What MTN One TV is

MTN Group began rolling out MTN One TV in June 2026, describing it as a service designed to make digital video content more accessible across its African markets. The group said it combines local storytelling, live channels, international programming and market-specific viewing options. [1]

How viewers get in depends on the market. MTN listed free-to-view content, advertising-funded experiences, pay-as-you-watch access and subscription offerings, with payment through airtime, Mobile Money and other locally supported methods where they are available. [1]

BusinessDay put the scale of the bet in numbers. MTN reported 307.2 million subscribers at the end of 2025 and has operations in 16 African countries, where the service will be rolled out gradually under the group’s Ambition 2030 strategy. [2]

The paper also linked the launch to a partnership with the video technology company Synamedia, announced in April 2025. [2]

Read together, those details describe something different from the subscription giants most viewers know. One TV is less a single product than a menu of ways in, shaped market by market. That matters because it mirrors how many people already pay for mobile services: in small amounts, when they need them, from a balance they already hold. [1]

It also explains the gradual rollout. A service that has to fit local prices, local payment habits and local content cannot be switched on everywhere at once. Each market is effectively its own launch, which is why the details for viewers and creators in one country may look different from those next door. [2]

The mix of live channels and local and international programmes points the same way. Live channels keep people coming back at set times; a range of shows gives them something to watch in between. Putting both behind the same payment options is an attempt to make One TV a habit rather than an occasional download. [1]

Why creators are part of the pitch

MTN framed One TV as more than a viewing app. The group said it creates new opportunities for African creators, broadcasters, advertisers and ecosystem partners to reach wider audiences, by leveraging the scale of its connectivity, fintech and digital capabilities. [1]

Selorm Adadevoh, MTN Group’s chief commercial, strategy and transformation officer, said entertainment is increasingly becoming an important gateway to digital participation. [1]

That last line is the strategic heart of the launch. For a telecom group, entertainment is not only something to sell. It is a reason for people to use more data, open more digital wallets and stay inside one company’s services for longer. Creators supply the reason to come back. [1]

What MTN can offer creators in return is the part of the business it already controls. Most streaming services have to persuade viewers to hand over card details. A telecom operator already has a billing relationship with its customers and, in many markets, a mobile wallet attached to it. If that turns small payments into easy ones, it removes one of the biggest frictions between local work and local money. [1]

Distribution is the other half of the offer. A creator who publishes on a platform built into a large mobile network is, at least in principle, one tap away from that network’s customers. Whether that reach turns into viewing depends on how prominently local work is placed, how it is recommended and what it costs viewers to watch. [1]

Advertisers are the third side of the arrangement. MTN named them alongside creators and broadcasters, and the free and advertising-funded tiers depend on them. A platform that can offer brands a large mobile audience has a pitch of its own; one that cannot will struggle to pay anyone. [1]

The pitch window for producers

The first concrete creator-facing move came in September. BusinessDay reported that MTN One TV announced on September 16, 2026 a call for established African producers and production companies to pitch film and television projects that are rooted locally but can reach audiences beyond their home markets. [3]

Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Zambia are the four priority markets, and the target audiences are viewers aged 18 to 34 alongside the mass market. MTN is not looking for finished films to broadcast; selected applicants pitch their projects directly to the platform. [3]

Two pitch opportunities were on offer: one at the Durban FilmMart, with a September 28 deadline, and one at MIP Africa during FAME Week Africa, with applications closing on October 5. The call sought limited series, scripted and unscripted series, micro-dramas and feature films. [3]

The terms are strict. Applicants must work through registered production companies, lead producers need at least seven years of professional industry experience, and submitting or pitching a project does not guarantee a commission. Shortlisted teams pay their own travel and attendance costs. [3]

Ghana’s place on that short list is the clearest signal of where MTN expects local production to matter first. Priority markets are where a platform is most likely to spend on new work, and where producers have the best chance of their ideas being commissioned rather than merely heard. [3]

The rules also show who this round is for. Seven years of professional experience and a registered company rule out most of the individual creators who have built audiences on social platforms. This is a call for established producers who can deliver series and films at a professional standard, not an open door for anyone with a following. [3]

The formats are telling too. Micro-dramas sit alongside feature films and full series on the list, which suggests MTN expects at least some viewing to happen in short bursts on phones. That is a format where social-first creators have real skills, even if this particular call is pitched at established companies. [3]

The no-guarantee clause deserves a plain reading. Being invited to pitch is an invitation to a conversation, not a contract. Producers who apply are spending time and money on the chance of a deal, so the real measure of the call will be how many projects MTN goes on to commission, and on what terms. [3]

The last time MTN tried streaming

MTN has been here before. BusinessDay noted that the group first entered the video streaming market in 2014 with FrontRow, later renamed VU, which was discontinued in 2017, and that its music service, MusicTime, had only modest success. [2]

The paper argued that the market has changed since then. [2]

The earlier attempt is a useful warning rather than a verdict. A big network and a recognisable brand were not enough to keep a video service alive the first time. What is different now, on MTN’s own account, is the emphasis on flexible payment, mixed access models and partners who make content, not just on a library of shows. [1] [2]

That shift puts creators and producers closer to the centre of the plan. A streaming service lives or dies on whether people find something they want to watch. If MTN can make local work easier to discover and easier to pay for, it has a reason to exist that its first attempt did not. [1]

There is a reputational point as well. Producers and partners remember which platforms stayed and which ones left. A second retreat from video would make the next call for pitches harder to answer, so MTN is also asking the industry to trust that, this time, it will stay. [2]

What could still get in the way

The obstacles are familiar. BusinessDay pointed to content licensing costs that continue to rise, uneven broadband access and consumer spending squeezed by inflation. [2]

Each of those problems lands on creators as well as on MTN. Rising licensing costs push platforms to favour cheaper local work, which can be an opportunity, but also a reason to pay less for it. Uneven connectivity limits how many people can watch video comfortably. Squeezed budgets make viewers choosier about what they spend money on. [2]

The access models carry their own trade-off. Free and advertising-funded tiers can bring in large audiences, but the money for creators then depends on advertising, which can be thin in a market where budgets are under pressure. Pay-as-you-watch and subscriptions bring in more per viewer, but fewer viewers. How MTN splits revenue with the people who make the content has not been set out in the launch material. [1]

There is also the question of attention. Every local film or series on One TV competes with everything else on the same phone. A platform can lower the cost of watching, but it cannot make people care. That part still depends on the work itself. [1]

For creators used to publishing on free social platforms, One TV also has to offer something those platforms do not: a clearer route to payment at home, a more prominent place for local work, or both. Without that, it will struggle to pull creators away from the audiences they have already built elsewhere. [1]

What to watch next

The first test is commissions. The pitch rounds in Durban and at FAME Week Africa will show whether MTN is ready to pay for new work in its priority markets, including Ghana and Nigeria, or whether the call stays a showcase. [3]

The second is terms. Creators will want to know how revenue from advertising, single views and subscriptions is shared, who owns the rights to what they make, and how long deals last. Those details will matter more than any launch event. [1]

The third is the viewer experience in each market. A service built on local payment and local content will only work if signing up, paying and finding something to watch is simple on an ordinary phone and an ordinary data plan. [1]

Ghana is worth watching closely. As one of the four priority markets, it is where MTN has the most reason to show that local production can work on its platform. The projects it backs there, and how prominently they are promoted, will say a lot about whether creators are partners in the business or simply part of the catalogue. [3]

If MTN gets those things right, One TV could become a real outlet for African producers and, in time, for the creators coming up behind them. If it does not, it risks repeating the lesson of its first attempt: that owning the network is not the same as owning the audience. [2]

Published 10 October 2026 · Updated 15 October 2026 · By Creator & Streaming Desk. Read our editorial standards.