Molotov, which launched its services in Côte d'Ivoire three weeks ago, plans to expand reach to all french-speaking African countries, and to the entire EMEA zone in the long run.
French OTT platform Molotov TV has announced its entry into the African continent with the launch of regional versions in seven new markets. The service will be made available to prospective consumers in Senegal later this month, Cameroon in February, Burkina Faso in March, Tunisia in April, and Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the course of the semester.
In Africa, Molotov will optimise its applications to take into account regional specificities (low bandrates, unstable connections, low-performance terminals), keeping in mind heavy smartphone/tablet usage. Payment solutions will be offered by Digital Virgo. A per-day payment system will be put into place, provided directly by local mobile operators; credit cards are not required.
Molotov’s line up in new markets consists of fifteen local linear channels, catch-up and on-demand content. The firm has entered into agreements with regional publishers who will provide 30 channels by spring 2021. Mango (the free ad-supported video-on-demand service (AVoD) launched by Molotov in France last November) will bring hundreds of films, documentaries, tv shows and kid’s content to the African platform.
Jean David Blanc, founder and CEO of Molotov, commented: “The international launch of Molotov represents an exciting new milestone expanding our platform and brand throughout the world. Molotov not only helps viewers discover new content but also provides publishers, channels and SVoD services with the ability to be easily discovered and more frequently used.”
Speaking about monetisation of paid offers, Vincent Taradel, Marketing Director of Digital Virgo, added: “The partnership with Molotov allows us to deploy a service with very high added value on the African market. Cloud TV offers growth potential to all players in the content ecosystem, from producer to publisher via telecom operators. But the key element of success is, without a doubt, adaptation to local specificities. This is where we intervene by integrating our payment platform, our ability to integrate local content, adapt technology and launch effective marketing campaigns.”