Ericsson is jumping into the fray with the likes of Netflix and Hulu with the launch of its own subscription video-on-demand service called NuVu.
But at first, Ericsson won’t be competing in the established North American SVOD market. NuVu will launch in the first quarter of 2016 in Nigeria as part of a partnership with Airtel Nigeria.
Airtel Nigeria’s 30 million subscribers will, for a monthly fee, be able to access about 3,000 local and international TV and film titles including Hollywood and Nollywood movies, TV shows, kids content, music, gospel and educational titles.
Ericsson said it’s currently working on more details with distributors in order to grow NuVu’s on-demand library.
NuVu subscribers will also be able download content directly to their smartphones and tablets during off-peak network hours without incurring data costs.
NuVu’s end-to-end content service technology was developed by Ericsson and will be integrated into the operator’s customer relationship management and payment systems. Ericsson says NuVu’s built-in ability to distribute content to consumers during off-peak periods can help minimize data costs for both operator and consumer, and address cost challenges that may have slowed video-on-demand uptake in Africa.
At first, NuVu will launch as an Android app for smartphones but Ericsson is promising to roll out the service on other platforms and operating systems.
“Africa has some of the highest mobile adoption rates globally, with ever-increasing levels of investment and infrastructure. However, downloading is currently preferred to streaming due to connectivity issues. We believe there is a huge opportunity to open a window to a world of content through mobile devices that may not otherwise be easily accessible,” Thorsten Sauer, Head of Broadcast and Media Services at Ericsson, said in a statement.
“As one of the largest operators across Africa and the third-largest mobile operator in the world, Airtel is the perfect partner to help us launch NuVu. We are very proud to launch NuVu in Africa and we look forward to rolling out this service to other markets over the coming year.”
Ericsson’s push into SVOD comes as the company’s latest mobile traffic predictions forecast a 10-fold explosion in mobile data traffic by 2021, driven largely by increasing video consumption.