Pay TV in Africa is the fastest growing form of media and with the emergence of DTH and the rapid rise of DTT over the last 2 years, it is predicted that Internet TV will become the third distribution platform says iROKOtv, Africa’s ‘Netflix’.
According to the firm, the mobile revolution is set to propel this growth of internet-enabled devices, which will continue to grow as data becomes more affordable with the figure for such hardware devices set to reach the hundreds of millions by 2017.
Pay TV subscriptions across Africa currently stand at 10 million, with international bundles costing as much as $40 per month, making quality content unaffordable for the majority of the continent and therefore leaving the market open to extensive piracy. Today’s announcement from iROKOtv.com sees the company push for legally acquired quality content, at an affordable price for more millions more Africans.
According to Jason Njoku, iROKOtv co-founder and CEO, “We polled thousands of iROKOtv.com users in SSA and 80% indicated they didn’t have Pay TV access. We feel our audience complements existing players and we are excited to be contributing to the Pay TV universe across Africa. However, our audience combats challenges not faced by their Western counterparts, such as a lack of constant electricity supplies to power their mobile phones, laptops and tablets, so we have to design our products within these parameters.”
Jason says the firm has spent the last three years understanding how to address these challenges, as well as focussing on how to deliver awesome, affordable and legal content in extreme bandwidth-light environments. iROKOtv today announced it had signed an international content package aimed at bringing international content to its African susbcribers. For just $2.50 a month for subscribers throughout English Speaking Africa (ESA) will have access to Hollywood, Bollywood, Korean and Telenovela content minus ads.
Launched in December 2011, iROKOtv.com says it’s currently the 11th largest Pay TV operator in Africa, with ambitious plans to grow to a top 5 position. iROKOtv secured additional funding early on in 2014, bringing the total raised from Tiger Global, Kinnevik and Rise Capital to $25M, the VC-backed pioneer of African Internet TV is rolling out its international content strategy across the continent, in a push to make OTT delivery a mainstream means of affordable and legal content consumption across Africa.
Just last week, iROKOtv launched in East Africa and the reception is growing as user turn to internet TV with ad-free series and films unlike traditional programming. iROKOtv.com also has the world’s largest online catalogue of Nollywood movies, totalling 5,000+ movies equating to 10,000+ hours of content and is watched by viewers from 178 countries around the world.
iROKO recently launched its services in East Africa to bring more Nollywood content to the region.