Nigeria’s iROKOtv has grown to become the resident don in the African movie streaming sub-niche since it launched in 2011. But another startup that came up today seems poised to wrest a chunk of that cred for itself.
Afrostream, a startup in the current batch of Y Combinator’s incubation programme will stream exclusively African and African-American movie content.
According to a TechCrunch report, the startup will launch in September for €7 per month in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
One of the two core interests of the startup – African movies – has been iROKOtv’s forte and while most other Africa-focused SVOD platforms have been operating in iROKOtv’s shadow, Afrostream may be the one to challenge iROKOtv’s towering shadow, because YC’s endorsement. At the very least, this means great execution and access to funding.
It’s very unlikely however, that Afrostream will stroll in and knock iROKOtv out of the park on this one. At least, not in the foreseeable future.
iROKOtv has the largest catalog of Nollywood movies and most likely the largest collection of African titles, with industry knowledge to boot. Moreover, the markets both are serving seem very different at this stage.
With Afrostream’s preliminary launch in mostly French speaking countries, the startup seems positioned to serve Francophone content, a listing that hasn’t been a core focus for iROKOtv.
Afrostream has been growing at a decent clip, no less. The startup that began as a Facebook page in 2014 now has 72,000 fans on Facebook and has already received over 2, 000 signups with around $100, 000 in revenue in the last four weeks, according to TechCrunch.
