Taking place starting tomorrow, October 31, and running through November 2 in Johannesburg, South Africa is the 2012 edition of DISCOP AFRICA – the annual event/market dedicated to the production and distribution of multi-platform, film and television content across Africa.

It's similar to other international markets like MIPCOM, which is held annually in Cannes, France – essentially an event for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content, providing TV, film, digital and audiovisual content producers and distributors from all over the world, a market and networking forum.

More than 700 production and distribution companies from 85 countries around the world are expected at this year's event.

Of especially key mention is this segment from the press release:

Our goal is also to reinforce DISCOP AFRICA’s relevance as a marketplace for independent and professional producers of multiplatform, television content created in Africa, and provide them with true and efficient opportunities to sell content, initiate coproduction partnerships, access valuable information, connect with key players and learn from experts. In the not so distant future, one of the main drivers of multiplatform, television content business in Africa will be local programming. Inevitably, there will be a shift to regional coproduction and distribution models as non-African content will play a lesser role. Africa will then transition from massive importer of content to producer of content that is far more locally relevant.

A more than worthy objective – building self-sustaining industries locally, across the continent; keeping talent at home to help grow those those industries, and every other potentially positive result of that goal accomplished.

S&A will bring you some coverage of noteworthy developments at this year's DISCOP AFRICA throughout the next few days, so look out for those posts.