Buni Media, the production team behind Kenya’s first ever satire TV program yesterday launched an online TV called Buni TV set to show exclusively innovative and visually arresting Pan-African content.
The new Web and mobile digital video platform will focus on high quality documentaries, feature films, Web and television series, animations and music videos set for distribution to global audience online, says Marie Lora-Mungai, Buni Media CEO and founder. Initially, television and radio formed its major distribution channels.
Buni Media says it intends to target the continent’s under-served audiences unlike African video platforms that tend to target the Diaspora market.
The independent digital distribution organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, and Los Angeles, California,has since developed a user-friendly mobile site that works on smartphones, iPhones, Android devices and Blackberry phones.
Buni TV will in addition give independent producers a new platform to distribute their work as well as reach global audience directly. The new TV says it eventually intends to target advertisers as that would be their revenue stream. Producers and content generators will have a 50% split of the profit with Buni TV.
Buni Media is the production company behind XYZ Show, Africa’s first satire program, that features full-sized latex puppets. The show reaches an estimated 8 million people each month across the globe on radio, television, mobile and the Web.
The sheer success of the XYZ’s clips on YouTube informed the decision that many users are watching programs and clips online, says Buni Media.
Content producers from Africa are quickly turning their attention towards online distribution. Early this year, HumanIPO highlighted the great success of Nigerian streaming service IrokoTV. IrokoTV is quickly changing how uses are accessing content on the web.
Kenya is not seeing this as the first attempt to populate the web with local content.Riverflix a movie streaming service in Kenya started early last year.
“The aim of starting Riverflix was basically to make African films including TV shows, movies, documentaries available to Africans in the Diaspora and at the same time use it to promote and showcase African talent,” Colo Shivere, the founder of Riverflix told HumanIPO.
Riverflix has about 25,000 registered users on its database.
