Amazon Prime Video today announced the launch of the local version of its streaming service in one of Africa’s largest markets: Nigeria. As it did in Southeast Asia a few days ago, the technology giant is trying to increase the push for its customers in new markets such as Africa by increasing its investment in local production, the launch of the original cable. and introducing discounted Amazon Prime membership offers to customers.
Amazon Prime Video was launched in Africa in 2016 as part of a global push in more than 200 countries around the world, leading to serious competition from Netflix’s global plan launched the same year. However, the types of service available in the region have never featured local language integration, subtitles and original content delivery typical of developed markets.
That has changed today in Nigeria and across Africa as the company plans to launch in other markets such as South Africa. In a tweet on its official account, Prime Video Naija, the company said Nigerian consumers can stream over 20,000 TV shows and movies within the ecosystem, such as “The Boys”, “All or nothing,” “Reacher” and “All the Old Knives.” According to its website, the service will cost ₦2,300/month (~$4) after a seven-day trial. So, for the first time, Nigerian users will be able to subscribe to Prime Video using their local currency, unlike how most of them have accessed the platform for region-specific content in the past, they don’t need a VPN to stream. service content.
Prime Video and other streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Canal+ and Showmax are competing for 15 million video-on-demand subscribers by 2026. According to Digital TV Research, an analytics firm, Prime Video has 600,000 subscribers in Africa and may add 1.5 million new subscribers compared to Netflix’s 3 million subscribers in the next four years.
In order to gain more market shares amid the ongoing battle for African content and eyeballs, Prime Video has been partnering with filmmakers and content creators in Nigeria for the production of original and licensed content. The past two months have seen the service make strategic moves, such as closing theatrical production deals with Anthill Studios, Inkblot Productions and Evoke Studios, hiring Insight Publicis as its creative agency and hiring senior executives such as Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu. , head of Nigerian Local Origins, to develop original video content in Nigeria, Africa’s largest film industry.
The first Amazon Prime Video in Nigeria is “Gangs of Lagos,” an original local crime film that follows the lives of three friends as they walk the streets of Isale Eko in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, scheduled to launch at the end of this year.
