When Sello Maake Ka-Ncube landed at an airport in Ethiopia, he got an unexpected reminder that his work had travelled farther than he had.
A few people recognised the South African actor from Blood & Water, the Netflix series that had become a hit well beyond the continent. Later, while travelling in Europe, he was recognised again by a group of Spaniards.
“These productions do give visibility to actors, and I think they also give visibility to South African storytelling,” Maake Ka-Ncube told TechCabal.
That visibility is one of the clearest signs of how much Africa’s entertainment industry has changed. A decade ago, the challenge was getting African stories beyond their home markets. Today, a Nigerian film can reach millions of viewers globally, a South African series can turn local actors into international names, and an actor from Zimbabwe can land a role in one of Netflix’s biggest global franchises.
Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service by subscribers, has shown that African stories can become global hits. Nigeria’s The Black Book film reached Netflix’s Global Top 10 in 69 countries, Blood & Water, a Netflix hit series, made South African actors recognisable far beyond the continent, and Zimbabwean actor Daniel Lasker joined the cast of One Piece, the live-action series filmed in South Africa for a global audience.
The harder question now is what happens to the money when those stories travel.
Africa’s streaming market is estimated to be worth $3.1 billion by 2031, with a significant growth rate of 72% from 2026 to 2031, while video-on-demand subscriptions were expected to reach 15 million by 2026.
That growth, however, does not automatically translate into a stronger creative economy. A film production can create jobs, attract international audiences and rack up millions of viewing hours without giving the people who made it more of the money it generates.
That tension is beginning to shape the next phase of Africa’s streaming business: not whether African stories can find global audiences, but who captures the value those audiences create.
The global audience is already here
Netflix says it has spent a decade building its presence in Africa, but argues that it did not create the continent’s storytelling talent. Its role, it says, has been to build a distribution system capable of carrying that talent across borders.
Kaye Ann Williams, Netflix’s director of scripted content for Africa, told TechCabal in an interview that the company has focused on removing some of the barriers that previously kept African stories local.
“The journey hasn’t been about us ‘getting’ African productions there; rather, it has been about providing a global platform for the exceptional talent that has always existed here,” said Williams.
Netflix has invested in subtitling and dubbing to help productions made in markets such as South Africa and Nigeria reach audiences elsewhere. The company says language localisation is an important part of helping stories cross borders.
The Black Book peaked at No. 3 among Netflix’s global English-language films. It had attracted more than 20 million viewers within weeks of its release, according to its producers.
Unseen, another South African production, generated more than 60 million viewing hours, according to data contained in Netflix’s engagement reporting. The Polygamist, a popular South African drama series, meanwhile, recorded more than 23 million views in its first month in 2026.
Adapted from Zimbabwean author Sue Nyathi’s 2012 novel of the same name, the 22-episode drama transplants the story to South Africa while retaining the novel’s exploration of the emotional and practical consequences of multiple concurrent relationships.
The reach of African productions also extends beyond South Africa and Nigeria. Williams pointed to productions and licenced titles from Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia and Malawi.
“We firmly believe that a great story can come from anywhere,” she said.
That matters because Africa’s screen economy is often discussed through the lens of its two largest production markets. But Lasker’s appearance in One Piece offers a different example.
Williams said a major production such as One Piece can use more than 600 local suppliers, most of them small and medium-sized businesses, while generating more than 1,000 full-time-equivalent crew jobs.
The Zimbabwean connection shows that African talent can plug into productions with international scale even when the production ecosystem itself is located elsewhere.
There is real money being spent
The economic argument for streaming is not theoretical.
Netflix invested a combined R4 billion ($247 million) in South African, Nigerian and Kenyan local content between 2021 and 2024, according to the company. Williams added that Netflix’s investments across the region have historically supported more than 12,000 jobs.
The broader South African production economy is also attracting international money. Independent Producers Organisation, South Africa’s film and TV producers’ association, in 2024, put foreign-owned production investment in the country’s film sector at R2.52 billion ($155.6 million). International production crews also accounted for more than 59,000 hotel bed nights, generating almost R148 million ($9.1 million) in hospitality revenue.
Netflix says the spending spreads across transport, construction, accommodation, professional services and other suppliers. But those numbers expose an important distinction: Production spending is not the same as ownership.
Netflix’s model is largely built around paying talent and production companies upfront. Williams says the company uses different structures, including Netflix-owned originals, co-productions and licenced titles.
“We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach because local norms, regulations, and creator needs vary,” she said . “What remains consistent is our model of paying talent and production companies upfront.”
The logic is straightforward: Netflix takes on the financial risk, while creators get paid for making the project. But that raises a harder question: what happens when a title becomes much more valuable than anyone expected?
Visibility isn’t ownership
For actors, the immediate return from streaming is often visibility. Maake Ka-Ncube has experienced the benefits of global exposure first-hand. But he does not think recognition alone is enough.
He argues that the film industry needs to think more carefully about how African societies are portrayed on screen.
“That’s my gripe,” he said. “ We need to think more carefully about how we represent our societies rather than reducing them to a single way of speaking or behaving.”
His broader concern is the development of the acting profession itself.
“Acting really needs to be spoken about,” he said, arguing that South Africa has not fully interrogated its approach to acting and representation.
“We haven’t fully explored the acting craft and asked whether we can develop our own gurus and our own approaches to acting.”
That points to a broader issue. He believes that the streaming economy needs more than production budgets. “It needs investment in the people who can create the next generation of African productions,” stated Maake Ka-Ncube.
The ownership question starts with producers
The cast of The Polygamist sees the impact of the streaming model from the production side.
The series’ lead actor, Sdumo Mtshali, who plays Jonasi Gomora, told TechCabal that the production demonstrated African stories can retain their cultural identity while reaching international audiences.
“Being part of The Polygamist has shown me that a story can be deeply rooted in our own culture and still connect with audiences anywhere in the world,” he said. “Netflix has helped give African performers and stories a much wider stage, while allowing us to remain authentic to who we are and where we come from.”
Mtshali’s co-star, Kwanele Mthethwa, who plays Matipa, sees an impact beyond the cast.
“It is exciting to see African productions receiving this level of international attention, because it creates visibility not only for the actors on screen but for the depth of talent across our industry,” she said.
The show’s director Nthabi Tau makes the economic case more directly.
“Investment in African productions creates opportunities far beyond the finished film: it develops crews, strengthens technical expertise and supports local suppliers, helping to build a more confident and sustainable production industry,” he told TechCabal.
But behind that production activity sits another asset that could become far more valuable over time: intellectual property.
Who owns the characters? Who controls sequel rights? Who benefits if a local story becomes a franchise? And who gets to negotiate the next deal once a title proves there is an international audience? Those questions matter because a film or series can have value long after its initial release.
A creator who is paid once at the point of production may benefit from the immediate success of a title without participating in everything that follows: sequels, remakes, licencing, spin-offs or other uses of the intellectual property.
That is where the difference between being paid for content and participating in its long-term commercial value becomes important.
But one African streaming company is trying to alter what happens after the production is finished. Louis Manu, co-founder and CEO of Wi-flix, believes the relationship between platforms and creators needs to change. His company uses revenue-sharing agreements rather than relying solely on the traditional model of buying content for a fixed amount.
“It’s a revenue-share model,” Manu told TechCabal.
Depending on the project, the split can range from 50/50 to 60/40 or 70/30. The structure depends on the content, marketing, advertising, and whether Wi-flix contributes to production.
A lump-sum deal separates a creator’s payment from the future performance of a title. Revenue sharing links the two.
Manu gives an example: if a piece of content generates $10,000, a creator could receive around $4,000 consistently rather than accepting a one-off $40,000 payment.
“Instead of us coming to you and saying, ‘We’re going to give you $40,000 for this movie,’ you could see yourself earning more than $40,000 over the next two years while your content remains on the platform,” he said.
Wi-flix also says creators are paid according to performance. “We don’t do a one-time payment,” said Manu. “Everybody gets a share based on the performance of the content.”
In a 2023 interview with TechCabal, Manu described Wi-flix’s approach as paying creators for every stream and said its revenue-sharing model was designed to narrow the gap between the value generated by content and what creators receive.
The difference is important: a fixed payment ends the financial relationship at the point of sale, while revenue sharing keeps the creator tied to the performance of the title.
The value of going global
For Ayanda Seoka, a renowned South African actress, her appearance in Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time gave her something that is difficult to quantify in an actor’s payslip: international visibility. But she says the production also showed her the value of working conditions in large global streaming productions.
“I think the real value lies in the visibility and bringing the industries closer together,” Seoka told TechCabal. “I think in the past, it’s always been something that’s far.” Seoka believes international streaming makes global opportunities more accessible to African actors, allowing them to reach audiences worldwide without leaving the continent.
She also points to the financial and professional advantages that come with the larger budgets of international productions.
“I think the budgets are bigger, so obviously people are able to pay people more. The treatment is different,” she said. On The Wheel of Time, she was flown between Johannesburg and Cape Town for fittings and filming and accommodated in a five-star hotel when production schedules changed.
“Even if there are delays in shooting, I’m put up in a five-star hotel, and I was waiting to shoot,” she said. “Some days I’m not working, so I’m just enjoying my life in Cape Town.”
Distribution is still a constraint
Africa may have moved beyond the old problem of simply getting its stories widely seen, but distribution remains a constraint for creators trying to reach multiple markets on favourable terms.
Manu believes African producers can generate more from their work if content moves through multiple distribution channels rather than being locked into a single deal.
“The positioning shouldn’t be about exclusivity. It should be about, ‘Let’s generate the revenues together and split them,’” he said.
That is where African streaming platforms could matter. Wi-flix says it now has more than four million customers across Africa and the diaspora. It also says partnerships with international platforms can give African content access to much larger audiences.
Manu said the company’s ambition is not simply to compete with Netflix. “It is to become part of the pipeline that moves African content from local audiences to global ones,” he said.
The more markets a production can reach, the more opportunities there are to generate revenue and finance the next production.
The battle is over the upside
There is no simple villain in this story.
Netflix is spending billions of rand in South Africa, creating jobs and giving African stories a global platform. Actors are gaining international recognition. Producers are building crews and technical capabilities. Local streaming companies are creating alternative distribution models.
Netflix also notes that authenticity, rather than trying to conform to a global formula, is what makes African stories travel.
“The stories that travel best globally are usually the ones that are the most deeply rooted in their own culture and traditions,” said Williams.
The challenge is whether African creators can build enough bargaining power to capture more of what successful productions generate.
For Seoka, the challenge extends beyond the stars whose names appear on screen. She believes international streaming can help African actors access global work without having to leave the continent.
“I think it brings the world together,” she told TechCabal. “You don’t necessarily have to go somewhere else to be able to do international work because now it’s actually on our doorstep.”
Maake Ka-Ncube added that it requires investment in talent beyond the people whose names appear in the opening credits.
He believes South Africa has made progress through institutions such as Africa Film Drama Arts (AFDA) academy, a creative arts school, but says more needs to be done to develop a distinct approach to acting and representing Black experiences.
“I think South Africa made a huge move by having institutions like AFDA, where a lot of young talent, on and off screen, has emerged. But I still think there’s a huge interrogation that needs to be done as far as the acting craft itself is concerned,” stated Maake Ka-Ncube.
The same question is emerging in the business of filmmaking: what happens to the money generated by an African story after its initial sale?
Manu, maintains that the problem is not simply how much money goes into producing a film, but how creators participate in the revenue that follows. “It’s an element of creating very dynamic channels for revenues to be generated for them, and also switching up the revenue models,” he stated
He points to the distribution systems available to successful films in larger markets, where a title can generate revenue across cinemas, streaming platforms and other channels. “They have a very powerful distribution system. We don’t,” he noted. Manu argues that African content needs to reach more distribution channels rather than being locked into a single buyer or exclusive deal.
Africa has already shown that its stories can travel. Blood & Water took South African storytelling to audiences thousands of kilometres away. The Black Book demonstrated the international reach of Nollywood. The Polygamist is another breakout example. And One Piece, with Zimbabwean actor Daniel Lasker in its cast and a major production footprint in South Africa, shows how African talent can participate in global franchises.
The next question is what happens when that success translates into money. For Manu, part of the answer lies in changing how content is distributed and paid for. “To them, it shouldn’t be a positioning of buying for exclusivity. It should be a position of, ‘Let’s generate the revenues together and split,’” he said.
When Maake Ka-Ncube was recognised in Ethiopia and, later, by Spaniards in Europe, he was seeing the upside of a transformation that African filmmakers and actors had spent years trying to achieve: their stories were travelling.
True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders, and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
from TechCabal https://ift.tt/nf6aNL0
via IFTTT
I am the CEO of 9JAGISTLAND.My name is Adedeji Timothy and my co-owner is Oyekola Damilare.This blog is born out of our passion to educating to people in all aspect of internet life.We are enthusiastic about writing posts and articles online.
Write your views on this post and share it. ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon