Africin: What Zimbabwe's New Streaming App Offers, and What It Costs

There is a new place to watch Zimbabwean films, and it was built here. Africin is a streaming app for African cinema, with local movies and series, live premieres and downloads for watching offline. It has been around since July, but most people will have first heard of it in the last few weeks, as its makers started promoting it more widely. This is a possible answer to our previous article on Zimbabwean Film.

Here is what is on it, how it works, what it costs, and what it will need to get right.

What Africin is

Africin describes itself as an app-first streaming service. You can browse the catalogue at africin.tv, but you watch everything in the mobile app, which is on Google Play and the App Store.

The platform launched officially on 4 July at the premiere of the Zimbabwean feature film "Sizolobola: The Solemnity" at Ster-Kinekor, Joina City, according to earGROUND, which described the night as the start of a push to take Zimbabwean stories to audiences around the world.

In an interview with 263Chat in September, Africin's marketing and communications manager Nyaradzo Nhongonhema said the idea was to fix two problems at once: filmmakers struggle to find audiences and earn from their work, and audiences hear about local films but have no easy way to watch them. She was clear about the ambition. "Zimbabwe is where we start. Africa is the bigger story," she said. She also pointed to Zimbabweans abroad as a key audience, people the app can connect to home without a trip back.

What's on it

Right now the catalogue is small and entirely Zimbabwean. Africin's browse page lists five titles:

• "Two Families Apart" (2026), a six-episode series about a couple whose wedding is threatened by old family wounds. Its poster credits ZBC TV Productions and College Central, with Derby Bheta directing.
• "Madlela Comes Home" (2025), a 15-episode drama about a man deported from South Africa who returns to find his sister living with a boyfriend he can't stand.
• "Sizolobola: The Solemnity" (2026), the feature whose premiere launched the app, a love story between two young people from different ethnic backgrounds whose families have old grievances to settle. Its cast includes Madam Boss and Exult Ncube.
• "Ngoda" (2023), an action film set during the 2006 diamond rush, about brothers who turn to illegal mining to buy back their family's land.
• "Poor Cousins" (2021), about two cousins pulled into temptation after escaping their past for a life of privilege.

Africin says more titles are coming, and its pages carry a "More titles coming soon" note.

How it works

The app's Play Store listing sets out the main features:

• Offline downloads, so you can save a film and watch it later without using data, which matters when data is expensive.
• Pre-orders, so you can pay for an upcoming premiere and have it unlock as soon as it drops.
• Live events, paid access to premiere screenings, festivals and concerts streamed in real time. Africin's Live page had no events listed when we checked, though a Techzim post in September advertised an Africin Spinners Bulawayo Chapter event on 3 October.
• A watchlist, resume playback, and sign-in with email or Google.

What it costs, and what changed

This is where things have moved quickly. A sponsored Techzim post on 26 September told readers Africin lets you "pay per movie", so you are "not locked into a monthly subscription". 263Chat's interview the same week also described a pay-to-watch model, where the app is free and you pay for what you watch.

Africin's website now offers three monthly plans instead, and says each one unlocks the whole catalogue:

The Premium plan also promises priority access to new releases. The app's latest update, on 5 October, mentions a "smoother subscription checkout", which suggests the switch is recent.

Pay-per-view hasn't disappeared completely. Africin's help page says premieres and pay-per-view events are bought or pre-ordered inside the app, while the plan boxes say every plan includes live events, so which events need a separate ticket is not yet spelled out. The website also doesn't say which payment methods the app accepts, so check in the app before you sign up.

What it will need to get right

More to watch. Five titles is a start, not a library. At US$2.99 a month or more, subscribers will expect new releases often enough to keep paying, and the plan model only works if there is a steady flow of them. This is a chance for content creators to move to packing their content for platforms like this and build their audiences to potentially reach the region and the rest of Africa, something we are really hoping is the future of this platform.

Data. Offline downloads are one of Africin's best ideas for Zimbabwe, but the cheapest plan doesn't include them. The people most likely to choose a US$2.99 plan are often the ones for whom data costs matter most.

Filmmakers' share. Africin pitches itself as a way for filmmakers to earn from their work, but hasn't said publicly how revenue is split with them, probably something in the works as they sign on more content producers. That will decide how much new work it attracts.

Staying power. Streaming in Africa is expensive to run. Even Showmax, backed by MultiChoice, was shut down on 30 April this year after a strategic review, with its shows moved to DStv Stream, News24 and IOL reported. A Zimbabwean start-up with five titles is a very different business, with far lower costs, but the lesson about growing an audience fast enough to pay for content applies to everyone.

The opportunity is real, though. Zimbabwean filmmakers have long struggled to get their work in front of paying audiences, as Nhongonhema told 263Chat, and the National Arts Council's Zimbabwe Film Strategy 2025 to 2030, launched in November 2024, lists markets and distribution channels among its nine pillars. A home-grown app that makes it easy to pay for a Zimbabwean film, here or abroad, is the kind of channel that strategy is asking for.

If you want to try it, the app is free to download. Browse the catalogue at africin.tv first to see whether there is enough on it for you yet.

Sources

• Africin Wants to Put Zimbabwean Stories On the Global Streaming Stage, 263Chat via allAfrica
• Zimbabwean Film SIZOLOBOLA Set for Premiere as New Streaming Platform AFRICIN Launches, earGROUND
• Africin, official site, browse and plans pages
• Africin, Google Play listing
• Techzim on Africin (sponsored post), X
• Showmax to shutter 30 April 2026, News24
• MultiChoice pulls the plug on Showmax after strategic review, IOL
• Zimbabwe Film Strategy 2025-2030 launched, IFACCA