| Mynd44: 8:19am On Jun 04 |
"We spent $100m trying to win. We finally accepted there was no market for paid services and exited Nigeria" Businessman, Jason Njoku speaks on iROKOtv shutdown
Jason Njoku, the founder of iROKOtv, has shared his experience running iROKOtv and trying to make it profitable in Nigeria.
Writing on his website, Njoku.org, Jason Njoku described the company’s $100 million investment in the local market as a costly mistake.
He said the platform, which was founded in 2011 and launched in 2015, was operating in “full survival mode” in the first ten years.
Njoku said the company was faced with several obstacles and struggled against competitors like Netflix, Amazon, Showmax, and Iflix.
The article titled, "STREAMING IN NIGERIA. DID THE MARKET WIN?" was published in March 2025 but is gaining traction now as Nigerians discuss iROKOtv after a court freezed Jason Njoku's bank s amid debt crisis
Jason Njokue wrote:
"Iroko’s first funding was in August 2011; our mandate was to build a large streaming business in Nigeria.
"Tiger Global believed that one of the largest growth areas would be online entertainment, and like most content, the winners would be local content in large domestic markets.
"They invested $200 million in Netflix back in 2010 and then invested in IVI in Russia, YY in China, Netmovies in Brazil, and us in Nigeria.
"With super-expensive data bundles and inelegant payment options (I waiting for Interswitch to enable us to integrate), our market took a while to mature. In most opportunities, you can be too early or too late; only in hindsight can you gauge when the best time to strike would be. iROKOtv was very early when we launched in 2011, but we were fortunate that there was a ready-made international market in the diaspora who were willing to pay and able to overcome any technical hurdles (payment/bandwidth/devices) to enable us to at least generate a sizable income.
"We actually waited until 2015 (four years post-launch), building the product, securing a sizable content library, and assembling a team to attempt to take on Nigeria and Africa. Between the revenues we generated and the venture capital we raised ($35 million) over the first ten years, we easily spent $100 million trying to win.
"But we weren’t winning; we weren’t really losing either. We were just there, in full survival mode, operating in the toughest conditions possible. Streaming, even domestically, is a scale game.
"Africa wasn’t immune to those costs. It’s incredibly expensive across marketing, content, delivery, and product platforms. Our largest, most serious competitors were Showmax, Netflix, Amazon, and Iflix. Collectively, they easily invested $1 billion or more from 2015 to 2023
"During that period, we often had tense board meetings about why iROKOtv wasn’t succeeding; it was challenging to feel that all my hard work and dedication were constantly reduced to 'you’re not doing enough'.
"We have been, and remain, the most aggressive in trying to distribute content across Nigeria—deploying hundreds of manned kiosks, teams of outbound centre agents, creating agency networks, adjusting our product to prioritise Android s, and pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing.
"At one point, it dawned on me, and I finally shot back in a board meeting: if iROKOtv was losing, could they point to someone who was beating us? In the startup world, that’s usually the outcome of underperformance.
"You are simply being out-executed by a better-capitalised or higher-performing startup. In this case, there simply wasn’t anything anyone could point to to establish that.
"So my simple assertion was that the market was winning. In 2019, we went out to fundraise; for the first time, we used a bank, Stanbic IBTP, to that.
"We were looking for $10-20 million to keep pushing into and across Africa with our outbound, agency, and kiosk models.
"I believed my tales of survival would inspire the (primarily) PE investors that we were going to be the eventual winners in a brutal, long-fought civil streaming war. Instead, they all largely concluded that perhaps there was no market there, that the unit economics were simply not viable at any reasonable scale.
"What they were all interested in was the ROK content, TV channels, and distribution business. It was straightforward (fewer than 30 employees), had clear revenue recognition (billion-dollar paid TV platforms – DStv, Multichoice, SKY, etc., with 3-5 year contracts in non-local currencies), and was amassing a sizable IP library funded by the same paid TV platforms. Once we separated out ROK, it was clear where the value lay in Iroko. It represented 80% of revenues and 25% of costs. EBITA margins of 35-40% were achieved without even realising it.
"The outcome of that fundraise was the $25 million partial exit (Iroko sold her shares; Mrs Njoku remains a significant shareholder in the studio) to Vivendi/Canal+.
"We closed in July 2019.
"Before the end of 2019, we had distributed $5 million as a special dividend and were primed to take on the world.
"Then COVID-19 happened. Streaming temporarily boomed in the West (our North American business tripled in subscriber growth), while Nigeria closed borders and grappled with peculiar economic principles (devaluations, FX windows, etc.).
"The local market in Nigeria simply collapsed. We saw it and stubbornly decided to keep investing and doubling down until we were all tapped out, having burnt through most of the post-exit capital.
"To save iROKOtv, we considered crowdfunding, an AIM LSE listing (you could raise $10-30 million easily back then) with relatively little revenue but a strong narrative.
"In the end, we raised $1.1 million in convertible notes, then recapped the company a year later and paid it back.
"In 2023, we finally accepted there was no market for paid services and exited Nigeria. We haven’t processed any Naira payments there in almost two years.
"As I humbly survey the wreckage of the last 15 years of streaming in Nigeria and Africa, it’s clear our (then $2k GDP per capita) was too small to even a $5/mo product. It’s clear this wasn’t even a question of capital.
"Showmax alone continues to pour tens, if not hundreds, of millions to make it work. But the global giants tapped out last year; their costs (content and marketing) were clearly unsustainably high, and their product needed to be localised to make sense and actually work; it’s just not how platforms sustainably scale.
"So I wasn’t surprised when either Amazon or Netflix rolled back their considerable investments in Nigeria. $5/mo is a luxury I doubt even 250k can reliably afford in Nigeria.
"You can see the impact of what GOtv and DStv are suffering at the hands of the market. It’s okay that we tried and failed. It’s okay that we accept the limitations in the domestic market we find ourselves in. Did it need $1B+ to figure this out?
"Absolutely not. I believe, with my newfound knowledge, that iROKOtv could have reached the same conclusions with $5-10 million versus the $100 million+ we ended up investing.
"In hindsight, streaming wasn’t the winning model for Nollywood in Nigeria. Content, channels, and distribution were.
"With the economics that business had in 2018, we could have shut down iROKOtv and her $5 million/year in losses and either listed it or just had a fantastically profitable business.
"But I was a believer and walked away from millions of dollars in personal liquidity to put it all in to build streaming in Africa.
"My lessons were expensive, and that’s why I am so consistent in telling founders not to over-raise.
"I am not surprised by the story of Obi from Kobo360; I lobbied him pre-$30m raise not to raise too much capital or later on to seek a merger with his nearest competitor whilst they were engaged in a brutal price war.
"The unit economics and payment cycles were brutal, and capital wasn’t going to dramatically change the market dynamics, and it appeared that no one was really going to win that market. It’s only with deep, lived, and expensive experience that I can glance at unit economics coldly and get a feel for whether, with the usual macro turbulence, a startup has a better chance at long-term success.
"Nigeria is currently a massive drag on the entire operating business of Multichoice. Their most recent H1 reports indicate. Reminder that this is the largest pay platform in Africa, which is currently being acquired in a $2.8B deal."
https://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2025/6/we-spent-100m-trying-to-win-we-finally-accepted-there-was-no-market-for-paid-services-and-exited-nigeria-businessman-jason-njoku-speaks-on-irokotv-shutdown.html#comments
14 Likes 3 Shares 
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| Karlman: 8:26am On Jun 04 |
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Ok
But what was the hundred mili dols used for?
...my friend wants to know.
15 Likes 1 Share |
| Sucre6: 8:26am On Jun 04 |
These are business the government should give tax holidays and in anyway to survive since it's an indigenous company, but no they are clueless they don't even have idea the revenue the company could pull inside the GDP
63 Likes 6 Shares |
| Anguldi(m): 8:26am On Jun 04 |
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People are broke for subscription sha😥🤦.
"Then COVID-19 happened. Streaming temporarily boomed in the West (our North American business tripled in subscriber growth), while Nigeria closed borders and grappled with peculiar economic principles (devaluations, FX windows, etc.).
"The local market in Nigeria simply collapsed. We saw it and stubbornly decided to keep investing and doubling down until we were all tapped out, having burnt through most of the post-exit capital.
Know when to run, you gonna luurnnn the hard way 📌🤦🤷
31 Likes |
| Loverboi2cute(m): 8:27am On Jun 04 |
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Kpele jareh.... maybe dis habitat doesn't resonate with ur vision
...then u try elsewhere
I don't blame Arthur Eze for siting Atlas Oranto on offshore of Nigeria
Because politics would have frustrated it
21 Likes 3 Shares |
| prettytasha(f): 8:27am On Jun 04 |
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And one rubbish statistics yesterday is saying stocks increased. When naira has been heavily devalued
71 Likes 1 Share |
| inoki247: 8:27am On Jun 04 |
Lol una sure..
Na only Nigeria una focus una market 
2 Likes |
| merits(m): 8:27am On Jun 04 |
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Lol.... Iroko 🌴🌴🌴🌴🌲 tree is tired.
2 Likes |
| olawaleatanda(m): 8:28am On Jun 04 |
Still blaming tinubu for his misfortunes 
5 Likes 2 Shares |
| free2ryhme: 8:28am On Jun 04 |
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8 Likes 1 Share |
| AuthegaPRIMUS(m): 8:29am On Jun 04 |
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Summary 😒😒
Jason Njoku, founder of iROKOtv, reflected candidly on the platform’s 15-year journey and its struggle to succeed in Nigeria's challenging streaming landscape. Launched in 2011, iROKOtv attracted major global investors like Tiger Global and spent over $100 million trying to build a viable streaming business in Nigeria. However, due to expensive data, poor payment infrastructure, and limited consumer spending power, the company remained in "survival mode" for a decade.
Despite aggressive efforts—such as deploying kiosks, building content libraries, and targeting diaspora markets—iROKOtv couldn’t compete effectively with global players like Netflix, Amazon, and Showmax, who collectively spent over $1 billion in Africa from 2015–2023. Njoku itted that, in hindsight, the Nigerian market was not mature enough to a $5/month service model.
While the streaming arm struggled, iROKOtv’s ROK Studios—focused on content production and TV distribution—proved successful, representing 80% of the company’s revenue. In 2019, a $25 million partial exit to Canal+ allowed the company to realize profits, but subsequent reinvestment into the local market post-COVID wiped out much of that gain.
By 2023, Njoku and his team exited the Nigerian streaming market, conceding it wasn't viable. He now believes the real value in Nollywood lies in content creation, channels, and distribution—not streaming. Reflecting on costly lessons, Njoku cautions other founders against over-raising and misjudging market readiness. He concluded that billions were wasted across the industry trying to force a model that didn’t fit Nigeria’s economic realities, reinforcing the importance of strategic discipline and realistic market assessment.
31 Likes 5 Shares |
| free2ryhme: 8:29am On Jun 04 |
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15 Likes 1 Share |
| Konquest: 8:30am On Jun 04 |
Mynd44:
"We spent $100m trying to win. We finally accepted there was no market for paid services and exited Nigeria" Businessman, Jason Njoku speaks on iROKOtv shutdown
~~
"We closed in July 2019.
"Before the end of 2019, we had distributed $5 million as a special dividend and were primed to take on the world.
"Then COVID-19 happened. Streaming temporarily boomed in the West (our North American business tripled in subscriber growth), while Nigeria closed borders and grappled with peculiar economic principles (devaluations, FX windows, etc.).
"The local market in Nigeria simply collapsed. We saw it and stubbornly decided to keep investing and doubling down until we were all tapped out, having burnt through most of the post-exit capital.
"To save iROKOtv, we considered crowdfunding, an AIM LSE listing (you could raise $10-30 million easily back then) with relatively little revenue but a strong narrative.
"In the end, we raised $1.1 million in convertible notes, then recapped the company a year later and paid it back.
"In 2023, we finally accepted there was no market for paid services and exited Nigeria. We haven’t processed any Naira payments there in almost two years.
"As I humbly survey the wreckage of the last 15 years of streaming in Nigeria and Africa, it’s clear our (then $2k GDP per capita) was too small to even a $5/mo product. It’s clear this wasn’t even a question of capital.
"Showmax alone continues to pour tens, if not hundreds, of millions to make it work. But the global giants tapped out last year; their costs (content and marketing) were clearly unsustainably high, and their product needed to be localised to make sense and actually work; it’s just not how platforms sustainably scale.
"So I wasn’t surprised when either Amazon or Netflix rolled back their considerable investments in Nigeria. $5/mo is a luxury I doubt even 250k can reliably afford in Nigeria.
"You can see the impact of what GOtv and DStv are suffering at the hands of the market. It’s okay that we tried and failed. It’s okay that we accept the limitations in the domestic market we find ourselves in. Did it need $1B+ to figure this out?
"Absolutely not. I believe, with my newfound knowledge, that iROKOtv could have reached the same conclusions with $5-10 million versus the $100 million+ we ended up investing.
"In hindsight, streaming wasn’t the winning model for Nollywood in Nigeria. Content, channels, and distribution were.
"With the economics that business had in 2018, we could have shut down iROKOtv and her $5 million/year in losses and either listed it or just had a fantastically profitable business.
"But I was a believer and walked away from millions of dollars in personal liquidity to put it all in to build streaming in Africa.
"My lessons were expensive, and that’s why I am so consistent in telling founders not to over-raise.
~~
https://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2025/6/we-spent-100m-trying-to-win-we-finally-accepted-there-was-no-market-for-paid-services-and-exited-nigeria-businessman-jason-njoku-speaks-on-irokotv-shutdown.html#comments
This dude has a long tale of strong headwinds here.
That business model was hyped up back then BUT now, it's gone belly up.
All businesses models have business cycles though, so, do NOT settle for fancy business models (or product models)... choose wisely for the long-term.
4 Likes 1 Share |
| Mabuggi88: 8:30am On Jun 04 |
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Jason and Mary na waoo
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| iwaeda: 8:30am On Jun 04 |
Nothing is surviving under APC. This dollar floating is another thing. Also people don't follow regulations, people even sell s to their friends. People are too poor to enjoy entertainment.
9 Likes |
| jericco1(m): 8:30am On Jun 04 |
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Only a modicum amount of businesses start and succeed.
It is a scary venture
8 Likes |
| DEXTROVERT: 8:30am On Jun 04 |
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When
Contents
Free movie sites dey
Next
Is
Dstv
I have
More than 2 apps for football streaming
On my android
16 Likes |
| highchief1: 8:30am On Jun 04 |
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| occfx: 8:31am On Jun 04 |
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Who dash am 200m dollars?
1 Like |
| Adewale1603(m): 8:33am On Jun 04 |
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You supposed to have changed and rebranded the name. Name is important in any endeavours. Which one is iroko.
Same way Nigeria will always be in chaos, disarray until they change that country name to another one
1 Like 1 Share |
| Rubyjade: 8:34am On Jun 04 |
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Nigeria business environment is not friendly.
2 Likes |
| erad(m): 8:34am On Jun 04 |
prettytasha:
And one rubbish statistics yesterday is saying stocks increased. When naira has been heavily devalued
Do you expect every company to have positive stock value?
That will be very ignorant and naive.
7 Likes 1 Share |
| casualobserver: 8:34am On Jun 04 |
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He was too early, Nigeria did not have the infrastructure for his project when he launched. Simple!
8 Likes 1 Share |
| Rubyjade: 8:34am On Jun 04 |
DEXTROVERT:
When
Contents
Free movie sites dey
Next
Is
Dstv
I have
More than 2 apps for football streaming
On my android
What's the name of the app?
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| obembet(f): 8:34am On Jun 04 |
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$100M is approximately 160B naira.
Who come dey lie here na
3 Likes |
| Rubyjade: 8:35am On Jun 04 |
casualobserver:
He was too early, Nigeria did not have the infrastructure for his project when he launched. Simple!
Did DStv have the infrastructure when they came to Nigeria?
6 Likes |
| Ichehoke: 8:36am On Jun 04 |
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What a story
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| Westman001: 8:38am On Jun 04 |
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Lessons learned.
3 Likes |
| yesloaded: 8:38am On Jun 04 |
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IROKTV NEVER SHUT DOWN
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| descarado: 8:40am On Jun 04 |
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Subscribed. They show mediocre movies. None is ever full movie. Very hard to navigate. Nigerians in diaspora were using that streaming site but they are so lax to effect new changes and move with the train. Most times, you can't even watch what they claim they have. And they have so little to chose from. So annoying I ended it before the end of one month.
Customer care is zero.
I when diasporians were complaining bitterly about their customer care here. One female name in particular.
They started and thought they have monopoly and did the Nigerian thing. Customers flee. I went back to them again but it was worst. They destroyed themselves. Also, they should have promoted their platform on social media very well.
Although I saw them on youtube, their promotion was archaic. They will show you advert and tell you to them. Phew. Who does that now especially when you are looking for customers. Besides,Nigerian movies are enjoyed by Africans a lot.
26 Likes 5 Shares |
| Konquest: 8:41am On Jun 04 |
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3 Likes 3 Shares |
