Across Africa and emerging markets, broadcasters are sitting on vast content archives that remain vastly underutilised, despite growing demand for local, nostalgic and culturally relevant programming on digital platforms. As audience viewing shifts toward on-demand and ad-supported streaming, archives are increasingly being recognised not as legacy assets, but as high-value commercial content.
Broadcasters are finding that the most successful archive monetisation strategies are built on three pillars: smart syndication, flexible licensing and platform-ready on-demand distribution. Rather than relying on a single outlet, content owners are distributing archive titles across multiple channels—FAST platforms, regional OTT services, telco bundles and international buyers—maximising reach while extending content lifespan.
Licensing models are also evolving. Fixed long-term agreements are giving way to shorter, performance-based deals that allow broadcasters to test markets, refresh content packages and retain greater control over rights. This approach is particularly practical for evergreen genres such as drama, documentaries, sports highlights and cultural programming, which continue to attract audiences years after their original broadcast.
On-demand monetisation has emerged as the strongest growth driver, especially when archives are digitised, properly tagged and optimised for discovery. Viewers are no longer consuming content chronologically; instead, they are searching by theme, mood, language and relevance. Broadcasters that invest in metadata, curation and contextual packaging are seeing higher engagement and more consistent revenue from advertising and subscription models.
Cloud-based workflows are accelerating this shift by removing traditional barriers such as costly storage, slow retrieval and complex distribution processes. With cloud infrastructure, archives can be accessed, repurposed, and delivered to multiple platforms simultaneously—reducing time-to-market and improving monetisation efficiency.
These insights will form part of ongoing industry discussions at the Cloud Broadcasting Summit – Africa 2026, scheduled for 24 – 25 March 2026 in Central Lagos, Nigeria, where broadcasters and content owners will continue exploring practical ways to turn archive content into sustainable revenue streams in a rapidly evolving media landscape.
