distribution

Intelsat, Ltd, announced last week that MultiChoice, signed a long-term, multi-transponder agreement for satellite capacity. The agreement extends and expands MultiChoice’s existing contract on the Intelsat 7 satellite at 68.5º E to the follow-on satellite, Intelsat 20 (IS-20), which is slated to be launched in early 2012. The contract, which spans the 15-year expected life of IS-20, also provides restoration capacity, resulting in a more robust network platform.

- Ryan Kampe and Sylvain Tron’s Visit Films has acquired international sales rights to NFVF funded film Shirley Adams (taking place in SA) which won multiple awards at the 30th Durban International Film Festival held recently in Durban, receiving the Best South African Feature Film, Best First Feature Film, and Best Actress Award.

- The M-Net show Big Brother Revolution has begun, and as promised it started with a huge surprise - all the housemates who entered the house on Sunday are all men.

Discop Africa is the major matchmaking and networking events centred on audiovisual content production, distribution and funding in Africa. The event is not only a media market but is also focused on intelligence dedicated to new television business opportunities. Discop 2 event in September is expected to gather about 300 participants from more than 200 companies. Sylvain Beletre of Balancing Act interviewed organising company Basic Lead’s team members.

Last week Balancing Act’s Sylvain Beletre attended MIPCOM, the international event for co-producing, buying and selling media content, held in Cannes, France, 5-9 October 2009. He went in search of news that might be useful for those working in the African industry.

African exhibitors were almost absent from the trade floor except for South Africa's National Film & Video Foundation (nfvf) which facilitated South Africa's presence in the market via the provision of a South African pavilion.

Orange had a stand at MIPCOM and was showing demos of its products and services (Internet, TV, Mobile). Xavier Couture, Orange’s EVP for content, presented new opportunities opened up to the public and the world of creation thanks to the development of digital technologies, putting the content market’s current upheavals into perspective.

- Echo Bridge has appointed Daro Film Distribution to manage thousands of hours of content across the African continent.

The Content 360 cross-media competition, which closes on 15 February 2010, has a new category, sponsored by Coca-Cola. The competition is calling for entries in six categories and is organised in partnership with the BBC, European Commission, National Film Board of Canada, Korea Communications Commission and TF1.

The Tunisian TV7 channel has resumed its broadcasting to Europe via the Hotbird satellite without any change of frequency.

TV 7 services via Hotbird were interrupted on Wednesday January 27, following a technical malfunction of the W2 satellite which led to the interruption of 430 TV channels and some 60 radio channels.

African digital sales house, Habari Media, has partnered with multimedia entertainment platform MTV Networks Africa (MTVNA) to create a digital entertainment hub allowing advertisers the opportunity to connect with tech-savvy audiences in sub-Saharan Africa.