When the COVID-19 pandemic pressured the world indoors in 2020, streaming audiences went attempting to find extra than sitcoms and Marvel reruns. Documentaries—lengthy a second-class citizen within the streaming world— moved quietly to the entrance row.
Now, a startup out of Aba, southeastern Nigeria—as soon as an epicenter of Nollywood’s DVD distribution increase—thinks it has the reply for the following part of that demand.
OptimalVid, based in 2024 by Reward Igwe and a small group of engineers and content material junkies, is betting {that a} devoted documentary streaming platform—with cheaper, smarter, and extra versatile entry—can carve out a spot within the crowded streaming universe. It’s a dangerous thought. However generally, the very best concepts are.
With a deliberate app rollout later this month, OptimalVid will enable customers to stream documentary content material for $2 monthly. In contrast to many platforms, customers will have the ability to pause their subscription—a characteristic constructed for fluctuating financial realities.
“Let’s say you’ve used your subscription for 15 days, however you recognize you received’t be streaming for the following few days. With OptimalVid, you’ll be able to pause your subscription for 3, 5, or 7 days so that you don’t lose worth throughout downtime. It’s a method to ensure your fee stretches additional, particularly when life will get in the best way,” Igwe, CEO and Co-founder of the startup mentioned in an interview.”
Nonetheless, customers can not pause for greater than 10 days in a 30-day billing cycle.
At launch, the platform will supply royalty-free and free-to-air documentaries. Over time, it plans to license premium titles from content material marketplaces like All Rights and Filmhub, the place offers could be made for as little as $500 for 100 titles monthly.
A distinct segment that’s rising quicker than you assume
Documentaries are nonetheless very area of interest, however a rising one. Based on current projections by Market Analysis Future, a knowledge and intelligence agency, the worldwide marketplace for documentary movies and exhibits will nearly double by 2034, from $4.83 billion in 2025 to $8.95 billion. Extra importantly, viewers behaviour is shifting: extra viewers, notably post-pandemic, are searching for nonfiction content material that informs as a lot because it entertains.
“Folks need to study now, not simply escape,” Igwe mentioned. “They need content material that’s not simply made-up tales.”
OptimalVid’s gamble is that it might probably serve this evolving urge for food higher than the present behemoths who function on this area of interest streaming house. But it surely’s an extended highway, and the competitors is brutal.
Gamers like CuriosityStream (with over 25 million subscribers), Kanopy, and DocuBay already dominate the area of interest with deeper pockets and broader libraries. On the African continent, AfriDocs gives free streaming of African and worldwide documentaries. And looming over everybody are platforms like YouTube and Netflix, the place documentary content material is both free or produced at a blockbuster scale.
The enterprise mannequin and the true take a look at
OptimalVid is betting that decrease costs (a $2 launch subscription, and a subsequent $5 charge monthly) and subscription pausing—a not often supplied characteristic—will make it sticky amongst cost-conscious customers. Its early technique is easy: begin with low-cost licensing, construct an viewers, elevate capital, and finally spend money on unique rights and authentic productions.
The startup is presently elevating a $1.5 million seed spherical to bankroll this imaginative and prescient, with funds earmarked for content material licensing, cloud infrastructure, and modest group scaling.
Nonetheless, constructing a world streaming platform from Aba faces main challenges. Nigeria’s streaming market remains to be small. Netflix estimated in 2023 that South Africa had nearly seven instances extra streaming clients than Nigeria—1.1 million versus 169,600.
This reality will not be misplaced on Igwe; he’s constructing OptimalVid for world attain, echoing strikes by Nigerian streaming pioneers like IrokoTV. In 2020, IrokoTV CEO Jason Njoku introduced a pivot away from Africa-focused development to worldwide markets with larger client spending.
However reaching a world viewers means competing with better-funded platforms that may spend closely on authentic content material, a confirmed development driver for streaming platforms. Netflix, for instance, allotted a big chunk of its $17 billion content material price range for 2024 to originals and added a file 19 million new subscribers after releasing hits just like the second season of Squid Sport.
Betting on a wiser display
OptimalVid’s early strikes—lean licensing, versatile subscriptions, and global-first design—are sensible bets for a scrappy startup. However surviving within the brutal economics of streaming will take greater than good concepts. With out unique content material, the platform dangers changing into simply another choice in an ocean of free and premium providers.
Nonetheless, the timing feels proper. The demand for nonfiction storytelling is swelling, and audiences in every single place are searching for new voices and smarter display time. If streaming’s subsequent huge shift comes from an sudden nook of the world, it wouldn’t be the primary time.
“We’ll give attention to our personal documentaries for now, and we hope to take action for a very long time. Sooner or later once we change into class kings on this business, we would lengthen to different industries,” Igwe mentioned.
