MultiChoice Uganda’s home-grown channel, Pearl Magic which officially launched in Uganda in October 2018 has celebrated its third anniversary.
According to the company, the channel whose content is majorly locally sourced has over its three-year journey given film makers in the country a platform to showcase their work on its 148 channels.
“The introduction of Pearl Magic into the Ugandan market was vital in our bid to strengthen telling the African story. Through this channel, we have managed to boost the film industry with the platform created and available for Ugandan film makers and producers,” said Joan Semanda Kizza, the Public Relations and Communications Manager, MultiChoice Uganda.
“Through Pearl Magic shows like Mizigo Express, The Honourables, Campus Life, have gotten viewership across the continent showing that indeed the Ugandan talent is quite promising.”
She also highlighted the various qualifiers that MultiChoice considers to take on films.
According to Semanda, emphasis is on quality of the film and the fact that it has been crafted specifically for the Ugandan audience.
She noted that once selected, films that are struggling have a chance to get a lot of audience on Pearl Magic.
“MultiChoice Uganda has over the years supported and brought to life appealing content that educates its viewers, showing that indeed their mandate to provide quality entertainment is key.”
In an interactive twitter space session, members of the public and subscribers of Pearl Magic interacted actively, while making inquiries on issues pertaining mostly to the film industry.
One of the issues tackled by the MultiChoice team was on how best film makers can earn from their films.
In a detailed explanation, Catherine Mumbi the Commissioning Editor Mnet highlighted two key avenues with which content received is differentiated, mentioning licensing and commissioning.
She also informed film makers and producers that licensed content is when Multichoice owns a film for a period of time before it is given back to its owners, throughout this period, film owners are paid.
Commissioning on the other hand is when MultiChoice avails film makers with resources to make the film, in this scenario, MultiChoice owns the rights to this particular film.
During the celebrations, the public was informed about the introduction of Chapterz on Pearl Magic as well as Mizigo Express’s 20th season as well as Our Perfect wedding which will air in November.
Present in the live session were content creators, movie enthusiasts, film makers and producers all of whom showed excitement towards the anniversary of a channel that revived film in Uganda.
During the anniversary celebrations, poets Irene Mutuzo aka Noisey and Mugoda Gordons aka Wake captured the live audience through their poems showing how far the channel has vividly pushed its agenda to tell the authentic Ugandan stories.
