One of Africa’s largest video on demand site, Iroko TV, yesterday launched a text service set to enable users send queries to a code, 33300, for updates including trends, actors and upcoming productions on Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry.
The SMS service, tested in Ghana and reported to work well, is a result of Iroko TV’s partnership with Rancard solutions, a Ghana-based mobile phone software company.
The site showcases top Nollywood (Nigerian film industry) films and TV series.
Users can log into their website and watch films on demand. The TV service is currently free for users although the TV site says users will begin to pay for the service from June this year.
Iroko TV came into the limelight early this year with impressive statistics about its service. As of January this year, the service recorded over 1 million hours of viewing and gained 100,000 users in just two months following its launch.
Iroko Patners own IrokoTV. The company has another movie streaming service called Iroking.com.
It recently received a funding of $8 million dollars from Tiger Global, which is run by early Facebook and Zynga investors.
Online video on demand services are becoming the norm with increasing bandwidth in Africa. Kenya’s Riverflix and Buni TV are some of the new and upcoming online streaming businesses.
