Can the Afrinolly Marketplace curb Nollywood piracy?

Piracy is a massive problem for entertainment distributors around the world, and Nigeria is no exception. In fact, some sources suggest that Nollywood loses around US$38-million a year to piracy.

In a bid to curb the worst of its effects, Afrinolly has launched Afrinolly MarketPlace; a pay per view, secured mobile platform for the distribution of Nollywood/African movies, Short films, Series and more to GSM users in Nigeria and the rest of the world.

The marketplace is the latest addition to the Afrinolly app and is designed to allow producers and creators in Africa to offer their content via mobile phones and get paid for it without fear of piracy.

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“This is an exciting moment for Nollywood and the African film industry as we launch the Afrinolly MarketPlace; an African solution to the challenge of piracy. A challenge largely ignored by established video streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Videos, YouTube Red and others. At Afrinolly, we believe African producers should be able to earn more from their contents and African entertainment enthusiasts should have access to these contents without the risk of piracy.” said Chike Maduegbuna, CEO of Afrinolly Limited.

Users will be able to view content on the marketplace both via the Afrinolly’s mobile site and via the app, with the company saying it’s made efforts to keep the video viewing experience consistent regardless of device or platform used.

“We implemented multi-platform DRM technology and video optimization solutions using industry standards so contents are protected on the Afrinolly platform and we introduced carrier billing (Recharge Pay) so users can pay for contents using airtime via their mobile network.” said Tope Omotunde, CTO of Afrinolly Limited.

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For N100, users in Nigeria will be able to watch a movie while a short film is N50. GSM subscribers on MTN Nigeria network can pay for content via their airtime, while Airtel network subscribers should also be able to do so in the coming weeks. Users in other parts of the world would pay 99¢ for a movie via in app payment systems.

“Afrinolly is powered by our Dynamic Transcoding Technology, which helps in identifying data speed of our users so as to be able to deliver smooth video viewing experience regardless of network or device type,” says Omotunde. “Our App is backed by our Intelligent Prediction Technology that recognizes a user’s video content preference based on their region, past contents watched, search they have conducted and device used.”

The app is available on Blackberry, Android, and Windows Phone.