MTN’s new streaming service, which the telecommunications group has partnered with Synamedia to develop, will focus on the curation of local content within each of its markets in Africa.

Speaking at a media event on Thursday, group CEO Ralph Mupita said the operator will not necessarily invest in a production studio to create content itself, but instead source content befitting its strategy and target audience from local producers in each market.

The service has already been piloted in Nigeria, MTN’s largest market by revenue and customers, with plans to expand to the rest of the group’s portfolio already in the works. Mupita said MTN’s decision to start with Nigeria was influenced by that country’s “vibrant” film and music industry, where a lot of content is produced that is not available on major platforms.

“We are not developing the content ourselves and we not creating what we call a production studio, but let’s think of it as curating local content,” said Mupita.

“With Nigeria TV, the content we source is not currently on major platforms, so we are just taking it to our customers. We have 80 million Nigerians who are our daily customers and we’re bringing them the flavour that they like.”

Mupita said MTN’s strategy is not to compete with Netflix and other international streaming services.

He said the platform’s aim is to exist alongside other services by providing unique content to its users, which is why local content curation is critical to MTN’s strategy. Each operating market where MTN launches the service will have its own unique offering.