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Amazon Prime Video continues to penetrate the African film market. On January 7, the American streaming platform signed its second agreement with a Nigerian production studio.
In the age of digital and new media, the global streaming giants are fighting to control the African market. Following Netflix, which arrived on the continent in 2015 and which offers training to local producers and directors and develops originals African contents, Amazon Prime Video is gradually settling on the continent by signing exclusive contracts with some african production companies.
We want to showcase the very best of Nollywood and authentic African stories to our customers and this groundbreaking deal helps us to achieve that goal.
Ayanna Lonian
After signing a first agreement a few weeks ago with the Nigerian production company Inkblot Studios, Amazon Prime Video has just signed a second agreement with Anthill Studios, a Nigerian production company specializing in the production and post-production of films and recognized as the largest cartoon creation studio in Nigeria. In search of authentic African content, Amazon Prime Video kicked off the year with an exclusive multi-year contract with Anthill Studios. This contract will give the platform the premiere of films produced in the future by the Nigerian studio. This agreement bodes well and demonstrates the promising prospects for Nigerian cinema in particular and African cinema as a whole. An agreement welcomed by Ayanna Lonian, Director of Content Acquisition at Amazon Prime Video : “We are very excited to bring Anthill’s upcoming slates of popular Nollywood movies to Prime Video customers around the world […] We want to showcase the very best of Nollywood and authentic African stories to our customers and this groundbreaking deal helps us to achieve that goal.”
Anthill Studios is a stronghold of Nollywood film production. She has many successes to her credit, including Prophetess(2021), Day of Destiny (2021) and Elevator Baby (2019). As a result, Anthill Founder and Creative Director Niyi Akinmolayan said his production house enjoys exploring genres and “go boldly where most other don’t. […] This is why Amazon Prime Video is the right kind of home for our stories,” he added. “I am really excited because with this licensing deal, we can explore more story ideas, including genres new to Nollywood, like sci-fi and animation, for a global audience.”
Fred Mekono-Ottou (Interns)
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