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 It's another day in Nollywood, the affectionate nickname for
Nigeria's film industry - the world's second most prolific after
India's Bollywood, producing hundreds of films and TV episodes
each month.
For decades it was a factory churning out visual pulp fiction
destined for the market stalls of DVD pirates. But Nollywood is
increasingly grabbing the attention - and financing - of global
entertainment brands.
Some, like French group Vivendi's Canal+, seek to harness
Nigerian hustle and know-how to extend the lifespan of the
traditional pay-TV model, which is bleeding customers in
developed markets but still has a future in Africa.
Others, including South Africa's MultiChoice, are using Nigeria
as a testing ground for introducing streaming platforms in
African markets with poor communications infrastructure and low
income levels.
In both cases, it's local production that's benefiting.
"Ten years ago Nollywood was very different," Mary Njoku, whose
ROK studios was acquired by Canal+ in July, told Reuters as the
film crew worked in an abandoned hotel in Nigeria's megacity
Lagos. "Today we shoot with better cameras... We do things
differently."
A room on the hotel's top floor was standing in for a college
dorm on "What Are Friends For?", an ROK comedy series that will
be among new shows aired by Canal+ in coming months.
The company first dipped its toe into Africa's most populous
country six years ago, buying up local films, dubbing them and
airing them on a dedicated channel, Nollywood TV, to viewers in
French-speaking Africa.
That success led to the creation of a second channel.
The deal with ROK secures a steady supply of new films and
series as the firm eyes a further expansion of African content,
said Fabrice Faux, Canal+ International's chief content officer.
Since it was founded six years ago, ROK has produced more than
540 films and 25 series. Under the Canal+ deal, Njoku says it
aims to increase production from next year to around 300 films
and 20 series annually.
Canal+'s pivot to Africa - a golden opportunity for ROK - is a
business necessity for the French company.
"It is one of the very rare pay-TV markets that is growing and
is growing very fast," Faux told Reuters. "When I joined Canal+
International back in 2014, we had half a million (African
subscribers) and now we have 4 million."
Compare that to mainland France where, as of last year, it had
lost some 1.3 million individual subscribers since 2013.
Much of that decline arose from losing broadcasting rights to
popular sporting events. But it also reflected stiff competition
from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon. However,
Faux believes such rivals pose no threat in Africa due to a
widespread lack of 4G coverage or fixed broadband internet on
the continent.
To properly develop African markets, however, Canal+ must cater
to their diverse audiences, Faux said.
Francophone Africa has no Nollywood equivalent. Producing shows
there has been slow and expensive, as Canal+ has been forced to
bring in film crews from Europe to shoot on location, Faux said.
He now hopes Canal+ can use ROK to clone the Nollywood model.
"The best knowledge and expertise is there in Nigeria. So it is
our intention to try to bring some producers, technicians,
directors to French-speaking Africa, for us to try to develop
new production methods," Faux said.
TEMPORARY GLITCHES?
If Canal+ sees little threat from streaming services in Africa,
MultiChoice - the first major entertainment group to realize
Nollywood's potential - is out to prove it wrong.
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In its infancy in the 1990s, Nollywood churned out cheap films
ranging from bawdy comedies to morality tales about witchcraft and
infidelity.
Low on production quality but high on entertainment value, these
movies quickly garnered a fanatical following across Africa and its
diaspora. And in 2003, MultiChoice launched Africa Magic - a
Nollywood channel that would grow into a subscription package on its
DStv satellite network.
In July, Showmax, MultiChoice's fledgling video-streaming service,
launched in Nigeria.
"The Nollywood phenomenon makes it quite interesting from a content
development point of view. You have a huge base of very loyal fans,"
said Niclas Ekdahl, CEO of MultiChoice's connected video division.
Showmax - also available in South Africa and Kenya - is not alone in
Nigeria's video-on-demand market.
U.S. streaming giant Netflix released "Lionheart", its first
original film produced in Nigeria, in January. It is also
negotiating licence deals for Nigerian films such as "Chief Daddy",
a comedy that debuted on the platform in March.
But bringing streaming to African audiences won't be easy. Expensive
mobile data and low incomes make regular streaming unaffordable for
many on the continent.
One gigabyte of data, enough to watch about three films, costs the
equivalent of around $2.80 in Nigeria, while most people live on
less than $2 a day.
The experience of Malaysian streaming platform iflix is a cautionary
tale.
It launched in Nigeria in 2017, then expanded to Kenya, Ghana and
Zimbabwe following a tie-up with Kwese TV, a subsidiary of
Zimbabwe's Econet Media Limited.
However, data discounts and a pay-as-you-go option were not enough
to sustain the business. In December, iflix sold its Africa business
to the Econet group, which shut down the streaming service last
month.
Showmax's Ekdahl remains undaunted, passing the challenges off as
"temporary glitches". The potential payoff - a largely untapped
audience of 1 billion - is worth the effort of tailoring a business
to African markets, he believes.
Showmax partnered with mobile phone operators Vodacom, MTN and
Telkom in South Africa and Safaricom in Kenya to offer reduced data
and subscription fees. It aims to do the same in Nigeria.
It is also experimenting with installing wireless internet in public
transport, so viewers can download content during their daily
commutes without incurring data costs.
The boom in interest in Nigeria's film industry can only be a good
thing, says Joshua Richard, a barrel-chested actor who plays a
fanatically religious student on "What Are Friends For?"
Foreign investment will, he hopes, help Nollywood shake off a
reputation for shoddy camerawork and muffled sound, while also
leading to greater artistic recognition overseas.
"It exposes African actors to a bigger audience," he said. "We have
lots of good content in Nollywood, but it doesn't get the credit it
deserves."
(Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Johannesburg; Writing by
Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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