Restless Global - Africa Strategic Advisory and Content Development

*Africa streaming wars: TF1+ entered the chat*

This month, the streaming wars heated up again, this time over francophone Africa, with the announcement of 2 consequential deals involving 3 behemoths: Netflix, Canal+ and TF1.

We look at what this all means in this edition of HUSTLE & FLOW.

Also: new data from Spotify, why is African fashion so damn expensive, developments in AI, TECNO new deal with CAF, and more.

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STREAMING

It had been quiet for a while on the streaming front since Netflix announced it would cut down on funding originals from Nigeria.

But of course, there’s always some shadow moves - and Netflix surprised us with this one by shifting the gameplay.

🌍 The global streamer announced that it would be boosting its distribution into Francophone Africa by piggy-backing on Canal+’s solid presence in the region.

The two leading players have signed a strategic distribution deal that will see Netflix bundled into Canal+ subscriptions across 24 French-speaking Sub-Saharan countries starting this July.

This is not the first deal of this kind between Netflix and Canal+, but an extension of their existing partnership active in France and Poland since 2019.

So what does this mean in practical terms?

You won’t suddenly start seeing Netflix content on Canal+’s African linear channels.

However, Canal+ subscribers will be able to access the Netflix platform via their existing subscription, without the need for a new log-in.

For customers, this means a streamlined user experience.

🚀 For Netflix, it’s a huge boon: the streamer will now be able to leverage Canal+’s 8-million footprint across Francophone Africa to get in front of potential new users with the proven ability to pay for its service.

By tapping Canal+’s established billing rails, Netflix side-steps the payment friction and data-cost anxiety that typically slow down direct-to-customer rollouts. Also, bundling its content with Canal+ is likely to substantially lower customer churn.

Of course, the deal is great for Canal+ as well.

🔥Adding Netflix to 400+ linear channels (including 28 African ones) and its own VOD catalogue positions the group as the one-stop content gateway on the continent -- just as Canal+ is getting ready to absorb Multichoice.

But that’s not all.

🥐 On the heels of the Canal+/Netflix announcement, we are learning that French commercial broadcaster TF1 has also launched its platform TF1+ in 22 Francophone African countries.

Suddenly, sleepy francophone Africa finds itself the new battleground for the African streaming wars.

What does TF1 bring to the table?

TF1 is France’s top private broadcaster with big flagship programs such as reality shows Koh-Lanta and The Voice, which are well-known by francophone African audiences.

But besides its content, in this race TF1’s biggest weapon is that its VOD service is FREE.

This means that TF1+ and Canal+/Netflix do not quite play in the same league.

👀Canal+ sells a premium universe financed by subscriptions, while TF1+ arrives free of charge with targeted advertising, chasing the mass‑market eyeballs that SVODs struggle to monetise.

TF1’s value proposition is interesting for the market: its brand is familiar, its shows are unifying, and above all, access costs nothing (or close to nothing - there’s always the issue of data costs, but this can be resolved through telco deals).

Of course, Canal+ retains the advantage of sports rights and Netflix distribution, but its proposition targets an audience that is already bankable.

If TF1+ manages to offer a smooth, data-light experience rich in local content, it can capture that large segment of prepaid households that Canal+ reaches less well.

In terms of impact on the African streaming ecosystem, I see two key aspects:

1️⃣ The launch of TF1+ will first legitimize the AVOD model, still under-exploited in the region.

Advertisers will suddenly have a mass alternative to reach a francophone audience, which should push the entire market to refine digital audience measurement.

If this experiment is successful, we could see Netflix and other SVOD streamers learning from it and pushing AVOD options.

2️⃣ On the content side, TF1 will need original films and series to feed the platform.

Looking at Netflix, if its distribution deal with Canal+ brings in a strong enough francophone audience, it could very well motivate the streamer to put more money into local content from the region as well.

This, as we say in French, is “tout benef’” (all upside) for filmmakers in francophone Africa. Time to dust off your pilot scripts and pitch decks.

MUSIC

🎵 More on streaming, but make it music.

Spotify released its latest “Loud & Clear” dashboard, and once again it is full of useful data nuggets:

✅ The money is real, even if it’s still highly concentrated.

Yes, the combined $59 million paid to Nigerian and South-African rights-holders is microscopic compared to Spotify’s $10 billion global payout.

But it represents the steepest year-on-year growth of any region, and that’s something.

✅ The middle tier is maturing.

The number of artists making over ₦10 m ($6,500) / and between R100k-500k ($5,600-$28,300) sharply increased over the past 2-3 years.

This means that sustainable, data-driven careers are emerging beyond superstar level.

✅ Discovery engines favor African genres.

Afrobeats, Amapiano and other regional styles now sit in hundreds of millions of user-generated playlists, fueling both export growth (+49 % NG, +104 % ZA) and local streaming booms (Nigeria local demand +146 %; SA domestic streams +96 %).

✅ Language diversity pays.

In South Africa, non-English tracks are booking triple-digit royalty growth, proving that algorithmic curation no longer penalizes indigenous languages.

Through all this, Spotify is increasingly positioning itself as an enabler for African artists to build sustainable careers, instead of just another DSP.

🤔The question is: how to grow African payouts from their current (and embarrassingly low) less than 1% of the global pie?

The long-term answer will involve the industry rolling up its sleeves to implement major improvements across mobile data costs, payment rails and anti-fraud measures.

FASHION

👜 Why are African goods so damn expensive?

That’s the question MoonLook Africa tried to solve this month in this insightful article.

As Moonlook pointed out, we rarely ask this question about French or Italian products. We accept their premium pricing because we understand the story behind them: craftsmanship, heritage, and excellence.

In the case of African fashion, the truth is that the lack of infrastructure pushes production costs quite high, which means that designers have no choice but to target the luxury segment.

But Moonlook focuses on the perception around African goods and the persistent narrative that they somehow should always be cheap, when the reality is that:

• African-produced pieces are the result of meticulous, patient, sustainable processes

• African artisans master ancestral know-how passed down through generations

• African designers create unique pieces, not mass-produced standardization

• Every item carries a story, a vision, and a level of excellence that can't be compared to standardized products

🧵 While China dominates through massive scale and Portugal combines tradition with optimization, Africa brings something entirely different: authenticity rooted in centuries of craftsmanship.

Moonlook’s take is that -- at least until heavy industry catches up -- Africa shouldn’t compete on cost but on story, rarity, and responsible sourcing.

WHAT’S UP AI

😮 Everyone in Hollywood is using AI.

They’re just hiding it.

This piece from Vulture explores how generative tools are already being used - to write pitches, generate mood boards, cut trailers, and patch budget gaps - all behind closed doors.

If you think that AI hasn’t dramatically impacted the film industry yet, you are fooling yourself.

This is what’s been going on:

➡️ Artists are being asked to “clean up” AI-generated concept art—so it doesn’t look like it came from AI.

➡️ Studios are generating trailers for films they haven’t even shot to secure financing.

➡️ Executives are asking AI to repurpose existing IP into new formats—like anime versions, PG-13 cuts, or entirely new formats.

➡️ Directors are using AI to storyboard multiple versions of a shot—on deadline, without a team.

➡️ Visual effects teams are using AI to simulate explosions, landscapes, and effects, at a fraction of the cost.

Meanwhile in Africa, we are mostly just gisting.

We are starting to see a few initiatives that are encouraging the concrete uptake of AI tools in the African creative and media sectors:

🎬 Obinna Okerekeocha’s Naija AI Film Festival (NAIFF), which will take place in September in Lagos

🔎 TechCabal Insights’ new TCI Market Researcher, an AI tool trained specifically on African market research data. Join the waiting list here: https://insights.techcabal.com/waitlist/

🕵🏾♀️ The Rundown’s AI copilot for reporting in Africa, a master prompt to augment journalists to generate more nuanced, ethical, and accurate stories about the continent, developed by award-winning veteran journalist Zain Verjee: https://rundownstudio.substack.com/p/an-ai-co-pilot-for-reporting-on-africa

But, as I’ve written before, I’m concerned by the lack of urgency I can feel in most conversations on the topic on the continent.

Here’s one stark and personal example of how the arrival of AI has changed the future of some creative sectors:

Once upon a time about 3 years ago, I thought Africa could be the next hotspot for animation outsourcing.

India had established itself as the factory for Hollywood’s animation and VFX busy work in the 1990s by leveraging the labor cost arbitrage. Africa’s turn seemed to be next.

🔢 My equation at the time was:

Tons of creative, hungry, digitally-savvy young people + low labor costs + remote work = the opportunity to create an entirely new industry on the continent.

I had a whole plan for an “Andela for Animation”, which got some smart people interested.

😅 And then… let’s just say that I’m glad I procrastinated for a bit.

Because last year, GenAI entered the scene - and closed that window.

Out of all the sectors being disrupted by AI, animation and VFX is one of the first and hardest hit.

Jeff Katzenberg says that AI will slash movie animation costs by 90 %.

What once required teams of animators can now be accomplished by a couple people through AI-assisted workflows.

This isn't the end of Africa's animation story, but it’s probably the end of service work.

The new playbook:

🏗 For governments and capital allocators: Invest in servers, stable energy sources, and computing power, so Africa is not left behind once again.

🎓 For educators: Launch storyteller academies, not animation bootcamps. Teach narrative design + GenAI tools together.

🎨 For creators: Skip to the part where you do the actual thing. Export finished shows, not CVs or pitch decks.

The future belongs to creators who will combine cultural storytelling with technological fluency.

SPORTS BUSINESS

⚽️ CAF has named Chinese handset maker TECNO its Official Global Partner for AFCON 2025 (Morocco) and 2027 (Kenya/Tanzania/Uganda).

This expands on a first successful partnership during AFCON 2023 in Côte d’Ivoire in which TECNO was the exclusive smartphone sponsor.

Now, the Chinese company is doubling down with field‑renovation pledges (100 pitches by 2028) and deeper digital activations.

The deal is a win-win:

For CAF, locking in a consumer‑tech brand broadens revenue beyond the usual beer‑airline‑bank trio. It also cements AFCON’s rising profile as the biggest entertainment event on the continent.

For TECNO, besides the massive reach and very valuable brand association, AFCON will also give it the opportunity to showcase its new CAMON 40 Series – its latest flagship imaging product and “most advanced AI smartphone ever” - in 54 markets. Sounds interesting.

FINANCING THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

As you know by now, in my recent study for Proparco’s CREA Fund, my team and I profiled 12 successful African creative companies.

This month I showcased 4 more of these companies through individual case studies on LInkedin. If you missed them, you can find them here:

Kana TV - How Four Bold Founders Revolutionized Ethiopian TV

Landmark Center - From “Worthless” land to $200M Empire: The Landmark Center Story

Marodi TV - How a Failing VOD Platform Became a Media Empire in Senegal

Mavin Records - The Secrets behind Mavin’s $200M Deal: The Unlikely Partnership that Cracked the Global Music Code

The vast majority of these success stories are SMEs.

And yet, SMEs often get a bad rap, while tech startups get all the hype.

Why is that? Who decided that one was cool and not the other?

Sure, tech startups are innovative and fast-growing. They’re fixing big issues like payments and logistics. They give us hope in the future.

And so they attract billions in investment - $24 billion over the past 10 years to be exact.

It seems big.

BUT.

🤯 Over the same period, Small and Medium Enterprises in Africa have received roughly $1.3 TRILLION in financing, mostly through bank loans. And, according to MIT Sloan, they would need $300 billion more every year to meet their needs.

Not so small now, are they?

🎨 More than 90% of Creative sector companies are SMEs. They are your production companies, music labels, fashion brands, event management agencies, publishing houses, gaming and animation studios.

Here’s why I find them sexy:

1. They are profitable from day one.

2. They have realistic business models.

3. They create jobs, especially for young people and women.

4. They contribute to local economies.

5. They drive culture and soft power.

So let’s make SMEs sexy again😏

💡If you are a government, a bank, an SME or a micro-PE fund interested in investing in Creative companies, there are models and best practices you can emulate. Send me a DM - I’d be happy to talk.