Netflix’s Africa Content Head Dorothy Ghettuba Maps Out Streamer’s Local-First Strategy for Continent: ‘We Don’t Aim for Global Hits’

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Netflix’s director of content for Africa Dorothy Ghettuba laid out the streamer’s strategy for the continent this week at the Durban FilmMart, telling a standing-room-only session that the key to launching the next global sensation is to first capture the hearts of local audiences. “We want to entertain the world.

We want to tell them African stories,” said Ghettuba. “But our focus first has got to be local, and then it goes global. We don’t aim for global hits.

Shows like ‘Casa de Papel,’ ‘Burning Body,’ ‘Squid Game’ — those are local shows.” The Netflix exec appeared in conversation in Durban with South African producers Jayan Moodley (“Keeping Up With the Kandasamys”) and Katleho Ramaphakela (“How to Ruin Christmas”), who used their personal experience as case studies for how to launch a hit on the global streaming giant.

Ghettuba pointed to titles like “Kandasamys,” a comedy franchise set in South Africa’s Indian community, and the hit comedy series “How to Ruin Christmas,” as examples of “authentic stories that will resonate with the local audience first” before becoming global breakouts. “You can’t manufacture a global hit, but you can start by having an authentic local story,” she said. “It has to be something that people will love, they will enjoy, and then a fandom will be created around it. “The moment you say, ‘I have an international hit,’ I am out,” she continued. “Because what we have learned is that the more local a show, the more it resonates with your audience.