Canal+ Group the French premium television cable channel announced a partnership with iROKO, Nigeria's digital movies distribution platform to launch the first French SVOD mobile android application with full download functionality in the coming months.
SVOD is an acronym for subscription video on demand, and it is cable styled television that lets viewers watch shows when they choose rather than having to wait for a specific broadcast time. iROKO TV and Netflix are two very good examples of SVOD.
The deal would see the iROKO app provide localized content for French speaking Africans. With an estimated 165 million smartphones in circulation by the year 2020, Canal+ Group have advocated the need for localization, as language is the first step in bringing content closer to viewers, the app will be translated fully into French and all content will be in French.
The fact that the CANAL+ Group and iROKO have previously worked together through content distribution deals for linear TV channels such as Nollywood TV, is giving us enough confidence that their new partnership to launch this standalone Francophone SVOD Android app would be a staggering success.