Interesting observations of this article I read authored by Jason Njoku of IROKO TV pretty much the day he published it. See article below. I like the campaign by Africa Magic and from the onset, I have maintained on this blog that there will be competitors and new entrants and indeed it made for quite robust arguments in the earlier launch days of IROKO.
Over time, we’ve seen IROKO calm down and take a step back with their approach to business. I believe it does boil down to user experience to continue to sustain the interest of consumers in IROKO’s offering, among other factors; user experience being key.
I don’t think it is quite there. Recently, I recommended the movie, “Mrs. Somebody” to persons not involved in the industry and asked they watch it on IROKO. The immediate feedback I received was the ads were just too much and the user experience not worth sitting through it all. IROKO needs to work on the user experience even with its free offerings as it is an attraction to then hook the potential customer into its monthly subscription offering.
I like Africa Magic’s tag line/campaign because it connects with me as an African in the diaspora and immediately piques my curiosity.
I look forward to discussing all these moves in Africa’s entertainment space more at length with you all in the nearest future. As previously discussed, I am working on a new format and changes for this blog going forward that is more compatible with my schedule; and one that allows me to swing even harder the way I’d like to on the law and business of music, that’s my priority right now. Nevertheless, don’t touch that dial.
-Uduak
“Earlier this month, Naspers-owned Multichoice / AfricaMagic launched an on demand internet streaming service focused on the diaspora. If you are in Nigeria (or Africa) it is geo-located so you can’t access it locally. But if you are in the US or UK, in fact anywhere outside of Africa, you can now access thousands of hours of African TV shows and movies. I would say this is the opening salvo of what will become a titanic multi-year struggle I always expected / predicted to attract the soul of Nollywood viewers globally. AMGo is priced the same as iROKOtv at $8/month but without the commitment (3/6/12 month) discounts we currently have. Otherwise it’s a validation of Subscription Video On Demand model for content platforms I am passionate about and I have always preached.
BuniTV recently launched Buni+, their $5/mth subscription service. I feel going forward the digital subscription economy will eclipse the free VOD services as the viewer scale (in the millions) needed to reach $1M annually in revenue is out of reach to most local players. Extreme fragmentation is obvious from what’s happening on YouTube today . . . ”
–Jason Njoku has the full story.
