iRoko, Canal+ to launch Africa’s first French subscription VoD service in ‘multi-million euro’ deal

French film studio and distributor Canal+ Group has partnered with online film platform iRoko to launch Africa’s first French-speaking subscription video on demand (SVoD) service. This is said to be part of a “multi-million euro deal” between the two companies.

The service will first launch as an Android-only app with download functionality in the coming months. It will also be optimised to save on data bandwidth costs.

According to a press release sent to Ventureburn, there are 250 million French-speaking individuals across 23 African countries. This collaboration sees language as the first step to bringing content closer to viewers. All content will be in French.

President of Canal+ Overseas, Jacques du Puy, says that with the company now close to having two-million pay TV households in Africa, they look to widen their mobile audience:

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.

Read more: Video on demand startup iROKOtv expands to East Africa

Jason Njoku CEO of iRoko adds, “Together, we will be giving the many millions of French-speaking Nollywood and Telenovela fans unprecedented access to content that has previously been inaccessible.” He goes on to say affordable content is the right approach to striking in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Both companies have previously worked together on content distribution deals for the likes of Nollywood TV.

More

News

Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest in digital insights. sign up

Welcome to Ventureburn

Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest in digital insights.