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.