iflix, a leading Video on Demand (VoD) service provider for emerging markets have officially announced its presence in Nigeria. Users can begin to sign up to enjoy unlimited access to iflix library containing thousands of movies, popular TV shows, sports, children’s program among other vast variety of entertainment content.
Iflix is a Southeast Asia’s equivalent of Netflix was launched in May 2015. It launched its service in Malaysia and the Philippines in 2015 and has since expanded its service through 22 markets around Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Ngozi Madueke-Dozie, iflix Nigeria Country Manager commented: “We are especially thrilled to launch iflix in Nigeria. iflix offers affordability, variety and convenience by giving our users an amazing selection of the best TV shows and movies from all over the world, to stream or download on any device of their choice for less than N800”
iflix has its success over the years hinged on playing in emerging markets and establishing strategic collaboration with Hollywood, entrepreneurs and Telecommunication companies. These success has been backed by funding from several investors, the latest being $133 million round led by Hearst, U.S. a media service company bringing the total investments raise by the company to $303 million.
iflix can be accessed on up to 5 devices at once including phones, tablets, laptops TVs and other connected devices. Apart from streaming, users can also download movies and other content then watch later can also be downloaded and watched later when offline. A downloaded content remains on the device for 7 days after which it expires, however once you begin to watch a downloaded content, its expiry is reduced to 48 hours.
Emerging markets in which iflix has chosen to operate, is a big untapped market with limited or no competition among several challenges such as limited content of choice, limited internet access, copyright and licensing, and peculiar to Nigeria is the issue of dollar billing.
Tackling the challenge of content limitation, Ngozi said iflix is embarking on strategic partnerships with the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), movie producers, entertainers and content owners to aggregate local content on the platform. “We are fully operational in Nigeria, investing heavily in local content and the entertainment industry. We have a local operations team based in Lagos and this allows us to feel the pulse of our users, which we reflect in our marketing and content. IFLIX is here to transform the way Nigerians consume long form entertainment, we are a global company that operates locally, which allows us to leverage our world class technology to deliver content specifically curated for the Nigerian consumer!”
To ease data consumption, iflix is also partnering with Telcos to provide bundle data for subscribers on the platform. Subscription cost is NGN800 monthly, after a one month free unlimited access to a plethora of contents on the iflix platform and users are billed in Naira, saving the headache experienced with Netflix during the dollar crisis in Nigeria. Annual subscriptions will receive discount of more than 33% off the monthly rate, priced at NGN 6,392 per year.
iflix’s has a number of exclusive series includes supernatural drama Midnight Texas, ICE and Ransom, available for users in Nigeria. Top shows now available on iflix include Suits, Big Bang Theory, Vikings, Top Gear, hugely popular series Mad Men, Bates Motel, Mr Robot, Fargo, The Flash, Being Mary Jane, Teen Wolf, Medici Masters of Florence, Luther and many more. iflix additionally offers an incredible catalogue of kids content, including Peppa Pig, Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, Yo Gabba Gabba and much more.
Nigerian favourite drama series are not left out, fans of Jenifa’s Diary can also look up to iflix for interesting episodes of the series. Other Nigerian series available are Grey Dawn, Flower Girl, Shuga, Weekend Gataway, Sun City and The Visit.
With more than five million users and five billion minutes streamed since launch, iflix continues to establish itself as the clear market leader in video streaming business. With the funding received, the company hope to focus more on developing local content strategy and expand technology and development.
iflix is available on Google Play and Apple App store.
Cool, Lets see what iflix movies are like