On Friday, March 22, the Canal+ group announced that it had acquired a stake in the production company Marodi TV.
Founded in 2012, MARODI TV has built its success on producing series in Wolof, broadcast on the internet. Marodi TV now has 6 million subscribers on YouTube and has entered into partnerships with several major local and pan-African television channels to broadcast its programs or co-produce exclusive series. Its most popular series have often been dubbed into French.
The CANAL+ group states in its press release that Marodi TV "will continue to be run by its founder and majority shareholder, Senegalese entrepreneur Serigne Massamba Ndour… He will draw on Canal+'s strength to develop the quality and depth of his catalog—including in other languages—and expand its distribution across the continent and beyond through synergies with Canal+," it added.
In addition, the two companies are "working to create a unique catalog for the Canal+ group's future channel in Pulaar, a language spoken by the Fulani community, which is particularly prevalent in Senegal, Guinea, and Mali."
This acquisition allows CANAL+ to enrich its program catalog with more than 600 hours of high-quality series and is part of CANAL+'s editorial development strategy in Africa, which aims to support local talent and audiovisual production on the continent (CANAL+ is also the majority shareholder in ROK STUDIOS in Nigeria, PLAN A in Ivory Coast, and ZACU Entertainment in Rwanda).