With continued efforts towards utilizing the untapped resources of the African movie industry, French television giants Canal+ has acquired ROK, a production studio under Africa media giant, IROKO TV. The acquisition of ROK is part of the French media outfit’s plan to strengthen and explore the African film market which is increasingly becoming the focus of world media platforms. This news hardly comes as a surprise as other global platforms such as Netflix has equally shown interest through acquisition of African movies such as “Lionheart” and “Mokalik”. The global recognition of Nigerian movies keeps rising, which is a plus to the wider Nigerian entertainment industry.
Based in Anthony Village, Lagos state, the company was founded in 2013 by Mary Njoku, wife of IROKO TV owner Jason Njoku. The parent company of ROK (IROKO TV) was established in 2010 and is the largest online catalogue for African movies. With over 540 movies and 25 original TV series in just the space of six years, the efforts of Mary has not been left unnoticed. Some of the productions from the stables of ROK include: “A Northern Affair”, “Thy Will Be Done”, “Hazeezat”, and popular TV Series, “Festac Town”, among others. With the level of success achieved so far, one can hardly dispute the fact that ROK is living up to its aim of creating quality and original content for its parent company to ensure easy online access anywhere in the world.
ROK has captured the imagination of millions of movie fans, and they have truly supported us as we’ve grown the company to celebrate and enjoy our African culture. I’m excited to be taking our platform on the next stage of its journey with Canal+ Group, who share our passion for creating original content, supporting new talent and together, we have ambitious plans for the future.
Mary Njoku
Despite the new ownership, Mary Njoku retains her position as Director General of the movie firm. With this, Mary, who doubles as an actress and producer, will have quantitative and qualitative production resources at her disposal. Another major advantage of retaining leadership for the group lies in the fact that the creative chemistry, which has shot the company to limelight, will not be lost. Part of the deal includes full control of French-Africa minded media platform, IROKO+, by IROKO TV. There will be continued collaboration between both media companies.
We are acquiring the talent of Mary. We will provide administrative support, finance and equipment, but otherwise it is our intention to give Mary maximum autonomy and creative freedom… 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. 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.
Fabrice Faux- Canal+ Chief Content Officer
Sources:
techcrunch.com
edition.cnn.com
tbivision.com
Featured Image source: PMExpress
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