Proving that the voracious appetite for mobile Video on Demand (VOD) content shows no sign of abating, MobiMedia, the mobile content arm of the Ole! Media Group, today released subscriber figures for its newly launched platform, Jika TV. Dialling into the VOD ‘snacking’ trend, Jika TV has numerous channels that are clearly satisfying consumers’ info and edutainment needs.

MobiMedia’s Jika TV is proving a commercial haven for burgeoning digital content producers too, by providing them with a hub and home for locally created content that can now reach a global audience. Over the past three months, Jika TV has generated an active user base of over 500 000 already. Compare this to the South African subscriber numbers on Netflix and Showmax, and it’s not hard to see why Jika TV is predicting it will have more than 1 million subscribers by the end of 2017.

This phenomenal growth is driven by a variety of content, covering topics such as sports news and round-ups, health and fitness, food, inspirational and religious content, children’s content with Cartoon Network, and more. There is also a wide range of educational content ranging from learning channels for pre- and primary-schoolers through to Life Skills for adults. Furthermore, given the local focus, the language bandwidth includes isiZulu, isiXhosa, Swahili, French and Portuguese.  Many of the channels are animation and expression driven rather than language audio or language dependent, and are thus accessible to multilingual audiences. The content is carried on a number of well-established mobile operator platforms with more joining, including expansion into Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe through the likes of API integrations with Airtel, BBM, MTN, Vodacom and others.

“The uptake in the service by operators and consumers has been tremendous, as has the interest from the content providers whom we assist in monetising their content” says MobiMedia Managing Director, Tim Legg (who is also co-Founder and chairman of the Ole! Media Group). “We have been predicting the rise in consumption of video on demand (VOD) for some time, but these numbers are factual evidence that the ‘snacking’ trend for visual content is increasing, and will do so for some time.

“Providing a showcase for local content is one of the most important elements in the MobiMedia offering, as it means not only do we have unique content for our audiences, but we are also able to open opportunities for local content creators to distribute and monetise their work. However, having said that, we are also carrying international content that resonates with local audiences. As our penetration and distribution network grows, we are expanding our content offering as well as the audiences to whom it is exposed.”

The complete list of channels on Jika TV are:

1. KidsTV
2. AnimalTV
3. CarTV
4. CelebTV
5. ExtremeTV
6. FoodTV
7. SoccerTV
8. LifeTV
9. FitnessTV 
10. PlanetTV 
11. EntrepreneurTV 
12. FootballerslivesTV 
13. LifeskillsTV 
14. BabeTV
15. MusicTV
16. BusinessTV
17. GodTV
18. WorldCupTV
19. SportsTV
20. GamesTV

Responsible for Mobile Content Partner relationships, Brendt Brookes is always on the lookout for exciting new content services, whilst Dave Morris drives the distribution partner relationships, which ensure access to audiences and the broadest coverage possible. Local content creators looking for a way to broadcast, distribute and monetise their content can contactbrendt.brookes@mobimedia.co.za , and publishers, brands or networks on the lookout for fresh content should contact david.morris@mobimedia.co.za for more information.