CANAL+INTERNATIONAL enriches its offer with the Nigerian entertainment and lifestyle channel, AREWA24. Launched in 2014 to give visibility and highlight the Hausa culture, AREWA24 addresses over 80 million Hausa speakers in West Africa.

AREWA24 offers a wide variety of entertainment and lifestyle programming genres and formats, from Breakfast Show/talk formats to youth and women’s programming to Hip Hop,
Kannywood films and Kannywood “behind-the-scenes” entertainment to cooking, culture and documentaries. AREWA24’s television lineup also includes medical and health programs, children’s shows, traditional music genres and a variety of Indian and Turkish television series, all character-dubbed into Hausa.

The Nigerian entertainment channel AREWA24 is available on the Canal+ bouquet on channel 285 starting today.
Thus, this announcement formalizes the opening in Niger of the new subsidiary of the audiovisual group. CANAL+INTERNATIONAL is investing to get closer to its Nigerien subscribers and to design an offer adapted to their needs.
“We are excited to be able to expand our offering of original content. AREWA24 is a channel that has been providing high quality programming since 2014. CANAL+INTERNATIONAL is
now present in Niger and we hope to give local talent the opportunity to reach all French speaking Africa. Our mission is to promote Nigerian successes and to create bridges
between the different regions of the African continent.” says Cheikh Sarr, Chief Executive Officer of Canal + Niger.
“We are very excited to partner with CANAL + INTERNATIONAL in delivering high quality Hausa language programming to its subscribers. We are confident that our programs will
inspire and entertain our new CANAL + viewers in Niger as they have been doing for the past five years in Nigeria.” Says Celestine Umeibe, AREWA24’s Head of Commercial Operations

About AREWA24 : AREWA24 original productions are also downloadable every week on youtube.com/AREWA24channel. Join the AREWA24 digital community on social media:AREWA24.com, facebook.com/AREWA24, Instagram.com/AREWA24channel, and twitter.com/AREWA24channel.

28 June 2021 – AREWA24, the leading Hausa language entertainment and lifestyle television channel and production studio in Nigeria and West Africa, celebrates its 7^th anniversary by giving its viewers the largest slate of new Hausa-language programming in the channel’s history.  AREWA24’s new slate of programming debuts in July, with new original dramas, a new women’s talk show, new kids’ “edutainment” series, fresh football shows alongside AREWA24’s other popular hit dramas and studio shows.  Many of these new shows will also be immediately available on AREWA24 On Demand, the channel’s global subscription-video-on-demand service connecting Hausa speaking families around the world to Northern Nigerian entertainment, culture and lifestyle.  New seasons of AREWA24’s original runaway hit drama series, Kwana Casa’in and Dadin Kowa, are currently in production and will premier in October.

AREWA24’s new slate of programs leads with three new Hausa dramas:  Buka Afrikana, an ensemble situation-comedy set in a local Nigerian Middle Belt diner, or “Buka.” Labarna-Season-3, the newest season of one of the most popular Northern Nigerian hit drama series and Sirrin Boye, a new Hausa mystery and crime drama.  Also launching in July is AREWA24’s new ground-breaking women’s talk show, “Mata A Yau” (Today’s Woman”), featuring four dynamic co-hosts from different backgrounds and ages, openly discussing important issues women are currently facing today in Northern Nigeria.

AREWA24’s CEO, Jacob Arback, reflecting on the company’s growth over the past seven years, gives all the credit to the company’s management and staff and to the tremendous talent in the Northern Nigerian television, media and creative arts sectors.  “Many people don’t realize that there are over 80M Hausa speakers in Northern Nigeria and the Sahel, and the region is bursting everywhere with young talent.  Arback adds, “what I am most proud of, however, is how our management and staff, comprised of such diverse Nigerian backgrounds, ethnicities, tribes, religions and geographics, can all gather as a team in Kano, Nigeria, to produce some of the best programming coming out of Africa today.”

AREWA24 is also expanding its kids’ entertainment and education programming in July, dubbing into Hausa for the first time ever the multi-award winning “Sesame Street Friends,” with all of your favorite Sesame Street characters, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry.  Also debuting in Hausa on AREWA24 is Super Sema, the first African kids’ superhero animated series about an ordinary young girl on an extraordinary mission to protect her African village from a heartless villain and his army of pesky robots.  The Oscar-winning actress, Lupita Nyong’o, is a voice actress on the Super Sema series and is also a partner in the Nairobi-based Super Sema production company, Kukua.  Keeping our avid Nigerian football fans happy, AREWA24 is rounding out its July new program launches with two new football series: “Homage, and “Perfection.”

ABOUT AREWA24:  AREWA24 and its production arm, AREWA24 Productions, was launched in 2014 to fill a glaring void of authentic, locally-produced and high-quality Hausa language entertainment and lifestyle programming that reflects pride in Northern Nigerian life, culture, music, film, art, cooking and sports.  Today, AREWA24 reaches 40+ million Hausa speakers in Nigeria and West Africa through its Eutelsat satellite free-to-air broadcast, on the StarTimes payTV bouquet (channel#138) the two Multichoice payTV platforms, DStv (channel #261) and GOtv (channel #101), the payTV platform TSTV (#361) and on the Canal+ payTV service (channel #285) in Niger, Chad and Cameroun.  AREWA24 benefits from active audience engagement across its digital platforms at AREWA24.com, facebook.com/AREWA24, and Instagram.com/AREWA24channel.

To subscribe to the global streaming service, AREWA24 ON DEMAND, go to http://tv.arewa24.com or download the app from the IOS App Store, Google Play, Apple TV, Roku Channel Store and Amazon Fire TV.

For additional information please contact: info@arewa24.com

The new drama series from AREWA24, ‘Kwana Casa’in’ (90 Days), has come with a new plots and styles that is quite different from the Kannywood movies we watch every day. The story tells about Nigerian politics and what has really been happening in our universities and in our daily lives.

For decades, our Kannywood movies should be pointing out the kind of problems we were faced with; instead, our Hausa movies portray dancing, music and modeling. In the 90 days drama series, there is a very high-quality picture which is different compared to Kennywood movies. This is because high-quality equipment has been used in the film making to give viewers a quality picture.

And the locations used in the drama are quite amazing, places such as hospitals, offices, homes, universities and a radio station. Really, AREWA24 has used a collection of professionals and they deserve a thump up. Looking at the places in the drama, even if someone is living outside Nigeria, they can fully understand what the story is trying to portray. This alone shows that AREWA24 is one of a kind and with professionals. Whenever I am watching ‘Kwana Casa’in,’(90 Days) I feel like am watching a reality drama, because the drama shows the way people in power and the way the poor live. Today, people in power make good use of the poor to subjugate high positions by all means. I believe that, before the end of this drama, many people will learn different lessons in life. When I first saw the faces of some Kannywood actors and actress, I felt weak and fear engulfed my heart – – the fear of sabotaging the drama the way they always did in their movies. But, to my surprise, they appear to be different and serious in this drama without making us bored of watching it. This showed me that, if they can have a good story and equipment, and invite educated people in their productions, I feel that they might be even better in the Kannywood film Industry. The way these artists showed commitment and expertise; it is very impressive. Even those who watch foreign movies will salute them, because developed countries were producing dramatic series about issues facing them in their countries, unlike the trash in the films we’re used to watching. It seems like the 90 days drama will overshadow AREWA24’s drama series, Dadin Kowa, as there is no single drama from the Kannywood [film industry] to rub shoulders with Dadin Kowa so far. It may only be AREWA24 that can be able to shine again with its new and well-produced drama series, 90 days (Kwana Casa’in). During the long time I have been watching Kannywood’s Hausa films, I realised that here is a school for Kannywood to learn more. Gradually AREWA24 will replace Hausa dramas, because they are treating issues that are affecting us in this country, not just singing and dancing on our TV screens. Fadila H Aliyu Kurfi is a writer and analyst on current affairs and an activist.

She can be contacted through email: fadilakurfi@gmail.com, Facebook: Fadila H Aliyu Kurfi.