LAGOS, NIGERIA (2015); EbonyLife TV, Africa’s first Global Black entertainment and lifestyle network, turned two July 01, 2015. In what it has called a season of thanksgiving, the channel is grateful to all its viewers everywhere, to include 49 African countries, the UK, Canada, as well as all of its app subscribers everywhere in the Diaspora.
With a heart of gratitude and fortitude, the channel acknowledges the challenges and hurdles it has had to cross in the last couple of years on the way towards building a globally recognizable and highly influential media and entertainment brand with a pan-African appeal and a groundswell of international goodwill.
EbonyLife TV was launched on July 01 2013, to a pan-African audience, by a license agreement with Multichoice (DStv Africa), Africa’s largest Pay TV platform, with a vision to be the preferred global network for premium African entertainment through the creation and broadcast of original, homegrown and premium content. The channel, whose primary target audience is youth, aged 18 to 34, is distributed to over 15 million viewers in 49 African countries.
In two years of its existence, EbonyLife TV has made a huge difference in the African media space, parading a smorgasbord of achievements unprecedented in the history of television, media and entertainment on the continent.
To summarize, on January 01, 2014, the channel commenced broadcast of its 100% homegrown entertainment programming, heralding a new viewing experience loaded with the best of homegrown African content of non-stop and refreshing drama series; enthralling comedy, engaging talk shows, compelling reality shows and many more.
In November 2014, EbonyLife TV was launched in Southern Africa to include South Africa, justifying why it has successfully been ranked as one of the most watched channels on the DStv platform.
In the UK, EbonyLife TV got on two different platforms: the TalkTalk and Lebara Play platforms, with a concluded agreement to distribute to Canada via Ethnic Channels Group Limited. There are also ongoing distribution discussions with Virgin Media in the UK as well as other platforms in the UAE, the Caribbean and the US.
EbonyLife TV also launched its multi-screen VOD platform. Through this service, it offers the African Diaspora access to its unique homegrown on-demand programming via mobile application and online platforms, to include smartphones, tablets and laptops. Users have the option to subscribe for a month or a year by downloading the application, EBONYLIFE TV, on Apple Store and Google Play Store and/or via vod.ebonylifetv.com.
In partnership with the Walt Disney Company the channel produced Desperate Housewives Africa, based on the multiple award winning ABC Television drama hit series, Desperate Housewives. Desperate Housewives Africa is the first international drama format ever to be made on the continent of Africa.
Buoyed by the huge success and widespread acclaim of this adaptive production, the channel prepared to raise the bar further through the production of well-loved fairy tale and legendary titles to include Cinderella, Robin Hood, Romeo and Juliet and Little Red Riding Hood; with biblical stories like The Prodigal Son, David and Goliath, The Good Samaritan, Samson and Delilah, among others, also included in the plan. Auditions for some of these are already on the way.
EbonyLife TV is also poised to take the Film sector of the industry by storm with its Film production spin-off, EbonyLife Films. Its first movie titled FIFTY will start showing in theatres across Nigeria and internationally from December 2015. FIFTY will also be premiered at a major red carpet international and global event in December.
In acknowledgement of EbonyLife TV’s relevance in the continent’s media and entertainment space, the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded the channel the rights to host the Semi-Final round of judging of the Emmy® awards, with coordination by the Academy, as an integral part of the International Emmy® Awards judging process which culminates in the final announcement of programme nominees at MIPCOM in Cannes, France, on October 5, 2015
Very recently, the channel launched Moments, the spin-off of one of it’s flagship shows, Moments with Mo, in Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, in a move aimed at consolidating the position of the talk show, which has become famous as Africa’s first and only syndicated daily Talk Show, as the true pan African leader in the talk genre.
Speaking about all of this, Executive Chairman and CEO of EbonyLife TV, Mo Abudu, has this to say: It has been two years of the absolute grace of God! We have had our ups and downs but God proved faithful through it all. We thank all our sponsors and partners; our unrelenting directors and dependable talents, all our world-class presenters and producers; our unstoppable production crew; our tireless social media teams; our drivers, accountants, technical Staff, cleaners, resilient cameramen, our MCR team, admin staff, IT, editors, sales, marketing, PR, management staff, the staff who work in the background unseen and seemingly unappreciated and everyone else who makes us proud to be Africa’s channel of choice, I congratulate you and I say thank you. As we continue this journey for the coming year we pray that EbonyLife TV will, by God’s grace grow from glory to glory.”
As EbonyLife TV continues to take its place as Africa’s media and entertainment powerhouse, it looks earnestly forward to the opportunity of producing more premium content, creating more channels, seeking more international carriage and syndication deals with pay TV providers globally and delivering greater brand visibility and larger market shares to discerning advertisers across the globe.