EbonyLife TV’s Mo Abudu

PREMIUM: Mo Abudu, CEO of EbonyLife TV, talks to TV MEA about the channel’s mandate and weighs in on what’s ahead for the African media landscape.

TV MEA: Following your experience as an on-air personality, what made you want to launch EbonyLife TV?
ABUDU: Moments with Mo, which was my main baptism of fire as an on-air personality, remains an amazing study in self-belief and self-discovery for me. I had no media experience whatsoever, besides a deep-seated passion and genuine interest in the industry. But I have to say that the desire to own a channel predates EbonyLife TV because as far back as 2006 I had approached platforms like DStv and even Sky in the U.K., requesting a channel. Well, EbonyLife TV was launched on July 1, 2013, seven years after all those initial requests! I wanted a TV platform with the mission to help project a new, stronger and more confident Africa; a continent that speaks for itself, that celebrates its people and their achievements, that solves its own problems; and we wanted to do this through some of the most inspiring, original and compelling homegrown entertainment and lifestyle content that spotlights a young target demographic of Nigerians, Africans and the black Diaspora the world over.

TV MEA: Tell us about the kinds of content you’re producing and acquiring for the channel.
ABUDU: Essentially we encourage a great deal of curiosity, irreverence and ambition in our content, which of course must be of the highest production quality and standard, be it homegrown or acquired. Our values are team spirit, originality, vibrancy, innovation, boldness and excellence. These help us to insist on programming that is both stimulating and highly creative. EbonyLife TV boasts a rich capacity to showcase the continent’s most inspiring content that resonates with a very demanding and discerning young target audience. We therefore embrace all genres of exciting entertainment and lifestyle programming that tells compelling and universally human stories with an African attitude.

TV MEA: How are you building the EbonyLife TV brand internationally, either by way of channel launches or program sales?
ABUDU: We believe we are doing everything possible in this regard. Obviously, we are still a very young channel, but we are very excited about our footprints locally and globally. In just over two years of launching the EbonyLife TV channel, we have been ranked as one of the most watched channels on the DStv platform in 49 African countries, including South Africa and the Southern African territories. In terms of channel launches, we are available to viewers in the U.K. via Lebara Play; we have an agreement with the Ethnic Channels Group for broadcast in Canada and we have also made inroads into the Caribbean markets. In addition, technical checks are in progress with Virgin Media for further channel extension to the U.K. while our VOD platforms are available for download [as apps] by viewers across the U.S., Europe, Canada, Asia and the Middle East, as well as at vod.ebonylifetv.com. We have also continued our partnership with international content and distribution markets like MIPCOM, DISCOP, etc., in the quest for carriage distribution and syndication deals. So I can say we are making steady progress in this regard.

TV MEA: Do OTT platforms create new opportunities for a brand like yours, allowing you to perhaps bypass the old cable gatekeepers?
ABUDU: OTT provides us with an opportunity to reach the world. We have had so many offers for the EbonyLife TV channel to travel via this platform, and various discussions are still ongoing with several providers. There are Africans in every corner of the universe, and we have a duty and responsibility to ensure that they have an opportunity to connect with the best-made original African programming available today.

TV MEA: In this crowded, highly segmented market, what have been the greatest challenges in building a new channel brand?
ABUDU: It has never been easy although it has been both exciting and rewarding. First you have to confront the issues that confront the majority of investors in Africa, such as power, financing, broadband and the right manpower, problems that are gradually ebbing away as more investments are being made in those areas. Besides these issues, being a pioneer in your category is itself a challenge. When we set out to build our brand, we had to start from ground zero. [We were] driven by the vision to be the preferred global network for premium African entertainment by creating original, premium and inspiring content with an African soul that showcases the best of the continent for a global Black audience. In carrying out this mission we had no model, no touchstone, no exemplar; we found we had no one but ourselves to learn from. We spent many sleepless nights and many rigorous strategy sessions trying to eke out the very soul and infrastructure of the brand. We had to fit that into the essence and personality of the brand while not losing focus on the fundamental description of our target demographic. You rightly noted that the market is crowded and highly segmented. Again, we needed to differentiate ourselves from the category and break through the clutter by identifying a clearly underserved market, African youth aged 18 to 34. We observed no one was speaking for and to them in a compelling and unique way. We therefore crafted a programming strategy that bordered on a concept we called “Global Black,” a definition that embodies the new spirit of African youth, the relentless passion, energy and the driving force of a defiantly vibrant, bold and irreverent generation. This cuts through the very soul of the EbonyLife TV channel, its character, its content and its core value propositions. The rest, as they say, is history.

TV MEA: What are the greatest opportunities you see for the African continent’s media sector?
ABUDU: As a continent, Africa has remained creatively silent for centuries. Our stories are seldom told outside of our families and villages and often from the perspective of “someone” looking in. Yet, the continent is a mammoth store of narrative gems—from our history, to our myths, our legends, our heroes, our adventures, wars, conquests, our lives, our societies, music, fashion, entrepreneurship, our youth. There is an abundance of opportunity in this aspect and I believe there needs to be an emergence of a strong partnership between creative and business leaders across the divide which will enable the stories of Africa to get told with authenticity and also produced to the best international standards, but those stories cannot be told effectively without our input as Africans. If these stories are told from both perspectives there is a captive audience on both sides of the Atlantic waiting to be entertained as never before. The creation of content, distribution platforms and channels is still in its infancy on the continent of Africa, but with the recent expansion of the likes of Netflix, there is an encouraging reaction from audiences yearning for relevant entertainment to fill the demands of today and tomorrow. Africa does have a role to play in the world and we feel certain that through international collaborations that Africa can add tangible value to the space of content creation and distribution.

TV MEA: What are your goals for EbonyLife TV in the 12 to 18 months ahead?
ABUDU: Half way into the third year of our operations at the channel, we are very excited to be expanding our operations from our headquarters in Calabar—the capital city of Cross River state, home to Africa’s biggest purpose-built studio, the Tinapa Studios—to even more Nigerian cities, including Abuja and Lagos. Calabar, for instance, is now our home of drama, with major homegrown drama series set to be produced all year round from the city. Production is already in progress for some of our upcoming series, including The Governor and Cinderella. Other [originals] include [local versions of] two of our latest series acquisitions from CBS Studios International, Dynasty and Melrose Place. FIFTY the Series is also being commissioned based on the amazing success of the feature film. In addition, we are working to bring to the big screen Death and the King’s Horseman, the epic work of the Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka. Our viewers can equally look forward to homegrown reality shows such as Looking for Mr. Right, African Queens in Search of a New Girl Band and many more, including Chocolate City Unsigned, created to hunt for Africa’s next biggest music star. This is collaboration between Chocolate City, one of Africa’s biggest indigenous record labels, and EbonyLife TV.