South Africa’s successful streaming service that makes no money

Despite not generating any direct revenue, civil rights organisation Afriforum regards its online video streaming service as a success.

AfriforumTV was launched on the web in April 2022, offering a handful of documentaries, news, current affairs, live school sports, podcasts, lifestyle and children’s programmes.

At launch, Afriforum CEO Kallie Kriel said the streaming service was a logical next step for Afriforum and its parent, the Solidarity Movement, towards achieving their goal of establishing community self-reliance and independent institutions.

“AfriForumTV offers an independent platform for new voices to convey a variety of messages and offer a wider choice to viewers,” said Kriel.

In addition to a web platform, AfriforumTV also has an Android and iOS app.

The service is completely free but requires users to sign up with an email address and phone number.

AfriforumTV producer Louis Gagiano told MyBroadband the service had amassed 166,000 sign-ups by early September 2024 and continued to grow, with more people subscribing daily.

Google Play Store’s statistics show that the Android app had been downloaded over 50,000 times in the roughly two and half years since AfriforumTV launched.

The organisation said one of its major achievements was keeping the service free of charge while expanding its content offering.

“We have successfully collaborated with other people and companies to provide a wider variety of content to our viewers,” Afriforum said.

Running a video streaming service requires large amounts of data storage and processing power, which can be significantly expensive.

While AfriforumTV makes no money through subscriptions or advertising, it serves as an additional channel for reaching potential Afriforum members.

The AfriforumTV website includes a button that allows users to sign up for membership or make a once-off or monthly donation.

“We believe the service has had a significant impact on AfriForum’s membership growth, but it is hard to measure,” said Gagiano.

“Most of AfriForum’s 300,000 members did not join after one specific action or event.”

“Typically, the broad range of actions we take over time persuades people to join.” The positive impact can, however, be measured by the fact that more than 160,000 people have already subscribed to AfriForumTV.”

Free for the foreseeable future

With around 300,000 members contributing a minimum of R50 each per month, Afriforum is making around R15 million, part of which can go towards funding AfriforumTV’s operations.

Gagiano said there were no plans to monetise the service with subscription revenue, but it was open to companies and advertisers to partner with and help it grow the platform.

He told MyBroadband that AfriforumTV aimed to be a place where people can speak, watch, and enjoy Afrikaans continuously.

“Our culture is deeply entwined with music, theatre, braai, sport and television and creating a platform where people can enjoy that is very important for us,” Gagiano said.

MyBroadband also asked Gagiano about what content on AfriforumTV was proving the most popular.

“Although people are very different, we try and provide a variety of programs for each person,” he said.

Gagiano said the most watched shows were Orkney Snork Nie, for which AfriforumTV also filmed a reunion episode bringing together many of the series’ actors.

Other hit Afrikaans oldies include Vetkoek Paleis, Koöperasie Stories, and Jabie, to name a few.

AfriforumTV has also produced popular original content, including Byt en Buskruit, Blits Bulletin, and Kleine Griet.

Gagiano said they planned to launch more content in 2024 and next year.

These include a travel show with Afrikaans socialite Katinka Oosthuizen, a food and talk program with Spoegwolf brothers Danie and Moskou du Toit, a hiking show with actress Anré Bouguenon, and a new feature film.