Patchy Lenses: Ethiopia’s Film Industry Plays Catch Up to Streaming, Digital Distribution

When Tigist, a London-based Ethiopian with a background in law and marketing, sat down to watch a movie after a long workday ten years back, she found herself frustrated. The films she found failed to capture the type of stories she longed for, tales from back home told with the polish of a Scorsese flick. Together with two friends, one from IT and another with a medical and entrepreneurial background, she decided to build a digital space where Ethiopian films could thrive and reach a global audience.

That impulse led to the creation of HabeshaView. Founded a decade ago in Virginia as a free app for diaspora night owls, it has grown into a subscription OTT platform with offices in London, Addis Ababa, and the Netherlands. The service hosts Amharic films, international titles, children’s content, music, audiobooks, and live news. Its early years were shaped by trial and error, technological upgrades, and growing demand from both diaspora and local viewers once payment solutions became available in Ethiopia.

“We started with a simple idea,” Tigist recalled. “We wanted to watch a good movie without compromising on quality. Over time, it became clear there was an audience, and a need, for Ethiopian stories delivered professionally.”

HabeshaView’s approach to rights and distribution was deliberate. Filmmakers could negotiate revenue sharing, royalty arrangements, or sell their rights outright. Early hesitation gave way to collaboration as the platform proved it could reach audiences worldwide. Subscriptions now operate on a tiered model. International users can choose daily, monthly, or annual packages, while domestic viewers can pay per film or subscribe daily (75 Birr) or monthly at silver (150 Birr) and gold (300 Birr) levels. Locally, the per-film option remains most popular. Abroad, long-term subscriptions dominate. The platform serves audiences across Android and iOS, with subscribers growing daily in countries including the UK, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and parts of the Middle East. Mobile payment solutions like Telebirr in Ethiopia and M-PESA in Kenya finally removed one of the last hurdles to local expansion, enabling convenient payments for films.

Beyond streaming, HabeshaView has worked to raise awareness of Ethiopian cinema internationally. For the past decade, it has hosted the Ethiopian Film Festival in London, giving Amharic films exposure to global audiences and providing a networking platform for local filmmakers. The platform has also partnered with Star Alliance airlines to screen films in-flight and launched a script lab with Disruptor Creative Hub and Sewmehon Films to mentor emerging Ethiopian screenwriters.

Tigist sees cinema as more than entertainment. To her, it is a cultural ambassador. “If we want our stories recognized globally, we need investment, both public and private, to help tell them,” she said. Historic works like Hirut Abatua Manew?, Ethiopia’s first feature film from 1965, were restored and screened at festivals in London and Malta, highlighting the nation’s cinematic heritage.

The platform’s tenth anniversary marked another milestone, its first awards ceremony recognizing excellence in acting, directing, writing, cinematography, makeup, and producing, judged by an international panel.

While HabeshaView is among the first few platforms to offer subscription and streaming, the industry is beginning to embrace the digital shift more broadly. 

Traditional theaters are no longer the only path to audiences. Veteran filmmaker Tewodros Teshome described this moment as a critical turning point. “We might have started late, but this is the perfect time as Ethiopia grows in digital transformation.” He cautioned against low-quality, free streaming services that misrepresent the country’s cinema, adding pragmatically, “We don’t need many streaming platforms. Resources for producing films are limited. Instead of competing in a small market, we should focus on strengthening what we have.”

Other filmmakers share this concern. Sewmehon Yismaw (Somick) warns that too many platforms could create unsustainable demand for content that the industry cannot yet supply. 

“We can’t produce in bulk to satisfy all these new streaming services,” he told Shega. 

For a few movie makers in Ethiopia, digital exposure has brought unprecedented reach, even with just a handful of well-developed streaming apps. Affini, a film exploring the traditional reconciliation system of the Sidama people, became the first Ethiopian film to screen twice at the New African Film Festival in the United States. Producer Yeaya and director Tariku Mekonnen credit HabeshaView for much of this recognition.

“We have made 13 movies, but this is the first time we have received this level of recognition,” Yeaya said.

HabeshaView is not the only platform streaming local movies. Last year, state-owned Ethio Telecom partnered with Eaglelion Systems Technology to launch Tele TV, allowing users to rent selected films and pay through Telebirr. Access tickets range from 100 Birr. ARTS PLUS, launching under ARTS TV in partnership with fintech firm Arfipay, is set to be latest entrant merging distribution with production. Its tiered model offers freemium access to children’s programming and premium packages for theater plays, documentaries, series, concerts, and exclusive films. ARTS PLUS will integrate JAMI, allowing viewers to tip filmmakers directly.

“Traditional media is becoming digital,” said Rafatoel Worku, ARTS TV’s COO. “Our goal is to produce original works and become a gateway for African cinema.”

Nearly all players in Ethiopia's media ecosystem have began blending digital distribution with local content to expand market reach. Pay-TV giants like DStv's Abol TV funnel cash into channels and co-prods, while free-to-air EBS, ARTS TV, Kana TV and ETV brew original series. It's less cutthroat, more chorus, a renaissance where local lore leaps borders sans Hollywood middlemen

Yet most audiences still turn to YouTube for movies, where low-cost Amharic films rack up hundreds of thousands of views, often enough to cover production costs. The rapid expansion of mobile internet coverage has allowed millions to watch movies online, but very few are willing or can afford to pay for it.

For actor-producer Solomon Bogale, YouTube is not a threat but a discovery space for young talent. “We owe YouTube movies for keeping the industry spirit alive during COVID, when we couldn’t actively make movies,” he said.

Platforms like Sodere have offered a mix of content stretching across websites, mobile apps and YouTube for about as long as Habeshaview. The website hosting thousands of pieces of content including movies offers annual and monthly subscriptions starting at 11.99$. Despite reaching nearly 5 million users, the platform competes in a space where several outlets put out movies for free. Many similar platforms have come and disappeared over the past decade. Insiders note that many streaming platforms function primarily as distributors rather than producers. Without investing in content creation, platforms risk stagnation, as films often end up on YouTube with little rotation, limiting exposure and growth. 

The most competitive offerings to subscription-based streaming come from channels posting recently released films for free. 

Ethiopian broadcasters have also remained cautious about launching streaming apps, often opting to share content for free on YouTube rather than compete with global giants like Netflix. Nazrawi Gheberselassie, CEO of Kana TV, explained a few of the barriers recently on Substack. High delivery costs, expensive bandwidth, and low average revenue per user make subscription video services financially unsustainable across Africa. “The harsh mathematics reveal that in streaming, more African viewers truly means more losses, not more profits,” he wrote.

Ethiopia's movie industry is at a crossroads. Physical theaters remain with a rapidly declining audience base. Digital platforms could fill in the gaps, but they struggle to keep up with the abundance of free film sites and the logistics of streaming.

For the country’s filmmakers, the challenge is no longer simply reaching viewers. It is creating stories worthy of the screens, cultivating resources, and embracing the digital era without sacrificing cultural authenticity.

“We started with one idea: to watch one good movie,” Tigist said. “Now, the question is, how do we make the world watch ours?”