Nigeria-based media company IROKO has big plans to go public in the next year on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market. Founded in 2011 by Jason Njoku and Bastian Gotter, IROKO is a West African film streaming service that showcases an extensive catalog of Nollywood film content. It was rumored that the company planned to go public back in 2019, but after a few mishaps and having to weather business through the coronavirus pandemic, talks of IROKO going public are back on the table. “What we can achieve in private, we can equally achieve as a public company. We will likely open up the IPO to our loyal members too so they can capture the value too, which I am super excited about. One thing about IROKO is that we have always been pioneers and we’re okay being super experimental,” Njoku told TechCrunch. “I plan to open-source the entire process so any other African company coming behind — if we’re successful — will benefit from our experience.” This is such a big step...

The year of 2020 is when streaming services took over and it looks like their epic reign will continue throughout 2021. UMC — the Black-focused streaming service created by BET founder Robert L. Johnson — announced plans to launch a rebrand under the name “ALLBLK” in January 2021 to ramp up on Black TV and film content. This first quarter launch will find the streaming service debuting a premium look and feel for ALLBLK as it’s scheduled to produce a robust slate of original series next year – including the previously announced multi-cam comedy, “Millennials”; MC Lyte sitcom, “Partners In Rhyme”; legal drama,”Lace”; haircare makeover series, “My Mane Problem”; and the Datari Turner/eOne reality series, “Notorious Queens.” UMC was initially created as a first-to-market subscription streaming service focused primarily on targeting Black audiences, with dedicated content for and by Black people. “UMC began as a distribution model for Black creatives to directly reach the then largely...

It’s no secret that streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have transformed the film industry. These services have become such huge competitors that the Academy allegedly considered changing the Oscars requirements to make it harder for streaming service originals to qualify. Now, the Department of Justice is stepping in to warn the Academy that altering the rules could raise antitrust concerns, according to Variety. “In the event that the Academy — an association that includes multiple competitors in its membership — establishes certain eligibility requirements for the Oscars that eliminate competition without procompetitive justification, such conduct may raise antitrust concerns,” Chief of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division Makan Delrahim said in a letter to the Academy. The DOJ cited rules against competitors making anticompetitive agreements and said that excluding streaming services from the Academy could negatively impact their sales. Director Steven Spielberg was among those...