iROKO takes Afrobeats to French-speaking African countries

iROKO, a Nigerian entertainment company, is set to launch a music & lifestyle channel dedicated to showing only Nigerian content on Les Bouquets Canal+.

iROKO Music, which will launch across French-speaking Africa on June 20, will play music videos from Afrobeats and Afropop stars.

Viewers will have direct access to video mixes, current hot hits, brand new videos from popular Nigerian artists, throwback VItracks and behind-the-scenes content.

“Afrobeats is the sound of Africa. As we’ve built out our TV audience across the continent, our teams noticed that there were plenty of channels showing a ‘Nigerian music hour’, but nowhere was there a dedicated channel showing Afrobeats 24/7. We live in an on-demand economy – consumers don’t want to wait for that ‘hour’, they want it now,” said Jason Njoku, CEO of iROKO.

“Furthermore, we felt that the sound of Africa deserved a premium content channel all of its own, and when we looked further into the market, we found that music lovers felt the same too. So we’re very excited to be expanding our music offering, in partnership with Canal International+, and bringing Nigerian music to French-speaking Africa on June 20.”

François Deplanck, SVP channels and content of Canal+ International, says, “We reinforce our musical channels’ offer with a channel with a unique positioning and answer our subscribers’ expectations. Indeed, this new channel will please our subscribers for whom music is really important, especially Nigerian Afrobeats”.

The channel will also feature content created by ROK Studios.