Our Burning Planet

‘Netflix of nature’ – SA media company takes the world on safari

Wild dog pups. (Photo: James Hendry)

18 Sep 2024

WildEarth’s twice daily live-streamed drives through reserves like Sabi Sand, Pridelands and Phinda were a tonic for millions of housebound nature lovers during the Covid lockdown.

Andre Crawford-Brunt’s vision is to build the “Netflix of nature”.

He is chairman and CEO of WildEarth broadcasting company, which live-streams nature safaris to between seven and eight million viewers a month on 20 platforms globally.

A spat over payment earlier this year led it to switch from DStv – where it had been a staple for three years – to OpenView which has boosted local audiences.

“We had 100,000 last Sunday,” says Crawford-Brunt during a Zoom interview, “about three times as big as the peak concurrency of something like a NatGeo on MultiChoice.”

He believes they have a compelling formula, which he will be sharing at the 13th Oppenheimer Research Conference which takes place in Midrand from 9-11 October.

“What we do,” he says, “is produce live safaris and monetise it in a challenging media world where YouTube has 114 million channels. Everyone is a content creator and everyone has a very limited attention span, but we’ve recognised that our viewers love wildlife and they love Africa and we love taking African stories to them.

“We're using technology intelligently to help people feel present in nature, and that’s good for mental health. A lot of people love what we do and what we stand for: it’s educational, family-friendly and nonpolitical.

“Frankly, for five minutes, there’s no Donald Trump, no war in Ukraine, no Israeli conflict, no corporate fraud or corruption.”

WildEarth A herd of paparazzi encircle a leopard for beaming to a live-stream audience. (Photo: Supplied)

WildEarth Cameraman Takudzwa Musesani and naturalist Kerri Du Preez treating live-stream audiences to a view of a leopard up a tree. (Photo: Supplied)

The daily excursions combine reality TV, guided travel tours and wildlife photography into something that’s “more than just the destination, but to be able to go somewhere and see the hyena den at Djuma private game reserve, or catch up with the lion pride and see it’s moved back to BuffelsHoek, or be on the vehicle with Cedric or James or one of the naturalists that you’ve watched for many years at some of the most beautiful locations on our planet and be able to tell your friends that you were part of that adventure.

People become addicted. We’ve built a community of people who are passionate about wildlife, about conservation.”

While things are looking a little more rosy at the moment, Crawford-Brunt is quick to acknowledge that “WildEarth has been a roller coaster ride for a number of years”. It’s been “torture”, he says.

The company, which styles itself as a “nature tech” rather than a media company, was founded in 2007 by Graham and Emily Wallington, selling vicarious adventures through its ability to “seat” millions of people “and still have the same four wheels on the ground”.

WildEarth Baboon and infant. (Photo: Supplied)

WildEarth Wildebeest in full flight. (Photo: James Hendry)

WildEarth Cheetah and cubs. (Photo: Supplied)

WildEarth Spotted hyena pups. (Photo: James Hendry)

This restlessness to roam the earth virtually in real-time and to see wild animals in their natural environment surged during Covid when WildEarth’s twice daily drives through places like Sabi Sand, Pridelands and Phinda were a tonic for millions of housebound nature lovers.

“Our unique selling point is that we’re broadcasting from these remote destinations in real-time, and you’re watching stories unfolding,” he says.

Watch: WildEarth Channel Promo, SafariLive Showcase, Channel Showreel

Costs, however, were crippling.

“At its worst stage last year, it was costing us about £220,000 a month to run our operation,” says Crawford-Brunt.

“But let’s be clear,” he says, “it has to be run as a business, and writing cheques every month was becoming really tiresome. But now, fortunately, we’re on the right side of break-even.”

It’s taken two years “for us to kind of turn the corner, through multiple iterations”, and none of it was helped by the fallout with MultiChoice.

Earlier this year, when matters came to a head, Crawford-Brunt expressed his feelings in an open letter: “This is a story about the very essence of what it means to have a meaningful mission as a business and whether you are prepared to align your actions and words. It comes at a time when our human need for nature connection has never been more eroded or more important.

“It is about taking a stand and refusing to be bullied, regardless of the odds. Our decision to stand up for ourselves may kill us or it may cause someone to realise how big, important and valuable our movement is to them as a corporate or a brand wanting to be associated with everything good.”

His appeal turned into a rallying cry for supporters, who, in response to MultiChoice’s decision to pull the plug after three years, circulated a petition and raised R4.7-million in three days to help the company.

Crawford-Brunt’s professional background has helped weather WildEarth’s storms. He was Managing Director, Global Head of Equity Trading at Deutsche Bank before founding Braavos Partners, an IT and biotech investment firm. More recently, he bought a stake in financial services company Sygnia, partnering with CEO Magda Wierzycka.

However, Crawford-Brunt confesses to having let his guard down in the WildEarth venture. When owner Graham Wallington, an old friend, said he was looking for investors, “I broke all my cardinal rules in investing. You know, where you own most of the equity, you end up owning most of the problems. And, of course, I would never let myself do that normally, but in this case, it just happened.”

What’s happening now is that “we’re on 20 platforms globally. We’re on things like the Roku Channel in the US. We’ve just got on Samsung Plus in the US and Canada. We’re in about 20 or 30 European countries across the various Fast (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels.

“We’re on Jio in India, on Du in the Middle East. We’re obviously on OpenView. In South Africa, we’re a big presence on YouTube, and we have 1,7 million followers across our social media sites.”

He says the fact that costs are in rands helps his business.

“We run this company with 50 to 60 people for the same cost per month that the BBC produces one-and-a-half hours of footage. And I think that’s an arbitrage there because what we do is valuable. You know, 80% of the world doesn’t speak English. The AI for localisation is improving now, so I have big plans to take this to Japan, China, everywhere.

“And our big-picture vision is to build what I call the Netflix of nature. Ideally, I’d love to have a channel that you will be able to dial in in real-time to the sardine run, watch the tigers in northern India, the jaguars and panthers and bears in America.”

However much WildEarth is about adventure and excitement, it’s also about education.

“We run a programme called WildEarth Kids,” says Crawford-Brunt, “which is exactly the same safari, but schools sign up and send in questions, and so it’s interactive.

“Many of the kids have not been on a real safari and my goal is to put a million kids through our WildEarth Kids programme and to make it part of the curriculum to help kids fall in love with nature.

“That’s the future generation of conservationists we’re training from a really young age.

“Our mission is to help people feel present in nature; help them connect with nature, and educate them about what’s going on. I think we really can tell good stories.”

Seeing these stories live, he says, is a differentiator in the media world, and “nature always delivers”. DM

Andre Crawford-Brunt will tell the WildEarth story at the 13th Oppenheimer Research Conference at the Randjesfontein Cricket Ground, Midrand, from 9-11 October. The conference will be live-streamed.

Yves Vanderhaeghen writes for Jive Media Africa, science communications partner of Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

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