DTI sponsors first ever Sou African Indies delegation to Brazil

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Association of Transformation in Film and Television (ATFT) will be taking a delegation of emerging South African filmmakers to the Rio Content Market (RCM) and celebrating 20 years of democracy at the market with a panel discussion and a networking event sponsored by Wesgro Film Promotion.

Staged by the Brazilian Association of Independent Television Producers (ABPITV), RioCotentMarket will hold its fourth edition between 12 and 14 March 2014 in Rio de Janeiro. In just three editions, RioContentMarket has earned its place in the world multiplatform audiovisual content production calendar. In its previous editions, the event promoted the meeting of around 6,400 of the international and national markets' main directors, producers and executives of the digital media and television industry from over thirty countries. They presented business ideas, cases and models relevant to the development of partnerships and co-productions.

ATFT will be partnering with established filmmakers attending the market to mentor the delegation leading up to and at the market. ATFT is registered as an exhibitor and have taken an umbrella stand at the market under the South African Indies brand for all South Africans attending the market to use from the 12th till the 14th of March 2014, all of which has been paid for by the dti, with support from Wesgro to ensure a minimum quota of producers from the Western Cape are part of the delegation.

There will also be one on one meetings with buyers, a round table producers' meeting between Brazilian and South African producers and speed dating arranged by ATFT with buyers in attendance that choose projects they are interested in from the South African Indies catalogue we send them in advance.

Brazil is a booming television and film market with incentives of over $400,000 for their local audio visual industry being made available this last tax year. Their gross box office in 2013 was $481M and their highest recorded box office for a local film was $63M for Elite Squad - The Enemy Within in 2011.

Pay TV is also a growing market in Brazil that currently has 16 million Pay TV subscribers. According to studies by ANATEL, this number is expected to increase to 26 million by the end of 2016 and this growth has been used as an opportunity to foster the development of the audiovisual sector, through the introduction of the Pay TV Law . This states that channels must comply with a weekly quota of at least 3.5 hour of Brazilian content and at least half of this content must be Independent Brazilian content and in addition be aired during prime time.

The Pay TV Law and the weekly quotas yielded very positive effects for the Brazilian production industry, significantly increasing the demand for Brazilian content. A large portion of this demand is being met by content produced through Brazilian international co-production. To support this increase, additional funding has been made available for the production industry and is also available for international co-productions.

ATFT has been spearheading a co production treaty between Brazil and South Africa with the NFVF and Ancine, initiated by Neil Brandt of Fireworx Media at the Rio Content Market in 2013. The treaty has been drafted and is in the final stages of preparation to be signed by both countries' ministries. Once the treaty becomes legislation, any official co production between Brazil and South Africa will count as local content in Brazil and feed into the insatiable demand for local content by the various pay TV operators in Brazil.

ATFT sees this as a huge opportunity for South African television and film producers, especially in light of the current situation with our own broadcasters and their lack of support for local independently produced content. We are hoping that South African legislation follows the Brazilian example in the near future learning from its BRICS counterpart and fostering a thriving local audio visual industry.

For further information contact Sifiso Khanyile the spokesperson for ATFT on sifiso@filmandtvtransformation.org

http://www.filmandtvtransformation.org/mission-rio-content-market/

LINK:	http://www.filmcontact.com/africa/south-africa/dti-sponsors-first-ever...
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