Canal Plus Group S.A., a global media and content production and distribution group based in France, and iROKO, Africa’s largest Internet TV operator and the world’s largest online distributor of African content, announced that they will jointly create and launch the first subscription video on demand (SVOD) service in French-speaking Africa.
The new SVOD service, accessible via a mobile-first Android App with download functionality, is slated to roll out within months. The app will be translated fully into French and all content will be in French.
Canal+ and Nigeria-based iROKO have already worked together through content distribution deals for linear TV channels, such as Nollywood TV. Canal+ now owns and broadcasts the largest catalog of African content, including Nollywood films and TV series, African homemade series and shows and South-American TV Novelas, for French-speaking Africa.
The partners say their new service, which was announced today as part of a multi-million euro deal, will bring affordable, popular mobile television content to the more-than 250 million French-speakers across 23 countries in Africa as mobile Internet penetration continues to spread across the continent. Some 165 million smartphones are expected to be in circulation in Africa before 2020.
“Now that Canal+ is close to having two million pay-TV households in Africa, our ambition is to widen our audience to those whose mobile is the main entertainment device,” Jacques du Puy, president of Canal+ Overseas, said. “iROKO’s original approach integrating popular content production and mobile SVOD perfectly matches our group’s entertainment vision in French-speaking Africa. This will also allow us to make more accessible the contents that we specifically produce and design for the African market.”
Canal+ Overseas handles Canal+ Group’s international pay-TV operations. It is the leading pay-TV provider in the fast-growing Francophone African market, with close to 1.8 million subscribers in more than 30 Central and West African countries.
For iROKO CEO Jason Njoku, the new partnership with Canal+ is a perfect, timely fit. “iROKO has been committed to leading viewers to content they will love and Canal+ Overseas shares our vision, translated into French,” he said.
“Canal+ has over 20 years’ experience of delivering content to Francophone Africa; we have an unrivalled Nollywood content catalog and have pioneered VOD in Africa. Together, we will be giving the many millions of French-speaking Nollywood and Telenovela fans unprecedented access to content that has previously been inaccessible. We believe truly amazing, yet affordable content is the right balance to strike in sub-Saharan Africa and this deal is testament to that,” Njoku added.
Established in December 2010 as a YouTube channel, NollywoodLove, iROKO launched a dedicated movie platform, www.irokotv.com, in 2011 after securing $3 million in Series A funding from U.S.-based Hedge Fund Tiger Global. It has since raised an additional $22 million from Tiger Global, Kinnevik and RISE Capital. iROKO has offices in Lagos, London, New York and Johannesburg.
