range of cultures in order to enrich lives across our incredible continent. Our significant investment in local production, content and industries means we can keep taking Africa’s stories, not only to our over 20 million subscribers in 52 African markets, but to the world.
“We have invested a lot in local content across the continent. We call it Going Hyper Local, which means we go deeper into communities and tell stories in their own language, in the street language they use on a day-to-day basis. And the storytelling is based on their everyday lives. That’s why we call ourselves Africa’s most-loved storyteller,” says Calvo.
Aside from investing in local productions and original series, DStv is building channels to showcase African content 24/7. Today, the Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel is home to some of DStv’s highest-rated series, along with Moja Love (DStv 157), which speaks to the nitty-gritty of our daily lives, and the triumphs and social issues affecting us as South Africans.
And in February, DStv will be launching the brand-new pan-African lifestyle channel, Honey (DStv 173). From Monday, 15 February, Honey is bringing us fresh shows from around the African continent focusing on style, fashion, food, wedding, dating and everything that sets your pulse racing.
With the Showmax streaming service available around the globe, DStv is taking all these African stories to the world, particularly to people from Africa making their lives in new countries. Showmax is a way for African storytellers to reach the world without having to play into the Western market’s distribution politics, which currently favour the big, flashy blockbusters put out by billion-dollar media giants. Once again, we love these just fine. But they’re not the whole story and we want and deserve more.
Reuben Odanga, director of Kenyan drama Selina, told Eleni, “One of the biggest struggles we have, especially in Eastern and Central Africa, is distribution. Many people have content, but how to get it out to the audience has always been a big challenge. Many people just lose out because there’s not a platform. A platform like Showmax, they just create more opportunities for producers to give the content so that the content can reach the audiences.” With Showmax being available in over 40 African countries and 26 countries internationally, the world is waiting for Reuben’s story… and yours.
The best way to see all DStv’s Africa prime content is with the new Explora Ultra. As well as doing everything your traditional decoder can do – like recording your favourites, watching Catch Up, renting BoxOffice movies and pausing live TV – the Explora Ultra has built-in Wi-Fi, allowing you to stream all your favourite shows and new hits.
And it’s not just DStv content. The Explora Ultra is your one-stop entertainment centre. It allows you to access streaming services like Showmax and Netflix – which are increasingly focusing on original local productions and content from the African continent – as well as Amazon Prime Video.
Sign up for DStv – it’s an online streaming service for all DStv subscribers. Watch the channels you watch on your decoder at home, on the Internet! Go to now.dstv.com on your laptop and Catch Up on the episodes you missed.
