When Jason Njoku launched iROKOtv in 2011, backed by global venture giant Tiger Global, the dream was big: to build Africa’s version of Netflix. With Nollywood content at its core and a massive Nigerian market to serve, it seemed like a no-brainer investment. Fourteen years and over $100 million later, Njoku now calls that bet a mistake.
In a brutally honest post that has gone viral, Njoku opens up about the journey of iROKOtv — from being a bold pioneer to becoming a cautionary tale about overestimating market readiness and underestimating structural challenges.
The Billion-Dollar Bet on African Streaming
Back in 2010-2011, streaming was exploding globally. Tiger Global had invested early in Netflix, and their thesis extended to other emerging markets. They bet on IVI in Russia, YY in China, Netmovies in Brazil — and iROKOtv in Nigeria.
The logic was sound: Africa had a massive appetite for content, and Nollywood was one of the largest movie industries in the world. But streaming, as Njoku reveals, is a scale and infrastructure game — two things Africa’s biggest economy wasn’t quite ready for.
The Nigerian Market: Too Early, Too Costly
At launch, iROKOtv faced barriers that were more than just technical. Data costs were astronomical. Payment systems were clunky. Bandwidth was unreliable. Four years after launch, iROKO still hadn’t entered the local market meaningfully. They focused on the diaspora instead, where users had better access to internet and were willing to pay for Nigerian content.
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By 2015, with a solid content library and $35 million raised, Njoku and his team doubled down on Nigeria. Over the next several years, they would pour more than $100 million into the effort — and still not win.
“We weren’t really losing either,” Njoku says. “We were just there. In full survival mode.”
The Brutal Cost of Survival
Streaming in Nigeria, Njoku discovered, wasn’t about having the best product or the most content. It was about raw survival in a hostile business environment. Competitors like Netflix, Amazon, Showmax, and Iflix poured over a billion dollars combined into African markets. Still, nobody emerged as the clear winner.
Marketing costs were high. Content was expensive. Payments and conversions remained low. And the fundamental issue: Nigerians, with a GDP per capita of around $2,000, simply couldn’t sustain a $5/month subscription model.
By 2019, iROKOtv had reached a breaking point. Investors were losing faith. When Njoku went out to raise $10-20 million to scale further, all interest shifted to ROK — iROKO’s production and distribution arm that had clear contracts with platforms like DStv and SKY, fewer employees, and significantly better margins.
The Real Business Was ROK, Not iROKOtv
In 2019, iROKO sold a majority stake in ROK Studios to French media giant Canal+ for $25 million. That sale represented a turning point. It became clear that ROK, with just 30 staff and healthy EBITA margins of 35-40%, was the real engine behind the iROKO brand.
By contrast, iROKOtv was burning over $5 million annually.
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The painful realisation? The streaming dream was simply not viable in Nigeria — not because of poor execution, but because the market itself wasn’t economically structured to sustain it.
Exit and Reflection: “The Market Won”
By 2023, iROKOtv exited Nigeria completely, having stopped processing Naira payments. Njoku’s conclusion is sobering:
“As I humbly survey the wreckage of the last 15 years of streaming in Nigeria… it’s clear this wasn’t even a question of capital.”
He points to other failures, including Kobo360, another startup that raised tens of millions but failed to overcome market realities.
Njoku’s advice now? Don’t over-raise. Understand your unit economics. And above all, respect the realities of your market.
Lessons for African Entrepreneurs
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Product-Market Fit Is Not Enough – Even great products fail if the economic conditions don’t support them.
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Over-Capitalization Can Be Dangerous – Big money doesn’t fix broken markets.
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Localisation and Infrastructure Matter – Without payment systems, affordable data, and stable infrastructure, scaling digital businesses remains a massive challenge in many African countries.
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Content Still Wins, But in the Right Channels – Traditional platforms like DStv offered a better business model for Nollywood content than streaming platforms did.
Final Thoughts
Jason Njoku’s story is one of vision, courage, and brutal honesty. For entrepreneurs in Africa, it’s a reminder that timing, infrastructure, and real-world economics can make or break even the most visionary ideas.
At Bizna Kenya, we celebrate bold entrepreneurship, but we also echo Njoku’s call for realism. As the continent’s tech ecosystem matures, stories like iROKOtv’s offer invaluable insights on what it really takes to build for Africa — not from Silicon Valley assumptions, but from the ground up.
