Netflix Africa: Good Content is Not Enough
Creating premium content is one thing, creating a premium content delivery network is another
Netflix’s Africa content strategy is impressive.
In March, the global video-on-demand giant launched its first original African series ‘Queen Sono’ and has followed it up with ‘Blood and Water’.
‘Queen Sono’ was created by an entirely South African cast and crew, while ‘Blood and Water’ is a South African teen drama series.
Netflix has green-lit ‘Mama K’s Team 4', an animated series set in Zambia. They have also announced that they will be investing heavily in original Nigerian content.
MultiChoice, the reigning African giant, word to Burna Boy, is now in the fight of its life.
Although, it doesn’t seem as if Netflix is as equipped to fight over African subscribers as it is to fight over African content.
Netflix’s content delivery network Open Connect currently has a single node in Africa. It’s located in Johannesburg.
For the Nigerian subscriber, this node might as well be located outside Africa; latency between Lagos and Johannesburg is almost as high as the latency between Lagos and London.
In 2016, 4G-LTE provider Spectranet announced that it had installed another node in Nigeria. The current status of that connection is, however, not known.
Netflix has already disrupted MultiChoice, mopping up an alarming number of premium DStv subscribers in SA in only a few years. But, in a continent where internet penetration rates are below 40%, MultiChoice continues to grow, especially outside South Africa.
MultiChoice uses a combination of its ruggedized RF and VSAT links, and apps like DStv Now and Showmax to deliver content. Netflix, on the other hand, has to rely on third-party ISPs, many of whom either run VOD services of their own or have launched VOD services in the past and failed.
Good luck finding a reliable connectivity partner in that bunch.
Also, there are other powerful players in the market like IrokoTV who have the local experience to go with their local content.
But that hasn’t stopped Netflix from dreaming big. There are currently fewer than 1.5 million Netflix subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa, the company has plans to grow this base to 5 million by 2025.
Unsurprisingly, most of the current subscribers are located in South Africa. If Netflix is going to have a shot at meeting its ambitious target, it is going to need a solid network strategy to match its content strategy for the rest of Africa.
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