South Africa's newest video-on-demand streaming service, CineMagic, is now available to millions of cellular users via telecommunication companies Vodacom and MTN's mobile content platforms, its founder said on Thursday.
The service, launched last month by local company Exceptional Rights, provides mobile users access to short-form video movies as well as series and documentaries that are designed for smaller mobile screens, ranging from five to 30 minutes in duration.
“There is an un-met consumer demand for short movies that display beautifully on mobile,” Exceptional Rights managing director Joanne Raphael Katz said.
"The support from the mobile networks recognises the confidence they have in CineMagic’s snackable little movies and the fact that South African mobile users want video designed for their cellular devices and not for traditional TV broadcast."
Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company Ericsson this week predicted that about 76 percent of global wireless bandwidth would be used for video delivery by 2025.
In its latest annual Ericsson Mobility Report it said video traffic in mobile networks would grow by around 30 percent annually during the next five years, driven by the increase of embedded video in many online applications and the growth of video-on-demand streaming services.
According to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, smartphone penetration in South Africa is currently over 92 percent, a statistic which augurs well for streaming services.
Data shows that over 22 million local consumers use their mobile phones to access the internet.
Raphael-Katz said there were very few movie studios globally dedicated to producing short movies and series.
"This means we proactively procure content from individual companies, film makers, producers and artists," she said, adding that before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company had actively visited African and European film festivals to source short movies.
CineMagic has already found much support from established and emerging South African and African film makers and is encouraging local creative talent to submit their films for consideration.
The company plans to extend its South African footprint to other sub-Saharan African countries and even has a broad range of French short form content secured for Francophone African territories.