This year, Netflix revealed its interest in African movies with its acquisition of Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart and Chiwetel Ejiofor directorial debut, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.
According to the company’s vice president, Erik Barmack, the streaming platform is set to releases series from Africa next year, in addition to the shows already being produced in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
He said: “We are in the process of looking at opportunities in Africa. It’s definitely the case that we’ll commission some series there in 2019.
“There’s going to come a time when half of the top 10 of most-watched shows in a given year are going to come from outside of the US. I don’t think that’s very actually far away. I think that’s going to come in years, not decades.”
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Netflix is set to launch 6 European movies in the coming weeks, and Barmack told Financial Times that the company will increase its Europe-originated fare by a third in 2019. The platform is also looking closely at the Arabic-speaking market, with Jinn – the first Arabic-language series – which will premiere in 2019.
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