A24 Media - Our Story 2010

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Since launching in September 2008, A24 Media has made major inroads in its endeavour to enable Africans to tell their stories to the world. Now boasting over 1,500 high quality video stories and 30,000 still images from 35 African countries, as well as documentaries and series programmes on our website (http://www.a24media.com), we have established ourselves as the "go to" source for content that can provide an authentic perspective on African issues.

2010 was a year marked with major milestones and achievements for A24 Media.

First on our agenda was the successful launch of mobile services as part of the company's effort to reach a wider market. We also launched a more text-driven news site, began looking at gathering more content from the citizens of Africa, and also making forays into in-flight entertainment as part of our strategy for future growth.

"In addition to our growth strategy, we are also embracing and pushing the concept of citizen journalism to harvest news and other content at all levels of society. We have said from the very beginning that we want to be Africa's Voice and that voice comes from the grass roots."

The month of March resonated with the ideals that A24 Media seeks to espouse in raising the bar on content delivery and ensuring that A24 Media positions itself as the prime source for high quality local content on African issues for local and international broadcasters.

I was invited in my capacity as the Chairman of A24 Media to attend US President Barak Obama's Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship which was held in Washington DC on April 26 and 27. The event was born of President Obama's commitment to build ties between business leaders, foundations and entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.

"President Obama and his administration are working very hard to rebuild relations with the Muslim world, and if we can use the power we have in the media in Africa to help bridge the communications gap, it will remove so much of the misinformation and subsequent stereotypes that have come out of Africa."

I have always believed that partnerships are the future of the media industry. In April we continued with our commitment of partnering with some of the biggest and best broadcasters in the world, by announcing a partnership between A24 Media and the BBC, two leading media houses in their own right committed to excellence in journalism. A24 would distribute BBC's Africa Business Report around the Continent. This agreement followed on our partnership deal with Al Jazeera signed in 2009.

BBC World News Head of Programmes, Paul Gibbs said, "Our partnership with A24 will not only grow popularity of the programme internationally but primarily will also offer viewers the opportunity to watch the programme at their convenience."

One of A24 Media's objectives is to not only highlighting the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals but to also play a big role in helping achieve them. In June, we partnered with the 1Goal Campaign that sets out to achieve Education For All and was linked to the first football World Cup held on African soil. 75 million children around the world, 33 million of them in Africa, are denied the opportunity to go to school. Unable to read or write, they face a lifetime of poverty. This is one of our most cherished partnerships.

"Kikulacho" is a Swahili word which when translated means "The Bite Within". In July, A24 Media and Camerapix, in collaboration with Transparency International-Kenya, completed and launched this deeply insightful and powerful documentary at the Silverbird Cinemas in Nairobi. This is a moving documentary that examines how corrupt systems and policies have impacted on the common people in Kenya, and traces the history of how the deep-rooted corruption in Kenya is destroying the country. But it is also a story of hope and triumph that aims to look at how our institutions and leadership can be shaped by the people themselves to realize their dreams.

In 1984 the famine in Ethiopia was at its worst. Mohamed Amin brought to the world graphic footage that remains some of the iconic pictures of the 20th Century. Mo Amin's pictures led to an international humanitarian intervention that saved millions of lives. In September, a symposium entitled "Reflections on International Humanitarian Interventions in Africa" was held at the UNECA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The stimulating discourse of the symposium, which included thinkers, practitioners and activists on the Continent and beyond, was the driving motivation for www.AfricaSpeaks4Africa.org, a Continent-based web portal, designed, developed and hosted by A24 media.

And to round off an eventful year December saw the great bouquet of content programming in A24 Media grow in leaps and bounds. Three great partnerships capped a successful year. The first was with Fox News which entered into a distribution partnership with A24 Media for its award-winning documentaries and features.

Earth TV came on board with their many live cameras stationed in key cities around Continent that offers broadcasters real-time access to important destinations within Africa.

The last great addition to our content programming was Ultimate Wildlife. Lovers of nature and wildlife will not need to look further than this unique content, when it comes to sourcing for programmes tailored to keep them in touch with Africa's amazing flora and fauna.

2011 looks like an action-packed year for us. This month South Sudan will hold a referendum to determine it's future, a host of other key elections will take place around the Continent starting with Uganda in February, many African countries will be marking their 50th Anniversary of Independence, and the 10th All-Africa Games will take place in September in Maputo, Mozambique. Maputo's hosting will mark only the third time the Games will be held in the southern part of the continent.

We will be making some exciting new announcements soon on the creation of new content that will take A24 Media to newer and greater heights. These new projects will enable customers to access our content across all platforms, both traditional and new media, to create a unique user experience unlike anything seen on the Continent.

As we begin the New Year, we would like to thank all our partners, contributors, friends and viewers. None of this would have been possible without your support. We will strive to make 2011 a year where we will further strengthen Africa's Voice.

From the entire team at A24 Media and Camerapix here's wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

    SALIM AMIN
    Chairman -- Camerapix / A24Media
    http://www.a24media.com
    Notes to Editors:

To set up interviews with Salim Amin - Chairman of A24 Media or Asif Sheikh - CEO and Co Founder, please contact Farah Chaudhry [email protected] +254-733-790-458

For access to the stories and more information on an African voice telling the African story, visit http://www.a24media.com

SOURCE A24 Media