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Nollywood ROK Studio Acquired By French TV Company

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Canal+, a French television company, has acquired Nollywood ROK film studio for an undisclosed amount. They acquired the company from the video on demand company founded by Jason Njoku, IROKOtv.

 

***Plat4om giveaway: Check the picture at the end for a surprise.***

 

ROK studio was founded nine years ago in 2010 backed with a capital venture of $45 million. It claims to be the largest online catalogue of Nollywood films worldwide. The ROK film studio was created to provide original content for IROKOtv.

 

Jason Njoku and his wife, film producer and Nollywood actress, Mary Njoku founded ROK studios together. They will also still remain the directors of the company even after the acquisition.

 

Rok Studio

 

Canal+ is a media conglomerate owned by a French company, Vivendi. Under the acquisition, it will give Mary more resources to provide Nigerian content. It will also give her the independence to continue production.

 

The Chief Content Officer at Canal+, Fabrice Faux, in an interview with TechCrunch said, “We are acquiring the talent of Mary. We will provide administrative support, finance and equipment but, otherwise, it is our intention to give Mary maximum autonomy and creative freedom.”

 

Nollywood to the World

So far, ROK Film Studio has produced over 540 films and 25 original TV series. Mary Njoku has been able to produce low budget films in shot in Nigeria for both the African and global audience. According to her, “You can bring a Nigerian story, a Ghanaian story, a South African story…we talk the same drama. So Africans can connect to the average Nollywood story anywhere in the world.”

 

Mary Njoku

 

Faux was impressed by the work being done. He said, “It’s not that easy to produce an interesting movie for $20,000. People in Nigeria, particularly Mary and IROKO, know how to do that. We want her to bring that to French-speaking Africa. Because we need more African content and we need the industry to develop in French-speaking Africa.”

 

The deal would mean that ROK will continue to create content for IROKOtv and four other ROK TV stations in Nigeria and the UK. It will also now add content creation for Canal+’s Africa and worldwide channels.

 

Canal+ hopes to reach a larger network of African film consumers all around the world with the acquisition. Interestingly, the top-three countries streaming the IROKOtv platform are in Nigeria, the UK and the US.

 

Iroko TV

 

According to Faux, the idea is to be able to access advertising markets in the English and French-speaking African markets.

 

IROKOtv is a video on demand tech startup that has worked over the years to give African films online presence. It is also a platform for the distribution and monetisation of films.

 

It does look like this synergy will place the Nigerian platform on a competitive level with the likes of Netflix, Amazon TV, Apple TV and HBO.

Plat4om giveaway: Check the picture at the end for a surprise.

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