Prime Video’s African About-Face, Netflix’s IP Frenzy and Why African Producers Are Pondering ‘What Comes Next’ as Streamers Shift Course

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias The anticipated goldrush for African creators sparked by Netflix’s 2016 entry into the market hasn’t entirely come to fruition, though the influx of investment from local and global streaming platforms has nevertheless been transformative for Africa’s screen industries.

Budgets, production values and outputs are rising, and breakout hits — such as Netflix’s Nigerian thriller “The Black Book” and South African teen drama “Blood & Water” — highlight the power of global streaming services to deliver African stories to audiences around the world.

Yet as evidenced by Amazon Prime Video’s abrupt pullout from the African market in January, when the streaming giant announced it was shifting course to focus on “emerging” markets in Europe, a continent that was gearing up for the windfalls of blockbuster deals with deep-pocketed platforms also finds itself at the mercy of those companies’ sometimes fickle streaming strategies. “It feels much more like a studio system,” says producer Layla Swart, of Johannesburg-based Yellowbone Entertainment. “It’s a lot more of a ruthless space.” First, the good news: Competition on the continent — particularly between Netflix, which announced last spring it had spent some $175 million on African production since 2016, and South African pay-TV giant MultiChoice’s Showmax service — has proven the old adage of a rising tide lifting all boats.

The demand for premium local content to lure African subscribers has sparked an arms race among the market’s two strongest rivals to lock down the continent’s top talents.