After graduating from HEC in 1977, François Thiellet began his career at Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations as a project manager and then as a special advisor to the group's senior management. Until 1989, he organized and managed major regional development projects in the Indian Ocean (Reunion Island, Madagascar), French-speaking Africa (notably Cameroon, Guinea Conakry, Mali, etc.). He then became a director of subsidiaries in the development and audiovisual sectors.
Alongside these activities, he created TamTam Production (executive productions for Ushuaïa, etc.) and LPMS (post-production studios).
Then, between 1989 and 2001, he was CEO of subsidiaries in the audiovisual sector (creation and general management of MCM, MCM Africa, Muzzik/Mezzo, and took charge of the operational launch of Fashion TV.
He created and managed the first package of French channels for Sub-Saharan Africa (Portinvest/Le Sat). From 2001 onwards, he led the global development of the channel's distribution (one of the top five most widely broadcast channels in the world, excluding China). In 2004, he created and chaired Thema, the leading European company in global channel distribution and ethnic programming (with subsidiaries in the US, Canada, Russia, and Singapore), publisher of channels for Sub-Saharan Africa (notably Nollywood TV and Novelas TV), before selling the company to the Canal+ Group in 2016.
Since 2021, he has been President of Mediawan Africa. At the same time, he created and financed the Abraham Hannibal Endowment Fund dedicated to access to education in French-speaking Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Mediawan has just acquired Côte Ouest Audiovisuel. What are the ins and outs of this acquisition?
When Mediawan Africa was created, we defined a strategic plan focused on the three areas of expertise that Mediawan already undertakes in France and around the world: production, distribution, and publishing.
We started with Keewu for production, which was already well established in Senegal. We continued to build this business and are now beginning to have a significant production base, which is already a great success and will continue to expand.
For the other activities, distribution and publishing, Côte Ouest was the ideal partner, with several productions already under its belt, a very successful distribution business, and strong publishing expertise, with channels such as Nina Novelas and Afro Novelas, services with KIWI, and a small non-linear offering. Côte Ouest therefore seemed to us to be an excellent opportunity to complement the other two areas and enable the development of Mediawan Africa.
Let's go back to production. Does this mean that KEEWU will concentrate all projects, or are you considering other acquisitions in this area?
We are currently working on the form our development will take, but we will have several production locations. Côte Ouest provides us with a logistical base for production in Côte d'Ivoire, and we will also be looking at another location in another African country. This will complete our setup, but we will of course take into account the markets, talent, and geopolitical situation.
When it comes to publishing, the question is much the same. Is the idea to build on what Côte Ouest is already doing, or could other solutions be explored?
We don't have a definitive position on this. At first glance, we are leaning towards building on Abidjan. There are investments to be made, which will certainly be done within the framework of Côte Ouest. During my stay in Abidjan, I was very impressed by the team, which is young, passionate, and enthusiastic. One of our first objectives is to successfully transfer skills between the Parisian and Ivorian teams.
Canal+ International and Mediawan signed a strategic agreement a few years ago. Is CANAL+'s involvement in Côte Ouest related to this partnership
?
CANAL+ is a long-standing partner with whom we work a lot. We have developed many projects together, but in this case, the story is completely different: we are very happy to have the support of CANAL+, which will strengthen Côte Ouest by making its catalog available. Mediawan is the operator, and Canal+ International is a minority partner in the structure that will buy Côte Ouest.
It's no secret that channels in French-speaking Africa don't have a lot of money. What are your levers for growth?
Our idea is to continue to develop sub-Saharan Africa: we will of course continue to supply the national channels that are our long-standing customers, but we will also expand into English-speaking Africa, South Africa, the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, and so on.We want to distribute our productions and we intend to develop projects that can travel and be exploited digitally in Europe: that is our mission as a producer and distributor.
Do you see Netflix and the streamers that are currently very active in English-speaking Africa as threats?
Of course, streamers will one day come to French-speaking Africa, but for me, they are customers: we have developed non-linear services, but streamers like Netflix are in a different category. Our vocation is to be a partner to operators, which is why we will not, in principle, be involved in B2C, which is a totally different and very complex business that I have already experienced with Théma.