Streaming giant, Netflix, has officially announced its presence in Nigeria with a Nigerian Twitter account launched on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the platform took fans by surprise when the tweet: “Naija how far,” surfaced from @Netflixnaija.
Netflix is an American streaming platform whose primary business is its subscription-based streaming service, which offers online streaming of a library of films and television programmes, including those produced in-house.
As of April 2019, Netflix had over 148 million paid subscriptions worldwide, including 60 million in the US.
There are over 154 million subscriptions in total, including free trials.
Announcing the new Twitter account, Netflix posted a picture of Nollywood stars, including Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Banky Wellington and Akin Omotoso.
The picture also included Kemi Adetiba, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Kunle Afolayan, Kate Henshaw, Omoni Oboli and Mo Abudu.
It tweeted from @Netflixnaija: “N is for Naija. N is for Nollywood. N is the 14th alphabet. 14 is also how many great talents you’re looking at. N is for Netflix. But most importantly…hello, Nigeria!”
Following the announcement, Nigerians welcomed the platform and urged it to commission more films that reflect African stories.
@Owen_osarugbe said: “Purchase the rights to all Ali and Pawpaw movies. In fact, all old Nollywood movies from the last 20 years. Those are the classics!”
@Nwandizzle tweeted: “Should we take this to mean that we should be expecting more Naija Netflix originals?”
@Daposalami said: “Anyways, let’s wait for Netflix originals from Naija. If at all that’s even in the plans.”
NAN reports that the first hint Netflix would have more active interest in original African content came in May when it advertised for a director of content acquisition for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
In October 2016, nine months after the launch in Africa, it also deployed a dedicated server in Nigeria to ease the difficulties of content delivery for its local users.
In 2019, Netflix put its $8 billion original production budget to work in Nigeria’s Nollywood movie industry when it purchased the worldwide rights to: “LionHeart,” a film Directed by Genevive Nnaji.
