“African Stories Are Still At The Bottom Of The Content Pyramid”: Mo Abudu Calls Out Gatekeepers For Risk-Averse Commissioning — Mipcom Cannes
17.10.2023 - 10:57
/ deadline.com
EbonyLife CEO Mo Abudu has called out TV’s gatekeepers, saying they must stop the excuses and begin to order African show with global budgets.
In a keynote interview at Mipcom Cannes this morning, Abudu argued commissioners needed to order more programs with Black or African narratives, and that their budgets need to begin to mirror those of big-ticket titles such as Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Her company has development deals in place with the likes of BBC Studios, Netflix, AMC and Idris Elba‘s Green Door Pictures, but Abudu said content commissioners remain reticent to order Black or African shows en masse. “I continue to see very little on TV for me as a woman of color. One wonders why,” she said.
“Look at the pyramid of local content versus global content: Where are African or black shows sitting? Probably at the bottom,” she continued. “How many Black or African global shows are there, with a global budget? In order for you to be able to tell the stories and compete effectively with stories being told around the world, you have to allocate decent budgets.
“We are doing the best we can with the resources that we have, but that’s not to say there aren’t bigger stories we want to be able to tell. You are restricted by the budgets for the stories that you tell, and that’s the frustration and the challenge. A bigger story means a bigger writer, more expensive talent – all the things that attract audiences to a show.”
However, she said the fact streamers such as Netflix and Prime Video were now actively searching for African stories provided an opportunity and hope for the future. You can read our exclusive in-depth feature on African streaming here.
Abudu said some execs would often have “a ready list of responses” why