French media giant Canal+ has backed a iROKO, a Nigerian start-up once dubbed the ‘Netflix of Africa’ in its plans to expand across the continent, weeks after Netflix itself launched a global push.
Founded by British-Nigerian entrepreneur Jason Njoku, iROKO distributes films from the West African country’s massive ‘Nollywood’ movie industry, which is the second-largest in the world by output. The movies are consumed worldwide by the Nigerian Diaspora, and are wildly popular across Africa. Njoku began iROKO by buying the rights to distribute films online, tapping into growing connectivity on the continent.
From a small YouTube channel in 2010, the company has grown to the world’s largest distributor of African content, with offices in Lagos, London and New York.
The Nigerian firm announced $19 million worth of content development and capital funding deals on Monday, with existing backer Kinnevik AB, a venture capital firm, also increasing its investment.
The growth of a new, relatively affluent middle class in Sub-Saharan Africa has created considerable interest in consumer-facing sectors over the past few years. Media has been a late addition to this trend, but a small number of companies, including iROKO, have begun to capitalize on the region’s demand for locally-made news, sport and entertainment content.
“Affluent and connected consumers, the elite, tend to skew towards Hollywood and international content, whereas the vast majority of people… favor Nollywood,” says Njoku. “Nollywood will continue to be the dominant form of entertainment on the continent for some time, as Africans like African content; it resonates with them, they can connect with the characters, plots, locations and so forth.”
When US TV-on-demand giant Netflix went global in January, African tech websites and forums were filled with speculation about how the company’s arrival in Africa would impact startups, but Njoku is not overly worried.
“Netflix didn’t just launch in Africa, it launched in an additional 130 countries, most of whom enjoy better broadband and digital infrastructure than we do here. Whilst Africa is, I’m sure, a target market for them, they will have their sights set firmly on more advanced emerging markets, such as South America and India before they really turn their attention to Africa,” he says. “For most people in Africa, Netflix will continue to be unavailable for some time, as they can’t stream HD-quality content.”
That infrastructure — of slow internet speeds and a market that is still predominantly mobile-first — has led iROKO to readjust its business model from streaming content to a download-only app.
“I cannot express enough how important mobile is to the content revolution, which is why we’ve built accordingly,” Njoku says. “Yes, better internet is coming and the [internet service providers] are making significant changes that will enable more people to stream, but for the immediate future, the only version of reality that works for iROKO TV is mobile-first and downloading.”
