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3 posts tagged entertainment
3 posts tagged entertainment
Failing is OK: Brains behind iROKOtv Jason Njoku inspires at TEDxEuston | ventureburn
Despite pioneering the distribution of African content online, through platforms iROKOtv and iROKING, Njoku notes that embracing failure, incorporating it into his image as an entrepreneur, was a good move, for himself and others, stating that people will respect you for overcoming hard times.
“I’m a certified failure,” he told the audience, amidst laughter, but his poignant insights into why we really fear failure, make it a refreshing and inspiring talk. iROKOtv is the world’s largest legal distributor of Nollywood movies online, and currently offers a library of over 5 000 streaming films to its 500 000 plus users, most of whom live outside of Africa.
iROKING is the largest digital distributor of Nigerian and African music. As of October 2012 its mobile site offers steaming and download services, of songs and music videos, to users directly to their phones.
The vision of iROKOtv and iROKING is to turn them into the Netflix and Spotify of Africa respectively. Watch Njoku’s talk in full, below.
The two biggest bits of Nigeria’s creative industries are film and music. Nollywood is said to be worth US$250 million a year and produces over 2,000 films a year.
According to a World Bank study, it is Nigeria’s third largest sector after agriculture, retail and crude petroleum and gas and its 3rd largest exporter, contributing just over 10% of export revenues.
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As increased Web access and mobile phone penetration transform the way more than 1 billion Africans live and do business, a growing number of websites are looking to solve the distribution woes that have long plagued African filmmakers.
Though their business models and catalogs vary, the sites share common goals: to provide an effective outlet for the distribution of African content; to sidestep the pirates who have crippled homegrown film industries across the continent; to create new revenue streams for African content producers; and to allow Africans living in the diaspora to reconnect with their homelands.
“(The Web) provides a perfect opportunity for pirate-free content distribution based on sustainable models,” says Mike Dearham, former head of sales and acquisitions for South African network M-Net, which launched the online African Film Library, a collection of digitally remastered African classics, like Ousmane Sembene’s “La Noire de… (Black Girl)” and Djibril Diop Mambety’s “Touki Bouki.”
”Source variety.com
