Edgar Obare’s BNN Premium Hailed as a Model for Content Monetisation in Kenya
BNN Premium, the members-only Telegram channel Edgar Obare launched on Wednesday, February 16, 2022, is being held up as a blueprint for how African creators can earn directly from their audiences.
In an episode published on February 23, 2022, Creator Podcast, a show from the Kenyan creator platform creator.co.ke, spent its full twenty minutes on the platform under the title “How Edgar Obare’s BNN Premium Is Likely To Shape Content Monetisation In Kenya & Africa In General.” The episode description calls Edgar “Kenya’s top entertainment media guru” and says he “seems to have cracked the code to making money via his premium telegram account.”
From YouTube to Telegram
Host Sebastian traced Edgar’s path from travel and reaction videos on YouTube to celebrity news built on screenshots sent in by followers, which broke through with his story on Jalang’o. To publish breaking stories faster, Edgar moved to Instagram, where repeated takedowns forced him to rebuild from scratch. He then moved his core audience to Telegram, using Instagram as a pipeline into a free BNN channel that, the host said, had passed 110,000 subscribers.
A paywall without leaving Telegram
According to the podcast, Edgar first asked followers whether they would rather donate or pay for a premium channel. He then launched BNN Premium at KSh 100 a month.
The host read out a Facebook post reporting that the channel had signed up 4,000 paying members in a little under four days, and projecting that it could approach 10,000, about a tenth of the free channel. “Whatever you think of him, Edgar has revolutionized the art of commercializing social media spaces in this country,” the post said.
Why it works
The podcast singled out three things. Subscribers pay without leaving an app they already use. Edgar found a way to take M-Pesa payments for a Telegram channel, even though Telegram has no built-in M-Pesa support. And Telegram’s restrictions on screenshots and screen recording make premium content harder to pirate than a link on YouTube or Patreon. The low price, the host argued, makes paying an easy decision for fans.
The episode closed by urging other Kenyan creators, naming the likes of Crazy Kennar, Flaqo, Abel Mutua and Lynn Ngugi, to build communities that value their work and to put part of it behind a paywall.
The launch follows a run of recognition for Edgar, including Blogger Influencer of the Year at the 2021 Pulse Influencer Awards, a place in the Top 25 Men in Digital 2021, the People’s Choice Award at the Africa Digital Influencer Awards and NRG Fan Fave Blogger of the Year 2020.
Update: BNN Premium’s prices have changed since launch. A month now costs KES 349; see BNN Premium for current plans.
Sources: Creator Podcast, February 23, 2022
