Kwese has acquired ‘a significant stake’ in iflix, a Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) provider that has millions of subscribers in Asia. This deal promises to bring more content to the Kwese platform. Kwese and iflix already had an existing relationship as we reported last year.
iflix is immensely popular in Asia and broadcasts in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia. Whilst offering native content that is more suited to the Asian market it will be interesting to see what kind of content ends up on Kwese’s platforms because of this deal. Alongside this native content, there is also Hollywood and Nollywood content, cartoons, movies, live sports and more.
In an email to Techzim Kwese alluded to the content variety saying, “The deal cements Kwesé’s commitment to deliver premium content through unrivaled TV programming, leading sports, up-to-the-minute news and the latest in entertainment. This coupled with iflix’s vast collection of international and African SVOD content will offer users an unparalleled viewing experience, tailored to meet the needs of Africa’s diverse markets.”
Econet Group Founder, Strive Masiyiwa expressed his delight at the acquisition saying, “We are thrilled to deepen our operating partnership with iflix to lead the transformation of media in Africa. Our companies share a mutual passion for innovation, along with a deep understanding of the culture and evolution of digital businesses. Mobility in content consumption has grown exponentially in Africa and by partnering with iflix Africa we are ensuring that we are not only taking part in the evolution, but are leading the movement.”
This acquisition is an interesting one and we will be looking at the implications of this deal in the days to come.
2 comments
Ooooh they called me about this the other day…marketing Kwese’s upcoming online streaming. I wondered who they had partnered with (hoping it was Netflix kkk – big things can happen is Zim, you never know).
Now it makes sense. I noticed Econet already has iflix bundles a while back that come package with some of the data bundles. You can so far see it’s existence in the MyEconet app when checking for bundles balance.