Denis Opudo
Iflix is a Malaysian based company that streams video through subscriptions. The company has signed a deal with NBCUniversal studio based in the U.S. the deal will see the company bring its services to sub-Saharan Africa. Showmax and Netflix entered into a deal that will run for many years. The deal involves a licensing agreement with NBCUniversal offering iflix subscribers access to download and stream some studio titles.
It covers shows like Suits, Midnight Texas, Gladiator, Grimm and Psycho, are some of the content that will cover as part of the deal. The highly demanded company is focused on the poor side of the streaming market, launching its operations with mobile networks as partners. Creation of iflix was announced in early 2017 that will see it compete with the likes of Netflix and Showmax in the sub-Saharan market. In August 2017 iflix announced that it had obtained an investment worth $133 million in a new funding round led by U.S media giant Hearst.
The ability to get the funding was successful because of important interest from both new investors and existing shareholders. That amount was directed to help in the African expansion efforts. The company first aims to cement its operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania, with Iflix Africa taking the company’s global footprint to 23 markets. The company which has its headquarters in Cape Town will work hard in adding some African countries to its portfolio of emerging markets.
The company is operational in 18 Asian, Middle East and North African markets. It claims to have the best of Bollywood, Nollywood, Hollywood, and other regional and local programming, while they will also offer African customers a wide collection of exclusive African content. The NBCUniversal deal improves on their content provision for the sub-Saharan African market, with hundreds of hours of international content now available to subscribers in the region.
Iflix officially launched Ghana in September 2017, giving Ghanaians access to video-on-demand services at an affordable rate. One month subscription to unlimited access to iflix TV content includes series and movies, costs $2.40, and a discounted annual subscription costs $19.40 per year.
