IROKOtv, a Nigerian-owned, African streaming platform that has been operational for twelve years, has denied that it has ceased business activities after its website was taken offline and its mobile app was removed from the app stores of both Apple and Android.
As a result of this disappearance, as well as a general lack of communication across the company’s many social media handles, rumours began to circulate that the service was about to be discontinued.
IROKOtv’s Chief Executive Officer, Jason Njoku, responded to the reports of a shutdown by stating that the services provided by the company fell unavailable because of an ongoing migration.
“We’ve been migrating platforms for the last few weeks, so the site has been in maintenance mode,” he said.
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IROKOtv’s new focus
IROKOtv has been operating for the past ten years using a software stack that was developed for an African audience with certain broadband setup requirements. Njoku noted that the company is now altering its focus.
“We had to hard pivot away from Africa, which rendered our existing product and platform obsolete. It was harder than expected to untangle everything after 10+ years of building for Nigeria first,” he said.
According to him, the move is almost finished, and he explains that an engineering pivot was required to make sure that IROKOtv will be accessible on smart TVs, which is a rapidly expanding market area for streaming providers. He anticipates that the streaming platform will become available as soon as this week, and the business anticipates going live on smart TVs such as Roku, LG, and Samsung before the end of the year. He believes that this week would be the earliest that the platform will be available.
IROKOtv is a member of one of the earliest groups of African technology firms that were founded in the early 2010s. At that time, African businesspeople and investors were placing their first bets on the continent’s various digital services, such as online shopping and video streaming. IROKOtv, which is financed by Tiger Global, has managed to thrive although several of its streaming competitors have failed while other firms from this era have struggled.
More details
Over the course of the past few years, Njoku has provided numerous explanations as to why IROKOtv has been forced to undergo a difficult transition away from its African roots in order to stay in business. The widespread adoption of streaming services across the continent continues to be hampered by low-income levels and the high cost of affordable internet connectivity. As the French media industry increased its focus on the African continent in 2019, it decided to sell its content library as well as its film production arm to Canal+.
“[Today], 89% of our revenues for the first nine months of 2023 were outside of Nigeria. With the new Naira devaluations that ultimately makes sense,” Njoku remarked.
Even while this is not the first time that NJoku’s IROKOtv has discussed the significance of concentrating on the African diaspora, the impending migration of the channel signals a significant wager on the new market that it intends to serve.