US-based African digital broadcaster Africast is in the final stages of creating an IPTV agreement with several US communications companies. The agreement will formally launch an IPTV platform, after securing almost sole rights to digitally broadcast African film and television content.
The beta launch of Africast IPTV platform has the rights to stream 40 channels, from 25 African countries, over an IP platform, says John Sarpong, CEO and founder of Africast.
"At the moment, we are streaming Ghanaian TV channels, Kenya's NTA and Nigeria's Village Square TV channels into several communities within the US."
Content is being transcoded into suitable formats for several devices like mobile phones and laptops in Accra, Ghana, says Sarpong. After being transcoded in Ghana, content is sent to the Africast base station and streamed via communication providers to various subscribers across the US, he says.
Sarpong would not name the US communication providers that Africast was working with, due to commercial reasons.
Afro-centric media
Africast is the brainchild of Ghanaian-born Sarpong. It was created to provide African film and TV content to Africans living outside Africa.
Sarpong says it is important to bring the issues of Africa to the African diaspora.
"It is a case of out of sight, out of mind," says Sarpong, when talking about the lack of Afro-centric media content that the African diaspora consume. "It is not good enough. Africans need to be in touch with issues at home."
ICT publisher Balancing Act recently highlighted a survey conducted by US pollsters Horowitz Associates, showing that 71% of African-born and 22% of African-American respondents, access African content online or on television.
Sarpong estimates a "potential" 10 million-person subscriber base. "Obviously, our market is not bound to the US," emphasises Sarpong. "With broadband capabilities, we can target almost anywhere in the world. With this in mind, we believe there is a potential 36 million subscriber base," he adds.
The company is not solely concentrating on the diaspora, but African citizens who would like to access film and television content in other countries across the continent, says Sarpong.
"IPTV is obviously very broadband-intensive and quite elitist under the circumstances," says Sarpong. The company will eventually target countries within Africa who host sound technological infrastructure.
Africast intends to broker deals with ISPs in Ghana, Nigeria and SA in the near future, to build IPTV channels in the latter, he adds.
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