What the Internet Is Doing to Entertainment in Nigeria
SEUNMANUEL FALEYE
To describe the growth that Entertainment and Media Industry in Nigeria has witnessed in the past 23 years as astronomical would be stating the obvious. Nigeria’s access to the internet and by extension e-commerce has led to a progressive revolution in all areas of life, especially entertainment.
Thanks to technology, entertainment now transcends time and space. The more technology evolved we get; the more entertainment has transformed to become more consumer-friendly.
By its nature, entertainment holds the attention of an audience and give them pleasure. Over the century, we have witnessed entertainment evolve from real-time performances in front of live audiences to instant gratification as a means of communication to big analog boxes of television and radio sets, and then, to personal computer sets and now smart devices.
The future now is Virtual Reality, VR. While cable and dish continue to be popular, consumers now prefer live streaming and subscription on YouTube, Pay-For-Services video providers such as Netflix, Iroko Tv, etc.
The Internet: More of a Blessing Than a Curse?
Nigeria has unfortunately entered the blacklist. Other countries now profile Nigeria as a country with a high rate of cybercrime cases. This is all thanks to a huge crop of Nigerian men who fancy themselves Robin Hoods as they see internet fraud as some sort of reparation for colonialism.
Commenting on the exponential rate of cyber criminality in Nigeria, ICT expert, Bolaji Omodunbi stated that; “In Nigeria today, several internet-assisted crimes known as cybercrimes take place daily in various forms.
“It could be through fraudulent electronic mails, pornography, identity theft, hacking, cyber-harassment, spamming, ATM spoofing, piracy, and phishing.”
But internet access in the country has been a blessing because of the various ways Nigerians can and have put it to use. As at 2008, there was a 90% increase in the number of Nigerian internet users from the year 2001 and that has caused a significant shift.
Businesses in the country have taken their means of communicating and trading with their consumers to the online space. In Nigeria, the fast-growing youth population drives online business transactions, expanding consumer power and increased smartphone penetration.
According to a report by McKinsey, the renowned management consulting firm, “The current e-commerce spending in Nigeria is estimated at $12 billion and is projected to reach $75 billion in revenue per annum by 2025.”
Impact of E-Commerce on Entertainment Industry
E-commerce has had an enormous impact on the entertainment industry in its entirety, eelive.ng finds out. Bamisope Oyeyimika an economist and certified data analyst with FINCOM Nigeria, explains to eelive.ng; “… The impact of E-commerce on the entertainment industry is enormous Nigeria.
“For example, though classified as developing country artistes, managers and producers are employing this device to increase their visibility as well as market their products.”
Corroborating Oyeyimika, Francesca Ojemili, an A&R professional with a Lagos based record label talking to eelive.ng enlightened that; “Music contents are now purchased digitally online as well as ordered in physical forms.
“Independent artistes are able to sell their music through sites like CDbaby, iTunes, Deezer, Spotify, and other local online music distribution sites while you can also purchase tickets for concerts, comedy shows online.”
The movie industry in the country is also not lagging in this development in financial technology, eelive.ng learned. Ayobami Odunlami, a sales representative with a popular cinema distribution platform explained that; “As for our kind of business, we gauge feedback from customers through online platforms.
“We use the internet to advertise new releases, we post trailers online. We even post film schedules online. Customers from the comfort of their homes can see movies showing and at what time.
Our payment systems are likewise automated, and technology-driven. You can either swipe your card to buy movie tickets or pay manually. All of these are e-transactions and e-commerce in the play” he enlightened.
Regarding the online distribution of movie contents, Ugochi Akali, an agent with a Pay-On-Demand platform based in Lagos explained that; “Nollywood is now largely distributed and marketed online.
“A major example is through YouTube channels and collaborations between filmmakers and these online channels like iROKO TV, Ibaka TV, Aforevo, and so on are being hosted on YouTube.”
Speaking further, Akali emphasized the significance of this growth to the industry, she said; “This has practically changed the landscape of film marketing and distribution in Nigeria while global presence and visibility of Nollywood is increasing daily through this process.”
On how E-commerce helps with projection and affecting informed decision making for growth, Olaide Olatemiju a data analyst, whose company, has consulted for some popular show promotion company’s in Nigeria explained this to eelive.ng:
“…E-commerce is a core for all industries, including the leisure industry or entertainment. This is largely so because the millennials are in the heart of this industry, and they are a tech-savvy generation.”
Speaking further, Ola Ola elucidated that; “Access to the huge databases of buyers who bought tickets to theaters, shows, concerts, etc. or are users of movies streaming services will allow the data mining of consumers’ preferences profiles which in turn will result in targeting advertisement and e-mails one-to-one.”
Exponential Growth Predicted
From eelive’s findings, there are predictions that with e-commerce, Nigeria’s music and entertainment industry will continue to lead the rest of Africa. This is according to PriceWaterCoopers (PWC).
The country’s entertainment industry is expected to lead at a projected rate of 21.5% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) between 2018 and 2022, with revenue expected to reach $9.9billion.
This was contained in a report titled, “Global Entertainment and Media outlook: 2018 – 2022 – Trending now: convergence, connections, and trust”. The report released on Wednesday, September 19, 2018.
The Outlook is a comprehensive source of analyses and five-year forecasts of consumer and advertising spending across five countries. The countries in these analyses were South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Tanzania.
It also analyzed 14 segments including internet, data consumption, television, cinema, video games, e-sports, virtual reality, newspaper publishing, magazine publishing, book publishing, business-to-business (b2b), music, out-of-home (OOH) and radio.
Ola Ola takes a similar stance with his prediction. He said, “Over the next five years, digital, especially mobile revenue, will make up more and more of the industry’s income. It will be boosted by big gains in Internet advertising and data consumption.”
Pioneering Online Distribution of Nigerian Movies Globally: The Iroko TV Story
While in London, Jason Njoku, co-founder of Iroko TV, realized the popularity and high demand for Nigerian movies overseas. He also discovered back then that the only chain of distributing these movies then was through the transportation of CDs.
He saw a deficit in the online terrain. The growing worldwide demand for these movies, notwithstanding, they were not available on the internet. This marked Njoku’s foray into what is today known regarded as the ‘Netflix of Africa’.
In 2011, he returned to Nigeria and co-founded Iroko TV; meeting with local movie producers, Njoku negotiated online distribution deals. That was how he stamped his foot in history as a pioneer of online distributor of Nigerian contents and by extension African contents worldwide.
As of today, iRoko TV platform boasts more than 5,000 movies online and attracts more than 10million views monthly. So far, the platform boasts of an active subscriber base of over 500,000 people.
According to Smart Starter, a tech-driven platform, Jason’s Iroko is valued at taking in over $350,000 monthly revenue.
In July 2019, Njoku announced that his ROK TV studio, which is a subsidiary of Iroko TV since 2013, has been sold to French Studio, Canal+ group in what has been described as the biggest media deal ever in the history of Africa.
After the sale, Njoku revealed his plan is to grow subscriber base to one million. Thereafter, he plans to list the platform on the London Stock Exchange.
Even Celebrities Are Getting in on the Action
The internet age opens up numerous streams of income to entertainers and brand influencers. Brand endorsements, album sales, acting fees and so on are more fundamental means of revenue generation for celebrities.
It might be interesting to find out that some celebrities earn money from publishing on a social media account like Instagram.
According to popular Instagram Marketing Solution tool Hopper HQ, in its 2019 report, David Adeleke aka Davido who has the most followed Instagram account with over 12 million following, is the 38th highest earning personality on Instagram. The Afropop artiste earns about $74,000 per sponsored post, which is approximately 26 million naira.
Other celebrities on the list are Funke Akindele with over nine million followers, she is 45th and she gets $50,500, which is over 19million naira. Wizkid, another top Nigerian artiste, who is 46 on the list with over Eight million followers gets $49,700 which is close to 18 million naira. On the 48th slot was Tiwa Savage, with over 7.5 million followers, she gets $47,200 which is 17million naira.
Summary of the matter
These indices are pre-cursory to the evident influence that the financial technology has had on the media industry, to drive home her point, Ojemili buttresses, “Make no mistake, Nigeria’s E-commerce market is growing. It is a demonstration of the fact that Nigeria is leading the pack in Africa and catching up with the global online train. May reasons account for this, chief of which is technology.”
