₦airaland Forum

You guys greed and vendetta caused your downfall..
As a film maker we were happy when you guys came onboard, we finally saw hope, hope that would finally break the monopoly of Africa Magic and her negative influence on the industry, but alas you guys were an upgrade from the worst to come.

Many film makers shot films but were met with a hash market, one shoots with a budget of let's say 10million n guys will offer 3million to buy, how do you want to encourage others to produce?

You guys went further by giving money to people to produce for rok tv, (you called that an original rok tv production) and still doing that till date! is that not killing those who were producing for the channels like yours?

To be honest with you guys, movie practitioners didn't feel your impact and majority are disappointed at your ways of doing business, it seems as if though you were more interested in leveling up with industry practitioners who were there before you.

And 100milli USD in the biggest joke of the century folks😂😂😂 but then I might be wrong 😁

Nigeria is a unique market full of opportunities! But first, you have to know where the money is in Nigeria before you start investing!.... or else, you are going to find yourself in ground zero...or below 0!

Sucre6:

These are business the government should give tax holidays and support in anyway to survive since it's an indigenous company, but no they are clueless they don't even have idea the revenue the company could pull inside the GDP

Kuku kill the government then… nah every private company make government just get involved

People wont waste expensive data on sub-standard content. People watch Netflix, YouTube, Prime so the issue may not be super expensive data but rather them putting the super expensive data to better use.

descarado:
Subscribed. They show mediocre movies. None is ever full movie. Very hard to navigate. Nigerians in diaspora were using that streaming site but they are so lax to effect new changes and move with the train. Most times, you can't even watch what they claim they have. And they have so little to chose from. So annoying I ended it before the end of one month.
Customer care is zero.
I remember when diasporians were complaining bitterly about their customer care here. One female name in particular.

They started and thought they have monopoly and did the Nigerian thing. Customers flee. I went back to them again but it was worst. They destroyed themselves. Also, they should have promoted their platform on social media very well.
Although I saw them on youtube, their promotion was archaic. They will show you advert and tell you to join them. Phew. Who does that now especially when you are looking for customers. Besides,Nigerian movies are enjoyed by Africans a lot.

Your write-up is horrible, filled with spelling errors and grammatical blunders.

Loverboi2cute:
Kpele jareh.... maybe dis habitat doesn't resonate with ur vision
...then u try elsewhere

I don't blame Arthur Eze for siting Atlas Oranto on offshore of Nigeria

Because politics would have frustrated it

The age of streaming has not yet come in Nigeria. It will come when telecoms companies make available unlimited or almost unlimited Internet packages for almost everyone.

Apel147:
You guys greed and vendetta caused your downfall..
As a film maker we were happy when you guys came onboard, we finally saw hope, hope that would finally break the monopoly of Africa Magic and her negative influence on the industry, but alas you guys were an upgrade from the worst to come.

Many film makers shot films but were met with a hash market, one shoots with a budget of let's say 10million n guys will offer 3million to buy, how do you want to encourage others to produce?

You guys went further by giving money to people to produce for rok tv, (you called that an original rok tv production) and still doing that till date! is that not killing those who were producing for the channels like yours?

To be honest with you guys, movie practitioners didn't feel your impact and majority are disappointed at your ways of doing business, it seems as if though you were more interested in leveling up with industry practitioners who were there before you.

And 100milli USD in the biggest joke of the century folks😂😂😂 but then I might be wrong 😁

See an agbero forming a movie producer.

Who dash mokney banana?

appleous:
Your write-up is horrible, filled with spelling errors and grammatical blunders.

Get his message and not his way of writing.

Sucre6:

These are business the government should give tax holidays and support in anyway to survive since it's an indigenous company, but no they are clueless they don't even have idea the revenue the company could pull inside the GDP

The problem is not lack of funding.

iwaeda:
Nothing is surviving under APC. This dollar floating is another thing. Also people don't follow regulations, people even sell passwords to their friends. People are too poor to enjoy entertainment.

Stop blaming APC, this kind of business cannot compete with other global competitors who are better equipped with long term vision rather than short term a typical Nigerian entrepreneur is focusing on.
Mind you all those money is quoting may be a hype after all, a typical Nigerian with corrupt mind would have diverted the so-called funds from foreign investors to personal investment

Iroko TV movies were of low quality in the first place.

Well done Jason! In business you win some and learn from some.No losses only Lessons. Move on quickly with the lessons learnt from this experience to other Markets/Ventures.I’m rooting for you!

Irokotv keeps repeating same movie over and over again... Till you get bored and watch Telemundo

motymop:
i remember the founder bragging one day that nobody can beat him in the streaming business and that he has connections and VC money to scare eveyone.

too much ego took over him

You can even see how he framed it that they existed Nigeria instaed of him to admit that they failed woofully because of competition and lack of innovation

Really?

Before youtube and Netflix, people like me want to support naija movies through platforms like irokotv. It was a horrible experience. I came late.

Those that promoted irokotv here have all gone and they were very passionate but here we are.
Alibaba of China is still humble. The richest man in the world is still humble. But you see us, any small breakthrough, we start forming owner of the universe. If I want naija movie, I will support actors on youtube. Do many of them and they are very popular even if they produce trash. It's even better. The money go straight to them.

AerialMapper:
People wont waste expensive data on sub-standard content. People watch Netflix, YouTube, Prime so the issue may not be super expensive data but rather them putting the super expensive data to better use.

Bros even Netflix and Amazon already divested from Nigerian Content market . The market in Nigeria is tough with very little yield. Show empathy, wish them well and move on. You can’t reduce decades of people’s efforts to this 4 lines of rubbish you submitted.

onatisi:
Paying for streaming in Nigeria isn't all that popular . They should have done their study very well before investing .
Instead of investing such huge amount on streaming ,they should rather have invested in making good movies .
Netflix and showmax too will soon come out with their own stories too. Nigeria is a very harsh place to invest in most especially for foreigners coming with foreign ideas . Naija ma different place entirely

What killed them was poor quality, incomplete movies, bad customer service and not ready to adapt. Add pride. Nigerians in diaspora was the ones holding them together but pride killed them. Why subscribe for such treatment and horrible movies when you can entertain yourself via YouTube and the rest?

With Netflix, youtube and likes in the mix, you guys stood no chance.
I remember sighting one Iroko tv stand at the Maryland Mall some years back. Hard luck for the owners.

It is what it is. You've done your bit to provide a service and create jobs. Lessons have been learnt. A Nigerian is always sentimentally attached to the country, looking at the large population. But most of the people cannot afford 2 meals a day. majority of Nigerians are really struggling to feed themselves and survive, i mean stay alive and not die!!!! Watching TV, or streaming on procured data is a luxury, not to talk about paying $5 / month for ' enjoyment/ relaxation' when you cannot even sleep with both eyes closed at Night. I would say you should consider to stream movies to black people in southern Africa; South African Movies or movies from Southern, and move your operations to Johannesburg. South Africa is a much Stable market with more economically viable population cohorts. Same with Botwana, namibia, Angola. People are tired of DSTV because all they have is sports. DO YOUR MARKET RESEARCH PROPERLY. DO NOT COPY USELESS BUSINESS MODELS. FIND WHAT WORKS.

The only way your business can make money and be sustainable is Nigeria is if other people can make money from what you are doing. People have to be GETTING good income from your business, otherwise, FORGET ABOUT IT

$5/mo is a luxury I doubt even 250k can reliably afford in Nigeria.

Na wa o

But I thought everyone lived on banana island in Nigeria and worked remotely earning foreign dols

Netflix, Prime, Rok

As an entrepreneur myself, this is sad to read. I never really understood their kiosk model though but I found it interesting.

I wish him success in future endeavors, he has learnt and will be better in his next business.

I go buy, data, come pay for movie subscriptions join. e hard. i rather choose one of them.

either i buy data and stream free or pay for paytv without data sub and watch

prettytasha:
And one rubbish statistics yesterday is saying stocks increased. When naira has been heavily devalued

No mind them when today's 10 M is not even up to 2012 1M a stock with the value of 1M as at then as almost lost its value. Have you noticed how foreign investors are avoiding NGX like a plaque Invest in Nigeria stock at your peril

descarado:
Subscribed. They show mediocre movies. None is ever full movie. Very hard to navigate. Nigerians in diaspora were using that streaming site but they are so lax to effect new changes and move with the train. Most times, you can't even watch what they claim they have. And they have so little to chose from. So annoying I ended it before the end of one month.
Customer care is zero.
I remember when diasporians were complaining bitterly about their customer care here. One female name in particular.

They started and thought they have monopoly and did the Nigerian thing. Customers flee. I went back to them again but it was worst. They destroyed themselves. Also, they should have promoted their platform on social media very well.
Although I saw them on youtube, their promotion was archaic. They will show you advert and tell you to join them. Phew. Who does that now especially when you are looking for customers. Besides,Nigerian movies are enjoyed by Africans a lot.

Thanks for this feedback. That's why it's good to always hear from multiple sides before concluding.

DisGuy:
$5/mo is a luxury I doubt even 250k can reliably afford in Nigeria.

Na wa o

But I thought everyone lived on banana island in Nigeria and worked remotely earning foreign dols

Netflix, Prime, Rok

Your comment reminds me of Nairaland of 2010 - 2012.

The comments here and on Twitter say a lot about the founder's persona and business practices. Besides, it is not every business model that works abroad would work in Nigeria. Basic trading and manufacturing are the key businesses to propel Nigerians' economic growth. People need to earn comfortably and consistently before they can afford alternative entertainment. And one wonders why the Indians, Chinese and Lebanese thrive. Why won't they when they solve basic problems? The other day, some cl0wns on Twitter mocked Dangote for building a refinery, whereas his American counterparts are releasing tech services and updates. Many ignor.ant people with access to the Internet. Na Obasanjo caused all this thing.

Acidosis:
Any subscription-based pay-TV programme that concentrates fully on the Nigerian market will fail. There's no other way. You either go the way of YouTube and Spotify by bombarding people with ads to make up for their low purchasing power and poverty, or pack up. Another way is to make your money by stealing user data, then sell to willing partners abroad. But if your aim is to convince Nigerians to pay for streams, apps, or anything they can easily get a counterfeit from China or a fraudulently-hacked alternative that allow multiple users (e.g., Truecaller Pro, Canvas, Capcut, Netflix, Apple Music etc.), you have already failed before you even begin. They will never pay because they can't afford it.

Unfortunately, we don't even see our inability to afford basic things like that as a problem because of our strong affinity for failed governance. In fact, Nigerians consider their low purchasing power and inability to afford the very basic things of life as smartness because there is always that fake engineer and hacker willing to bypass the due process as well as a professional politician willing to convince them to exercise the same level of patience their great grandparents had.

Ordinary Grammarly Pro subscription, many can't afford. Microsoft Office installation, they still can't afford, instead we run to computer village, the home of fake counterfeit software, looking for a fake uncertified engineer to install a fake software or a fake movie site that sells their data to American and Chinese companies for crumbs.

maasoap:
Lol. Does he even understand true meaning and value of 100 million dollars? Clown

Nigerians. You, do you even understand the true meaning of 1 million naira? Have you run a business beyond a local level? A person who has operated at the scale this guy has operated at is not someone to be asking this kind question.

casualobserver:
May ignorance not kill you. Dstv uses a different infrastructure from Iroko TV. Iroko is a streaming platform which means it uses data not satellite transmission. At the time he launched, we didn’t the data infrastructure to support streaming. Secondly his business model require remote online payment platforms which only became possible in the last few years. DSTV had physical offices where you could go to pay your subscription.

By the time these facilities (data and online payment) became available 2 things happened 1) the big boys (Netflix etc) saw the opportunity and moved in and 2) he had probably run out of money and could not compete and likely had no unique content or even the funds to advertise….Have you ever seen an Iroko TV advert?

Also some of these ideas are only viable if you can capture the masses, the masses can’t afford it, I keep saying that the elite are not that many! After 30+yrs in the country, DSTV has only 2m subscribers in a country of 200m people! Around the time Iroko started DSTV had only about 50k subscribers but they could push ahead because they didn’t have much infrastructure/ overhead costs. Like I said all they had to do was beam their existing satelite to Nigeria and sell dishes and decoders. Their content and infrastructure was already paid for by their SA operations. Nigeria was more of less low risk incremental revenue with minimal investment.

I was in England at the time he launched and I knew he was going to fail!

There are some ideas some of us who have lived abroad think we can transport to Nigeria and we get so blinded with emotion and optimism, we don’t realize Nigeria isn’t ready for it. A good example is EV charging stations. It is a good idea and it will eventually become a norm in Nigeria but I can guarantee you that the early adopters will fail. And the person or people who will succeed are those who come in later when the timing is right!


So to answer your question, the infrastucture existed for DSTV. In fact the road could not have been any easier for DSTV. They simply beam the same existing content they had in South Africa to Nigeria, till date they can’t be bothered to remove South African adverts. All they had to do was sell you a dish. It might shock you that abroad dishes and decoders are free!

.... How can EV charging station work in Nigeria? with our epileptic power supply!!!

Karlman:
Ok
But what was the hundred mili dols used for?
...my friend wants to know.

infrastructure, security and patches, personnel cost, content acquisition and production, licensing, rights, data center cost/cloud computing & storage, software engineering, marketing & advertising, Research & development..many more

Few Nigerians can afford premium