Internet TV service iFlix embraces local content

Are you the type who likes to consume a lot of entertainment but cannot seem to constantly find the 50 bob to buy endless amounts of DVDs every week?

I mean, let's be real – you know that either the DVD guy doesn't have what you want to watch, or you've watched everything he has and had to go back to buy the episode he missed – or, quite simply, you've run out of money.

Well, iFlix, a new entrant into the paid TV market, promises to solve this problem for you – as well as assuage your guilt over the fact that piracy is – well...stealing, right? But that's another post for another day!

iFlix is an international brand with a local focus, and they already have 23 territories within Africa. Kenyans do love their TV and consumer content, so I suppose it was only logical to come here next, if not first.

Sure, it sounds like Netflix, but there are a few marked differences.

'We don't see [Netflix] as competition at all,' said the Kenya Country Manager Paul Coogan at the launch last week. For one, iFlix charges you the price of five DVDs for a month-long subscription – and you get the first month free. That's right – for 260 bob, you have access to a lot more than what your DVD guy can give you, for a lot less.

The monthly fee gives five devices in one household access, which is one more than Netflix's most expensive package. In the words of the Marketing Manager for iFlix East Africa, Bernice Macharia,

'Don't be stingy, because we're not.'

One of my favourite things about what the brand promises is to encourage local content – which we all know needs all the help we can get.

Already, Kenyan shows and movies such as Mbithi Masya and Mugambi Nthiga's Kati Kati (a reflective movie about the place between heaven and hell, right before your afterlife) are showing on the platform.

I can't wait to see what content they're going to source for, and I'm sure it'll be brilliant.

You can sign up for iFlix on their website (iflix.com). Let's play indeed!