By Ayo Onikoyi

Africa Magic, as part of activities lined up to mark it’s 20th anniversary, took some selected members of its audience on a tour of its Lagos studio on Tuesday. The whole idea, according to the organisers is to give some of their loyal fans the rare privilege to personally experience the ambience from where all the magic pops out on their screens. 

The studio tour gave the fans an exciting experience from all Africa Magic Studios. These include: the SuperSport sets for SuperPicks and Monday Night Football, Tinsel set, and the illustrious Big Brother Naija House.

Speaking at the event, Executive Head, Content and West Africa Channels, MultiChoice West Africa, Dr. Busola Tejumola, explained that the audience has always played a key role in the Africa Magic journey, and it was natural to include them in the celebrations.

She said: “Our two decades of indigenous storytelling wouldn’t have been possible without our audience. They are key to the story we tell and this celebration will not be complete without the audience being part of it. These studios have produced over 30,000 hours of content enjoyed by the audience in the last two decades.”

“So we decided to give a sample of the audience the opportunity to have a feel of studios and also meet some of the brains behind the magic we see on the screen.”

Also on the tour were Channel Head, Africa Magic, Tayo Adetunji, SuperSport Presenter, Mozez Praiz, BBNaija’s Groovy Mono, popular Nollywood actress, Tope Olowoniyan, who played Cleo on the set of Tinsel. The thespian lauded the remarkable role Africa Magic played in her career.

She said; “I cannot talk about my career without a mention of Africa Magic. I got my first role on Tinsel. I had my growth with Nollywood fundamentallly because of Africa Magic. They have been doing this for twenty years and it keeps getting better. They have raised the bar for production and talent welfare.”

Africa Magic, launched as a single channel in 2003 and has since metamorphosed into a chain of seven channels. These include: Africa Magic Showcase, Africa Magic Urban, Africa Magic Family, Africa Magic Yoruba, Africa Magic Igbo, Africa Magic Hausa, and Africa Magic Epic. All these happened within a space of twenty years.

According to the management, Africa Magic will continue to strive to maintain its pride of place by continually dishing out quality contents on all fronts. It was also stated that Africa Magic will continually premiere more original series. Other blockbuster contents such as Slum King, Masquerades of Aniedo, Chronicles, Love and Light, among others are also being run concurrently on different channels.

Management also announced that the premium Africa Magic channel, Showcase, is now open to GOtv Supa+ and DStv Compact customers, till November 30. This was done to ensure that more customers may have access to these new interesting features and contents.

Some of the visibly excited beneficiaries of the tour expressed their gratitude to Africa Magic for the rare opportunity. To qualify, participants only had to showcase their knowledge of the brand by answering five simple questions. Winners were randomly selected. They were also feted with refreshments and branded gift items