Recently I
have noticed a flurry of Video on demand services that have popped up over the
last few years in Nigeria. From the establishment of Iroko TV by a British
Nigerian returnee Jason Njoku a lot of players like Dobox, Buni TV and
Afrinolly have come into the game. Even africa magic the nollywood TV station
on DSTV has gotten into the act though their VODoffering is only accesible
outside Africa.
All this is
a positive development and has opened up another avenue for monetization for
visual content producers where there has been a slowdown in the market. Many of
the producers and Alaba marketers have gone out of business due to the slow DVD
sales in the market (why buy or rent when you can watch it for free on africa
magic, a major reason many producers are refusing to sell their works to them)
and the VOD companies are proving to be the only avenue of
monetization for many producers.
There are
impediments in the VOD industry most especially the matter of data
subscription in a country where internet connection is more expensive than in
the west and the fact that most people browse on phones. But the impediments
are being addressed as internet costs are coming down and many people are
subscribing to the internet. (65 million at the last count in 2013)
With this
the industry is hotting up as more entrants have come into the market most
especially Africa magic and dobox who’s partnering with the telco company MTN
and buni TV who have as one of their shows caricature comedies of the president
and his cabinet.This has increased the price of getting movies and made
producers smile again though they demand better quality of the visuals.
Iroko TV
the market leader and innovator started out as a free service making money from
adverts but right now they are migrating to the paid subscription model and
will soon stop offering the free service. Many VODs are offering a free service
(even the Alaba movie producers are putting their movies on youtube) but are
having difficulty making a profit. But Iroko TV is cruising as they have more
than a million subscribers (though only 100, 000 in Nigeria) and are growing substantially
with foreign venture capital firms investing up to 20 million dollars in Iroko.
The
Nigerian film industry has always been innovative in one way from the other
since its creation in the 90s and with the lack of cinemas in the country the
Video on demand services could be a way out for Nigerian movie lovers to follow
their stories. But the free nature of their service and the small size of the
Nigerian advert market ($350 million) is putting the squeeze on all of them. It
will be inevitable that many of them will fizzle out and the survivors will
have to charge people for watching movies online.
With the
rampant piracy the winners will be those who can successfully offer quality
movies on the mobile internet. The shape of Nollywoods market will also change
as more tech savvy customers are reached and demand better quality movies which
will increase the quality of movies as the cinemas have done instead of the
housewives and rural folk on which Nollywood was built.
I
believe that in the near future except the cinemas make their offerings more
price friendly to Nigerians instead of targeting the elite (who don’t like
Nigerian movies anyway) VOD services through laptops and mobiles
might be the principal way we might be watching Nigerian movies and series.
What do you guys think?
Jovi Babs is an Actor/ Writer/ Producer/ Entrepreneur and an eternal optimist who hopes for a 180 degree change in the industry that butters his bread.
You can read more on his website via: http:www.jovibabs.com
No comments:
Post a Comment