Olivier Laouchez, co-founder and executive chairman of Trace TV
Thank you for joining us three years after giving an interview to Adweknow. What has happened in your group over the past three years?
First of all, the last three years have included two years of Covid… but we have continued to grow, particularly in a new vertical: in addition to the Afro-urban entertainment vertical, we have launched an online professional training platform, Trace Academia, focusing on three themes: entrepreneurship, careers, and soft skills. This platform is free, and we have already reached more than 300,000 users in just a few months.
We have also launched new television channels in Cameroon, Brazil, and Ethiopia, as well as FM radio stations.
Over the past three years, we have purchased an audiovisual production studio based in Cape Town, where we produce fiction content as well as television shows. This is a significant investment for us, as we wanted to strengthen our position in the field of original content production.
We have also continued our geographical expansion, particularly in Brazil, and have accelerated our investments in Senegal, Kenya, and Nigeria, where we have built studios.
So, we've been very busy in recent years, even though there have been difficult times when the economy and events came to a halt during the Covid crisis. However, we decided to use this crisis as a springboard for renovation and reinvention, so that we could come out even stronger.
You are present throughout Africa, and I am thinking of the somewhat complicated political situation in Mali and Burkina Faso at the moment. Do you have interests there, and does the political situation change the situation for you?
We are, of course, present in Mali, Burkina Faso, and throughout the sub-region through the broadcasting of our channels by our partners, particularly Canal+. I know that they are paying close attention to developments in the local situation, but as far as we are concerned, we do not have a team on the ground; our human resources are divided between Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, but it is true that what is happening there is not good for anyone. We hope that the situation will calm down as quickly as possible, that democracy will be restored and that human rights principles will be respected.
The World Cup is coming up in a few weeks. Have you put in place a support system for all the teams, particularly the African teams that will be participating in this event?
Absolutely. It's true that the World Cup is an extremely important event for the African continent. There are some very good African teams this year, particularly Senegal, and we have high expectations for these teams. We are not in the field of sports rights, but of course music accompanies all the major events in African life, so we are working in Senegal on fan zones and preparing broadcasts that will highlight songs developed by African artists for this World Cup. We will unveil our entire plan by the end of October.
You are a group focused on Afro-sensitivity. Do you have the means to measure how this Afro-sensitivity is progressing among your audiences?
We are, I would say, an Afro-centric group, and it is difficult to measure our audience among people of African descent, particularly in France, because it is officially forbidden to ask questions about ethnic origin. We manage to get around the problem a little by asking filter questions about languages spoken, knowledge, etc., which allows us to know that we are extremely popular with our core targets: people of African, Caribbean, or Indian Ocean origin. However, we are unable to monetize as well as we should because of the difficulties in recognizing the existence of these so-called visible minorities in France.
Nevertheless, do your programs manage to reach beyond your core target audience?
Yes, of course. We have about 7.5 million viewers in France.
We try to be very strong with two large audiences: people of African origin and fans of what we offer in terms of music.
Clearly, music, the theme we focus on, is extremely popular in France, and you will certainly have noticed that the most streamed artists are almost all of African origin.