Jason Njoku opens up on IrokoTV’s struggles, denies shutdown claim

Jason Njoku, the CEO of IrokoTV, has opened up on the online movie-streaming platform’s rough journey in the past years.

In a recent article published on his website, Njoku said in 2019, he had the option to close the company and distribute the remaining cash to shareholders but chose to reinvest in IrokoTV.

The media executive said the past three years have been “brutal,” having to deal with “debt restructuring, cost reductions, and completing the turnaround of iROKOtv”.

“Anyhow, when Iroko exited ROK in 2019, I had the opportunity to exit too, and at the time, even Bastian asked if it made sense to continue struggling away. After all, wasn’t it always about liquidity? I could close iROKOtv down, distribute the remaining cash to shareholders, and walk out into early semi-retirement. The story could have ended there. Maybe it was a mid-life crisis,” he added.

“For some strange reason, I still felt I had plenty of fight left. I knew what I knew, and I knew who we wanted to become.

“So we defocused on customer acquisition and productising Africa and just reverted to where 80% of our revenues were coming from; North America and Western Europe. We were back in survival mode. We needed a turnaround, but turnarounds aren’t rapid.”

He said despite the company’s challenges, international was always the revenue driver, adding that “89% of 2023 revenues are non-African”.

“We were in sustainable revenue. International was always the revenue driver – 89% of 2023 revenues are non-African,” he said.

In 2020, iROKOtv sacked 150 staff as part of its resizing process.

Speaking on the “article referencing disgruntled employees who were let go”, Njoku said they were “NEVER actual Iroko employees; they were employed by Ikenga, an agency, to manage paid campaigns for Iroko”.