
Afrostream is shutting down - MrGrillet
http://www.okayafrica.com/culture-2/afrostream-ending-tonje-bakang/
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majani
I've always wondered whether VOD is an inherently unsustainable business
model. The big daddy in the space charges $8-12 per month yet people regularly
watch upwards of 10 movies per month on the service. That's less than $1 per
movie?! Also, this forces anyone doing a similar business to charge even less
than that to break into the market, so there reaches a point where we're
talking fractions of pennies per movie on some services. How is any of this
sustainable given the massive cost of acquiring the content in the first
place, and is there any VOD service with healthy profits that you can point me
to?

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sp332
Once you've acquired the content, the marginal cost of a view is very low. So
it makes sense to get as many customers as possible even if that means
charging a lot less per view. And the stability of subscription income is nice
too. I'm sure there are lots of people who have a $10/mo subscription going
for years who hardly use the service at all.

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toast0
I haven't seen any data for video content, but I imagine some content is pay
$$$ to steam to as many users for a limited time, but much of it is probably
pay $$$ to be able to stream it, plus $ each time it is streamed. And I
imagine some deals are based on a share of revenue. I wouldn't be surprised if
content was significantly more expensive than bandwidth.

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40acres
I've never heard of this product but it's sad to see it not work out. There is
a huge gap when it comes to black media representation in the United States
specifically and I believe it will be a huge opportunity to whoever can tap
into it's potential. Black millennials in particular are such a driver of
culture in America it's surprising to see how little they are catered to in
terms of product. Especially in regards to social media, the impact of Black
Twitter is well documented. Also, for anyone who used Vine it seemed like
Black creators were really the base of the content that Vine was known for.

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mikeh1010
Yes agreed. I'd also argue that black millennials (and younger) aren't just
drivers of culture, they're also tech early adopters! Vine is a great example,
Worldstar is a somewhat notorious example, BlackPlanet... those are just off
the top of my head.

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T2_t2
> Let’s take the example of an African-American independent or Nigerian film
> (Nollywood) at € 3,000 per year of use.

What about giving away shares for content? I mean, if Afrostream gave away X%
of the shares, in return for the rights to content outside the home country,
the cost of content reduces to close to zero, and the money spent on
operations and marketing starts to approach 100%.

This is a far less than ideal model, to be sure, but then, the company closing
is a lot worse! Shares are worth nothing until there is a liquidation event,
so maybe the play is to get the content providers to become shareholders?

I could see a play where content providers that have content worth essentially
nothing (unless there is a marketplace for streaming Nollywood in the west I
am unaware of {which is indeed extremely possible}) but for which they may be
able to grow a market that, over time, has value. That seems like a win-win,
or at least a no-lose-no-lose, situation.

Is that not worth pursuing?

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Geekette
As some comments imply it was strength of or "approach to diversity" in the
market that caused the failure, it should be noted the post outlined: What
caused Afrostream to close is not lack of traction or market demand but lack
of capital. The more subscribers gained, the more content thus, more funding
required. The VOD industry has high operating costs (content acquisition,
marketing, localization, tech, etc) and a longer breakeven timeline (note
cited examples of other much bigger but not yet profitable companies including
Netflix). Afrostream addressed a sizable but ignored niche with demand
demonstrated in user growth and it is unfortunate that they couldn't get more
funding.

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microcolonel
> _" Diversity is a business opportunity"_

No it's not, few people care about what skin colour the characters in a work
of entertainment have, unless it is fundamental to the plot or an aspect of
the source material. At very least, they do not care enough to self-segregate
and bear separately the cost of producing an entirely different set of works
of entertainment which are of competitive quality.

No untainted mind watches _Game of Thrones_ and thinks "You know, it's weird
that this fiction styled after old Europe is full of white people.". Nobody
watches _Narcos_ and thinks "You know, it's weird that this fiction set in
Colombia is full of Mestizos and white latins". Nobody watches _Big Brother
Africa_ and thinks "You know, it's weird that this reality game show set in
sub-Saharan Africa is full of sub-Saharan Africans".

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great_idea
> No it's not, few people care about what skin colour the characters in a work
> of entertainment have, unless it is fundamental to the plot or an aspect of
> the source material. At very least, they do not care enough to self-
> segregate and bear separately the cost of producing an entirely different
> set of works of entertainment which are of competitive quality.

Do you have any evidence to support this ridiculous claim? Two of the largest
movies of the year (Get Out and Girls Trip) are predominantly black produced.
The issue is getting Hollywood to fund such ventures, not demand for them.

> No untainted mind watches Game of Thrones and thinks "You know, it's weird
> that this fiction styled after old Europe is full of white people.".

Actually, people _do_ say this. It's a completely fictional universe, and even
if it wasn't written into the source material, the show creators could have
made an effort to ensure that it wasn't so eurocentric, at least by casting.
No such luck. The main representations of people of color that I remember—the
sand vipers—were hands down the worst part of the entire show so far. You
think people don't notice this shit? What kind of bubble do you live in?
People care that they see people _who look and talk like them_ on TV. Everyone
else in game of thrones speaks with out of place ethnic accents; way to screw
over everyone but the danes and the brits.

Finally, I'd just like to point out that diversity increases the strength of
TV shows. If you watch Friends, it's like they were living in this tiny bubble
that only existed in NYC coffee shops. Their world is nearly unrecognizable to
me despite having lived in the same city about the same age. Had they had any
diversity on the show, maybe it would stand the test of time better. Now it
just looks dated and white as fuck—way whiter than you'll ever find in NYC.

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microcolonel
> _Do you have any evidence to support this ridiculous claim? Two of the
> largest movies of the year (Get Out and Girls Trip) are predominantly black
> produced._

It's a bit silly to say that _Get Out_ was successful _because_ it was "black
produced"; it was clearly well written and produced, it stands on its own
merits.

> _Had they had any diversity on the show, maybe it would stand the test of
> time better. Now it just looks dated and white as fuck—way whiter than you
> 'll ever find in NYC._

Who cares? I live in Toronto, and my Panjabi, Mumbaikar, and southeast Chinese
flatmates are thoroughly entertained when they put on _Friends_.

They're of clear mind, so they're not thinking "what's with all these white
people?", they're thinking "LoL, that definitely wouldn't cure a hangover, so
it's funny that they depict it as doing so; LoL, Joey is factually oblivious
but really has his finger to the pulse when it comes to people, how
charming!".

When I watch a Japanese or Korean drama with a friend, or a Hindi movie with
my flatmates, I'm not thinking "what's with all these coloureds on my TV?".

