IN the bid to grow the local film industry, StarTimes has partnered with the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) on content production.
StarTimes Content Director, Viki Liu, made this known after an AGN delegation led by Emeka Rollas and Segun Arinze visited the pay-tv head office in Lagos.
Liu said the partnership is to tap into the vast deposit of original African stories yet untold.
Reaffirming the pay tv’s commitment to deeper investment in Nollywood, StarTimes CEO, Alex Jian, said the collaboration is very crucial with the growing demand for quality local content by Nollywood aficionados.
Commending the management of StarTimes for its contributions to the broadcast industry, the President of AGN, Ejezie Emeka Rollas, said the partnership will open a new window to a different form of entertainment that Nollywood actors have been doing over the years.
“The partnership will effectively help us to further attract more viewers with our proposed entertainment content as we have full insights into the industry. Actors Guild of Nigeria is all about entertainment as members are major influencers with millions of fans and followers around the world. Our goal is to activate the potentials of entertainment as soft power strategy for paradigm change especially in Africa for positive attitudinal change,” he said.
Reacting to Rollas’ submission, Liu said, “When StarTimes entered the market about twelve years, our mandate was to provide digital TV to every home. The reception was huge for us. However, at a time, we had more foreign content. Over the years, the standard of Nollywood has improved and so also, is the market. This brought about the need to satisfy this growing appetite for Nollywood.
“Thus, our new brand vision is to balance our content offering. We know AGN stands for the larger Nollywood market. StarTimes is glad to cooperate with you to bring significant impact to Nollywood as well as grow and ensure that filmmakers have value for their productions.”
