Note from BBT: A number of things came to my mind after reading the contents of today’s story. The first thing was, after having finally created an Instagram page, I came across a new Afro-Brazilian news platform known as Afro.TV. After I started following the page, I was immediately impressed with its approach to presenting the news, notes and happenings that are important to the black Brazilian community. It’s perhaps closer to YouTube content than it is to any mainstream media outlet, but is yet another platform to make up for the invisibility of Afro-Brazilians in the visual-audio segment.
I had been hearing for some time through the grapevine that David Wilson of The Grio website had had his eye on some sort of media project for black Brazilians for some years, so it made total sense when I learned that he’s part of this new venture. The other name that I’ve known for some time is that of Paulo Rogério. I can’t even remember exactly how many years I’ve known Paulo, but it’s certainly been more than a decade. I always knew that brotha was gonna be behind something big one of these days. His stat sheet is probably several pages long by now.
I’ve run into Paulo several times over the years, most recently in São Paulo and Washington DC, but the interaction I most remember with him was back in 2012. I didn’t meet him face to face that year, but we conversed on the phone. He was arriving in the US once again, that time to participate in the annual National Association of Black Jornalists convention in New Orleans. He asked me if would be possible for me to print up some flyers and send them to the address in NOLA where he would be staying. “No problem”, I told him.
In his description, he said he wanted something that would represent black Brazil. With that, I created a stack of flyers with images of black Brazilians performing capoeira, superstar Ronaldinho making a move on a soccer field, some Carnaval images and, if I’m not mistaken, a baiana cooking traditional Bahian food. I remember Paulo saying that it looked nice, but it wasn’t the image he had in mind. You see, these are images that tourists have long had of black Brazilians and the image black Brazilians wanted to move toward these days was a more modern image for the digital/tech age. Looking back, I realized he was right.
In Black Brazil today, people like Paulo, Adriana Barbosa of Feira Preta, Antonio Luz, Gabriel Oliveira, Carlos Humberto da Silva Filho and Gabriel Oliveira of Diaspora.Black, Ana Paula Xongani of the Xongani fashion line, just to name a few, have all worked hard and contributed to the image of the new black Brazilian as the successful entrepreneur. The good news about this is that this is only the beginning! And from what I’ve seen, outlets such as Afro.TV (and the also recently debuting Wolo TV streaming service) will be yet another outlet that will also help to give a facelift to the image of Afro-Brazilians. Afro.TV’s website looks like it’s still indevelopment, but you check them out on Instagram here.
AFRO.TV: Digital start up of black content is launched in Brazil
By Guilherme
Afro-Brazilians spend about BRL 1.8 trillion a year, but there are few options for channels and media platforms that tell their stories in an authentic way. Based on an unprecedented survey commissioned by the company AFAR Ventures LLC, on the potential for consumption of black content in Brazil, the company is launching the AFRO.TV platform in Brazil, which aims to be a qualified space for audiovisual content and branded content for the Afro-Brazilian and peripheral market and other aspects of diversity.
Mixing the technical quality of TV with the new formats of digital and data intelligence, the new startup has several segments of content such as entertainment, beauty, economy, relationships, behavior, among others. The theme of representativeness is the main focus of the content to be created by a team specialized in the theme. The company intends to invest around BRL 2 million for the first year of operation with the attraction of investments along the order of BRL 10 million.
The startup started the production of content in beta mode, on November 27, Black Consciousness Month, appears at a time when more and more brands are looking for vehicles, consultants and content creators that bet on diversity to create authentic stories and that inspire people in the digital environment.
The platform is based in the city of Salvador, the blackest capital of Brazil, where it has its main studio, but will have correspondents in other parts of Brazil, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Some market names such as São Paulo influencer Daniele Da Mata and Bahia actress Maria Gal, as well as hosts Tiago Rocha and Sara Barbosa are already confirmed to produce original multiplatform content that has a team of partners and experienced investors in the international black media market and in Brazil, such as Paulo Rogério Nunes (diversity consultant), filmmaker and media executive David A. Wilson (creator of TheGrio.com), among others.
The data-driven audiovisual platform (based on data), also has several research and production professionals with experience in identifying new talents and trends in peripheral communities and slums in Brazil. AFRO.TV will be a place to give visibility to these new talents that are off the radar of large media groups and will be a qualified space for brands to get to know this audience through updated consumption and behavior data, in addition to creating solutions together.
The AFRO.TV channel was born in Brazil, but debuts with global intentions, since its international team is connected with several markets. In 2021, in the second phase of the project, the platform should have international correspondents in cities such as Cali, Colombia, Lagos in Nigeria, Johannesburg in South Africa and New York in the United States.
The company AFAR Ventures (created by black investors and based in the US), the majority shareholder of the startup, ordered and invested in an unprecedented research on the consumption of black Brazilian content that has already yielded some consultancies with large media companies that marked the project’s creation and the business plan.
According to David A. Wilson, a partner at AFAR Ventures and an investor in AFRO.TV, “we are excited to create opportunities for creatives and Afro-Brazilian storytellers and brands who are looking to speak to the Afro-Brazilian audience through conversations and authentic and engaged content.
The AFRO.TV platform will already have episodes of the “Momentos Negros” (black moments) series in the first phase, which has already been shown on social networks on an experimental basis in a profile with 100 thousand followers, in about three months. In the summer, the platform intends to create a program focused on content with artists, influencers and content creators in areas such as entertainment, fashion and behavior.
For AFRO.TV’s partner-investor and diversity consultant, Paulo Rogério Nunes “the Brazilian population is looking for content and black narratives in the digital medium and brands want to increasingly know this audience. Our startup came to join this ecosystem and bring a global perspective to the subject. We will access the main sources on the Afro theme in Brazil and in the world.”
Source: Guia Negro
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