At this year’s DISCOP in Johannesburg Euronews announced the launch of a sister channel dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa, Africanews, the first pan-African and multilingual media, set to debut January 4, 2016.
A team of 85 professionals of 15 nationalities, based in Congo-Brazzaville, is creating an international news channel to cover African and the world news from a pan-African perspective. Produced 24/7 simultaneously in English, French and partially Swahili. Africanews will meet the challenges and opportunities of a Digital Africa, and will introduce the media service on all digital screens and media platforms. Details of Africanews were first announced in January 2014.
On January 4, 2016, Africanews will be launched globally on all screens and media platforms and will be available worldwide via africanews.com, built to fit all devices, whatever the connection available.
A few weeks after its first introduction, Africanews on TV will be broadcast throughout sub-Saharan Africa on two SES satellites – SES 4 covers West and Central Africa, SES 5 covers Eastern, Austral and Indian Africa.
During the first six months, the channel will be made available to all operators who will be able to offer this new information source dedicated to African and international news, for free to their subscribers.
And for viewers on the move, Africanews offers content and live streaming on a wide range of platforms to be available in hotels, airports, railway stations, on board major airlines.
“Africa is a land of opportunities. It is a continent which is rising. But why can’t we hear what the Africans have to say, not only on African affairs, but on world affairs too? The demand for unbiased News is unmet. There is a gap to fill. This is why we are launching Africanews to pioneer independent News from the African perspective,” said Michael Peters, CEO of Euronews and Africanews.
“Africanews is not ‘Euronews Africa’. Editorially independent from Euronews and from any political or ideological agenda, Africanews is designed as the first pan-African multilingual news service.
Sharing the same values of independence, reliability and diversity, Africanews and Euronews will have fruitful interactions, enriching each other’s content, perspectives, much to the benefit of the audience who will always have insider’s views. Interactions between Africa and the world, and each continent like Europe, is growing as Africa rises. The Africanews / Euronews network will be at the center of this phenomenon.”
“To become the first ever pan-African, multilingual, and unbiased media in Africa we need to solve the image issue first. We are building an unprecedented network of journalists all across the Sub-Saharan continent, based on the diversity of their nationalities and points of view. Another strong asset will be Story Hunters, an exclusive programme that will allow viewers and users to be part of the story. ‘Story Hunters’ will be based on user generated content, aiming to make ‘All African’ voices heard.”
