CanalPlus, a French television company has acquired the ROK film studio from VOD company IROKOtv for an undisclosed amount. ROK film studios creates original content for IROKOtv, which can be accessed online anywhere in the world.
Owned by media conglomerate Vivendi, CanalPlus looks to give actress and founder Mary Njoku more production resources, without disrupting ROK’s creative chemistry. She will stay on as Director-General under the CanalPlus acquisition.
“We are acquiring the talent of Mary,” CanalPlus Chief Content Officer Fabrice Faux told TechCrunch.
“We will provide administrative support, finance, and equipment, but otherwise it is our intention to give Mary maximum autonomy and creative freedom,” he said.
Mrs. Njoku’s creative work so far has led ROK to produce over 540 movies and 25 original TV series, according to company data.
“Nollywood is Africa…We tell the African story. 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,” Njoku said.
With the ROK acquisition, CanalPlus looks to bring the Nollywood production ethos to other countries and regions of Africa.
“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,” said Faux from CanalPlus.
“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.
“We’ll now be able to do things in English speaking and French-speaking African markets…and gain access to an advertising market where we believe there’s huge potential for growth,” said Faux.
Under the deal, ROK will continue to create unique content for IROKOtv, ROK’s four existing channels—three on DSTV and ROK Sky in the UK—as well as CanalPlus’s Africa and global channels.
The ROK acquisition is not the CanalPlus Group’s first collaboration with IROKOtv. The media company joined a $19 million Series E investment in 2016, that also saw CanalPlus and IROKO launch a French VOD channel. This was shortly after Netflix announced it would go live in Africa, though with little original African content. Netflix has since started to commission film content from Nigeria.
