Northern Nigerian Hausa-language channel Arewa24 is launching Arewa24On Demand, a new global subscription video-on-demand and OTT streaming service. Russell Southwood spoke to Arewa24 CEO Jacob Arback about why it launched the service and what is planned.
The idea for launching a VoD and OTT streaming service has been in Arewa24’s strategic roadmap for a long-time: Our goal was to unite Hausa speakers on a TV platform in the north, then expand to the rest of Nigeria, then out to the Hausa diaspora. We were waiting to get a critical mass of library content with the quality standards needed to compete internationally.”
Arback describes the new service as “Netflix for Hausa content”, which means that it has all the genres of that global service, including drama, music, sports and so on. There will be no advertising and users will get unlimited access for US$4.99 a month and US$48 a year.
Launched at the end of October, it will be available from Arewa24’s website and there are iOS and Android apps available. Google Play shows that there have already been 500,000+ downloads of the app. It will also be available on Roku and Amazon Prime and over time through several other platforms.
“The strategy is to upload the content free on YouTube with a transition message saying that users will need to move over to the new channels by 21st November. We want to start with early adopter fans in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the USA and Europe.” He sees the service as a way of avoiding having an expensive satellite service to reach these diaspora fans.
Arewa24 is working closely with independent producers in the north that Arback says has “wonderful writers and storytellers. All they need is capital, says Arback, to grow like Nollywood in the south of the country:”We are working with a couple of producers, producing special features where they talk about their films.”
Its content strategy is very much focused around original scripted drama produced by the channel. Titles include thriller 90 Days and popular long-running drama Dadin Kowa, the channel’s first sitcom produced through an independent production house:”We will script another original drama next year. Hausa speakers love dramas. They very hyper-local but with high production values.”
In addition, there will be all the other content on the channel including: its hip-hop programmes, its breakfast and cooking shows, its kids content and sports (including round-ups of the EPL and big leagues from London, dubbed into Hausa). There will also be a shorts section including animation, comedy, skits and short films:”We have one show where the social media team go out and ask people stupid questions.”
How much will the new service be affected by connectivity challenges?:”The service is first and foremost targeting Hausa speakers outside Nigeria who want culturally appropriate entertainment. We’re a very specific niche channel for a particular diaspora community: a rough estimate indicates there are 8-10 million of them with the largest communities in Saudi Arabia and Sudan. It will be available in Northern Nigeria and will have a feature that adjusts to the speed of the connection available.”
How many subscribers does he think it will have in 2-3 years time?:”I couldn’t tell you. We have 50 million YouTube viewers but we’re taking a big leap investing in this. We need to deliver fresh content every day, every week. We want to produce 11-12 shows every day and it makes sense to have another distribution channel to let others see it.”
What level of investment has gone into it?:”For our channel, it’s a big investment but in a global context, it’s probably quite reasonable.” It wanted to get in before someone got in ahead of them:”It all starts with content. We probably have 45,000 hours. Only half will go on the app as the later work was of higher quality.”
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AREWA24 Celebrates 7th anniversary with largest slate of new programming ever
28 June 2021 – AREWA24, the leading Hausa language entertainment and lifestyle television channel and production studio in Nigeria and West Africa, celebrates its 7th anniversary by giving its viewers the largest slate of new Hausa-language programming in the channel’s history. AREWA24’s new slate of programming debuts in July, with new original dramas, a new women’s talk show, new kids’ “edutainment” series, fresh football shows alongside AREWA24’s other popular hit dramas and studio shows. Many of these new shows will also be immediately available on AREWA24 On Demand, the channel’s global subscription-video-on-demand service connecting Hausa speaking families around the world to Northern Nigerian entertainment, culture and lifestyle. New seasons of AREWA24’s original runaway hit drama series, Kwana Casa’in and Dadin Kowa, are currently in production and will premier in October.
AREWA24’s new slate of programs leads with three new Hausa dramas: Buka Afrikana, an ensemble situation-comedy set in a local Nigerian Middle Belt diner, or “Buka.” Labarna-Season-3, the newest season of one of the most popular Northern Nigerian hit drama series and Sirrin Boye, a new Hausa mystery and crime drama. Also launching in July is AREWA24’s new ground-breaking women’s talk show, “Mata A Yau” (Today’s Woman”), featuring four dynamic co-hosts from different backgrounds and ages, openly discussing important issues women are currently facing today in Northern Nigeria.
AREWA24’s CEO, Jacob Arback, reflecting on the company’s growth over the past seven years, gives all the credit to the company’s management and staff and to the tremendous talent in the Northern Nigerian television, media and creative arts sectors. “Many people don’t realize that there are over 80M Hausa speakers in Northern Nigeria and the Sahel, and the region is bursting everywhere with young talent. Arback adds, “what I am most proud of, however, is how our management and staff, comprised of such diverse Nigerian backgrounds, ethnicities, tribes, religions and geographics, can all gather as a team in Kano, Nigeria, to produce some of the best programming coming out of Africa today.”
AREWA24 is also expanding its kids’ entertainment and education programming in July, dubbing into Hausa for the first time ever the multi-award winning “Sesame Street Friends,” with all of your favorite Sesame Street characters, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. Also debuting in Hausa on AREWA24 is Super Sema, the first African kids’ superhero animated series about an ordinary young girl on an extraordinary mission to protect her African village from a heartless villain and his army of pesky robots. The Oscar-winning actress, Lupita Nyong’o, is a voice actress on the Super Sema series and is also a partner in the Nairobi-based Super Sema production company, Kukua. Keeping our avid Nigerian football fans happy, AREWA24 is rounding out its July new program launches with two new football series: “Homage, and “Perfection.”
ABOUT AREWA24: AREWA24 and its production arm, AREWA24 Productions, was launched in 2014 to fill a glaring void of authentic, locally-produced and high-quality Hausa language entertainment and lifestyle programming that reflects pride in Northern Nigerian life, culture, music, film, art, cooking and sports. Today, AREWA24 reaches 40+ million Hausa speakers in Nigeria and West Africa through its Eutelsat satellite free-to-air broadcast, on the StarTimes payTV bouquet (channel#138) the two Multichoice payTV platforms, DStv (channel #261) and GOtv (channel #101), the payTV platform TSTV (#361) and on the Canal+ payTV service (channel #285) in Niger, Chad and Cameroun. AREWA24 benefits from active audience engagement across its digital platforms at AREWA24.com, facebook.com/AREWA24, and Instagram.com/AREWA24channel.
To subscribe to the global streaming service, AREWA24 ON DEMAND, go to http://tv.arewa24.com or download the app from the IOS App Store, Google Play, Apple TV, Roku Channel Store and Amazon Fire TV.
For additional information please contact: info@arewa24.com
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AREWA24 Launches new slate of Q4 Programming, hires top executives
AREWA24, the leading Hausa language entertainment and lifestyle channel in
Nigeria, announces a slate of new premium programming for Q4 and Q1 2019, including the launch of the channel’s much-anticipated new original Hausa drama series in January, complementing its current long-running and award-winning series, “Dadin Kowa.” The ambitious new drama series is currently in production, and is expected to set a new standard for originality and quality in Hausa language television production.
AREWA24’s new slate of programs launching in October includes “Amo Daga Arewa.” This primetime music series features live performances and interviews with the incredibly talented musicians from across the North, including traditional music genres, as well as R&B, soul and religious. “Amo Daga Arewa” brings together the more traditional elements of the rich Northern Nigerian music culture, adding to
AREWA24’s already popular Hip Hop programs.
Re-launching in the fourth quarter with a brand new format and hosts, “Matasa@360” is a contemporary, street-wise and relevant youth show, focusing on the talent, innovation, and creativity of Northern Nigerian youth. The show also addresses the very real challenges facing young people in the region and the pressures they experience on a daily basis. The show’s regular featured segments explore how Northern Nigerian youth navigate daily life, relationships, media, entrepreneurship, performing arts, current affairs, campus life, technology and other areas that youth from all over the world can relate to.
AREWA24 has also green-lit a fourth season of “Haske: Matan Arewa,” featuring the dynamic women from Northern Nigeria as they tell their stories intimately and passionately. Breaking social and cultural barriers to becoming leaders, traders, teachers, entrepreneurs, rural activists, filmmakers and more, these amazing women share their successes, their struggles, their disappointments and their triumphs.
Rounding out AREWA24’s new Q4 programming lineup are dozens of Kannywood’s newest and best films from the industry’s top directors, producers and actors. AREWA24 now rivals any channel in the region when it comes to showcasing the most and the best Kannywood films. The channel has also licensed new shows for young viewers who watch its popular morning and afternoon Children’s block.
AREWA24 also announces two major executive programming and production hires at its Kano studio: Kadiri Yusef and Evans Ejiogu, each of whom brings their long experience and stellar track records in the Lagos television and media sector to Kano.Kadiri Yusef is a veteran executive of the programming and production staff at Silverbird Television, where he worked from 2004 to 2017. Kadiri became Silverbird’s Head of Television Production in 2006 where he directed most of Silverbird’s flagship shows, and all of its live broadcast programs. At AREWA24, Kadiri is in charge of directing all of the channel’s diverse studio-based shows and formats.
Evans Ejiogu has been a successful television content creator, producer, director, writer and video editor.
Along with his programming and production experience across formats and genres, Evans also brings to AREWA24 his extensive commercial skills honed from a decade in the corporate communications and advertising sectors. Evans’ work in theatre, television drama, short films, commercial production, radio and online digital content, helps raise the overall level of expertise and production quality at AREWA24.
Says Jacob Arback, AREWA24’s CEO, “we are very fortunate to have programming executives of such caliber and professional pedigree working at AREWA24. Evans and Kadiri are not only contributing to our already high performing programming staff and raising the channel’s production values, they are also helping to grow and further professionalize Northern Nigeria’s television and media sector.”
ABOUT AREWA24: AREWA24 was launched in 2014 to fill a glaring void of locally-produced Hausa language entertainment and lifestyle programming that reflects pride in Northern Nigerian life, culture, music, film, art, cooking and sports. Today, AREWA24 is available to over 80 million Hausa speakers in Nigeria and West Africa through its Eutelsat satellite free-to-air broadcast, and, in Nigeria, on the StarTimes pay bouquet (channel#138), on the StarTimes DTH satellite platform (channel#538) and on the two Multichoice pay platforms, DStv (channel #261) and GOtv (channel #101). AREWA24’s original productions are also uploaded weekly to youtube.com/AREWA24channel, and the channel benefits from active audience engagement across its digital platforms at AREWA24.com, facebook.com/AREWA24,
Instagram.com/AREWA24channel, and twitter.com/AREWA24channel.
For additional information please contact: info@arewa24.com. -
AREWA24 Broadcasts DW’s “77 Percent” In Hausa Language
“The 77 Percent” – a TV magazine show by DW targeted at the youth segment – has been adapted for broadcast in Hausa Language by Nigeria’s TV Channel AREWA24. According to the press briefing from the programme sponsors, AREWA24 will broadcast the show in Hausa during its primetime line-up.
“The 77 Percent” as a show acquired its name from the percentage of Sub-Saharan Africans younger than 35 years old, and it is designed to showcase their life experiences with “personal stories about key issues they face”. The programme, a 30 minutes show, has only been shown in English and Portuguese.
Jacob Arback, the CEO of AREWA24, commenting on the acquisition of the show, said: “Adding The 77 Percent to our primetime line-up is a tremendous opportunity for AREWA24 to showcase real issues, challenges and success stories from youth in all parts of the continent. We’re proud and excited to partner with DW and to take this top-quality production to our Hausa speaking youth and their families.”
DW Director Programs for Africa, Claus Stacher, commenting on the show reaching its 50th edition this month, said: “Our format is perceived by the young target group as cool, constructive and authentically African. The pan-African, conversational and solution-oriented approach gives extra value for our digital, radio and TV partners in the region.” We are confident that this partnership with the like of AREWA24 will open more doors to further collaborations.”
Source: DW.COM
