Old Mutual & DStv Partner To Produce Locally Relevant Talent Show

Old Mutual is debuting a new talent search show on DStv this coming January and Zimbabwe will be among the 4 participating countries over the show’s 13-week run.

Old Mutual Amazing Voices will feature will focus on “musical groups” from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya. The musical genres that will be focused on are Gospel, Pop & Rhythm and Blues. The talented participants will then compete for a grand prize of US$100 000.

That grand prize means both DStv and Old Mutual expect the show to be a hit and I can kind of understand why. It seems like a fusion of Idols and Big Brother Africa’s our nation VS your nation type of show – two very successful and proven elements in this market.

Local content

At Techzim we’ve been beating the local content drum way too often and it seems like the viable option for African subscription services that want to survive the streaming age. If Kwese had something like this and a focus on local content from the onset maybe (heck, video content is tricky man!) the service would still be alive and kicking.

DStv has always appreciated the value of local and relatable content and that gives them an edge over many competitors who decide to only offer international content because local dramas are not exactly cool.

For DStv, this is also a win because there hasn’t been much in the way of local content for Zimbos – at least not on the scale that South Africa and Nigeria have had. Maybe this becomes one of the shows that see the company focusing more on Zimbabwean (+ Kenya & Ghana) subscribers.