London — French telecoms and media billionaire Xavier Niel is increasing his focus on Francophone Africa. According to Allo Forfait, he is finalizing his latest purchase of a production house in Cote d'Ivoire and will appoint an Africa broadcast veteran to oversee this push. He is also one of the key shareholders in Molotov, a French streaming platform that is also focusing on French-speaking Africa. Russell Southwood outlines the acquisition move and talks to Francois Le Pichon, COO, Molotov about its expansion into the continent.
On the production side, Xavier Niel's Mediawan has been slowing adding local production capacity in Africa. In November 2020, it bought Largardère Studios from Bernard Azria's Cote Ouest. It followed this purchase with another in Senegal of a production house called Keewu. The latest news is that it is finalizing the purchase of a large-scale production house in Cote d'Ivoire. It wants to establish itself quickly on the continent and has appointed ex-Thema TV CEO Francois Thiellet to head up an Africa-focused division. Thiellet sold Thema TV to Canal Plus in 2014.
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