THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 1 2014
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29
NAME
Constant Nemale
JOB
Founder & President
COMPANY
AFRICA24
PRO
FILE
ABOUT AFRICA24
Our motto says it all: “World News
for Africa. Africa News for the
World”. AFRICA24 is simply the first
ever news channel broadcasting
24/7 news about the entire African
continent. What is special about
AFRICA24 is that we are driving a
positive message based on the
notion of progress and the projection
of a modern communication-
oriented image with clear, accurate,
relevant and neutral editorial content.
AFRICA24’s biggest ambition is
to change how people perceive the
continent. In contrast to what
international media habitually
report about Africa – focusing on
wars, starvation or sickness –
AFRICA24’s contribution is to
balance the news with good news
and nice stories from Africa. We
want to popularise the African point
of view and its vision of the world.
Africa can now present itself.
AFRICA24 was founded in
November 2008 and started
broadcasting in French in February
2009. We now have around 100
employees, with correspondents of
different African origins in a number
of countries across Africa.
On the African continent, AFRICA24
is available seven days a week for
subscribers of Canal Satellite
Horizons and via MMDS networks.
In North Africa, the Middle East and
Europe it is available through
Arabsat BADR-4. It is also broadcast
in the US and Canada, via cable.
Since the channel went on air,
AFRICA24 teams have successfully
provided live coverage on the
ground of major political events
such as presidential elections; and
daily behind-the-scenes coverage of
events such as the 2010 FIFA World
Cup South Africa and the 2012
African Cup of Nations have helped
to strengthen the channel’s
increasingly high profile.
In 2011, the results of a study
conducted by EMS Africa among
2.7m people named AFRICA24 as
the most watched French-language
African channel on the African
continent.
Technology is undoubtedly one of
our biggest assets. AFRICA24’s
infrastructure has been designed
MY CAREER
I am a Cameroonian citizen and
father of three lovely kids. I took a
Masters degree in Civil Engineering
at Tours University, France, but
since my early school and college
days my two great passions have
been writing and sports. I often
wrote articles for school newspapers
about student sport competitions.
As a result of my writing and sports
activities, I was introduced to the
basketball player Michael Jordan
and eventually ended up writing his
international biography,
Michael
Jordan, Le Livre d’Or
, which was
published in 1999.
And that’s how early on in my
career I came to be a journalist and
deputy editor-in-chief of
Mondial
Basket
, the top-selling basketball
magazine in Europe. Next, I created
the first Afro-European and Pan-
African television channel 3A
Telesud, a generalist channel, and
in 2001 I also founded ETNIUM as
the first ethnic marketing and
communication agency in France,
just before launching AFRICA24 in
November 2008.
for high flexibility and quick
response. From Day One, our
platform and technical production
system have been based exclusively
on IT technologies. In order to
produce both on an as-required and
rolling basis we need a highly
organised staff, in particular for
monitoring international news,
across all time zones and 24 hours
a day. Our entire organization is fully
computerised based on low cost but
very effective solutions to optimise
the processes and the complexity
associated with our “continental”
standing (critical need for mobility)
and the need to react quickly.
LATEST INITIATIVES
The next phase of development is
capacity building with new bureaux
in Africa – the first ones opening in
Dakar, Senegal and in Malabo,
Equatorial Guinea early in 2014.
We now hope to accelerate the
rollout of the channel by
strengthening broadcasting to
Africa and the rest of the world with
the aim of reaching an audience of
9m people thanks to the launch of
our English service in Dakar, the
multiplication of our broadcasting
platforms (satellites,
broadcasters...), and the
development of our network of
correspondents on the African
continent.
FUTURE STRATEGY
AFRICA24 is not only a news TV
channel. The company also
publishes the quarterly AFRICA24
Magazine, and the management
team is looking at launching a
whole TV bouquet to cover subjects
such as sports, fashion or cinema –
always with the focus on Africa.
With an initial capital of €10m we
achieved, just five years later, a
turnover of €8m. Taking into
account the rate of growth forecast,
the initial investment will be
recouped in less than six years.
This will definitely enable us to
invest in other major projects as
well as to widen our presence on
the continent.
OUTLOOK
Definitely tremendously exciting!
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