IROKO is set to launch a dedicated, 100% Nigerian music & lifestyle channel on LES BOUQUETS CANAL+, channel 127 for the French Speaking Africa on 20 June 2017 to showcase top Nigerian Afrobeats hits, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Speaking at this year’s DISCOP Abidjan, Jason Njoku, CEO of IROKO said: “Afrobeats is the sound of Africa. As we’ve built out our TV audience across the continent, our teams noticed that there were plenty of channels showing a ‘Nigerian music hour’, but nowhere was there a dedicated channel showing Afrobeats 24/7.”
Njoku added that the firm felt that the sound of Africa deserved a premium content channel all of its own and music lovers felt the same too, leading to the expansion of its music offering, in partnership with CANAL+ INTERNATIONAL to take Nigerian music to French Speaking Africa.
This is not IROKO’s first deal with CANAL as in January last year the two announced a content partnership to open up the Francophone market to more premium music and TV entertainment, both online and on TV.
The launch of IROKOMUSIC on LES BOUQUETS CANAL+ isn’t IROKO’s first foray into the African music industry. In 2010, IROKO launched iROKING, one of the first legal music streaming platforms in Nigeria, which has since aggregated a global Afrobeats fan base, with over 1.2 million registered users. The mobile music site will now sit under the IROKOMUSIC brand, and is available at http://m.irokomusic.ng/.
IROKOMUSIC viewers will have direct access to video mixes, current hot hits, brand new videos from popular Nigerian artists, throwback tracks and behind-the-scenes content. In addition to the music content, IROKOMUSIC will be featuring scripted and unscripted content created by award-winning Nigerian film studio, ROK Studios.
Nigeria has one of the world’s fastest-growing markets in entertainment and media, with overall growth of 15.7% in 2015, reaching $3.8 billion. The Nigerian music industry is expected to almost double from $47 million in 2015 to $86 million in 2020. With the launch on LES BOUQUETS CANAL+, IROKOMUSIC will expand their popular service to the big screen, with access to over 2.6 million subscribers across 26 African countries.
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