Digital Nollywood: Implications of digital distribution for the Nigerian video industry

Abstract

This thesis analyses the implications of digital distribution for the Nigerian video industry (Nollywood). Following a media industry studies research framework and drawing from interviews with more than 50 industry stakeholders, this project argues the advent of digital distribution has opened formal pathways to transnational capital and audiences hitherto unseen in Nollywood. Yet rather than a rational and linear transition away from the industry’s historical informal dynamics, the emergence of streaming services in Nollywood has been marked by complexity, contradiction, and ambivalence through what I suggest are ‘pluriformalising’ market mechanisms.

Ambivalence of informality: Covid-19 and unmasked precarity in Nollywood

“…Long hours of shooting were common because of the innate desire to complete productions as early as possible. The notion was that the longer cast and crew members stayed on set, the more the cost of production (Miller, 2010;Simon, 2022b). Low wages were also a key component of the precarity in Nollywood.…”

“…Due to the relational logics of informal labour, workers maintain jobs through personal relationships to the extent that they are willing to work for free or take low pay as a strategic investment in maintaining the relationships. In most cases, the relationship-based labour is hinged on the hope that the industry would change in the future and labour relations would improve accordingly (Simon, 2022b). Zelizer (2012) observes that such relational activities constitute a form of work with economic implications.…”

‘They are now pocket videos, not home videos’: Streaming and reconfiguration of video consumption in Nigeria

“…The 2022 report of Digital TV Research predicted that there would attain be 13.72 million SVOD subscriptions in Africa by 2027, up from 4.89 million at the end of 2021. 10 Streaming executives are hopeful of such growth and recognise the need to enter the market, although it remains in early stages (Miller, 2021;Simon, 2022b).…”

“…Based on its success on YouTube, iROKOtv evolved in 2014 to become the first subscription video on-demand (VOD) service for Nollywood films (Adejunmobi, 2019; Thakkar, 2015). Ibakatv became the second Nigerian streaming service to debut in 2011, and from 2015 onward, more than 10 streaming portals have launched, and Nigerian YouTube channels continue to proliferate (Simon, 2022b).…”

“…Traditional video distributors understood their audiences broadly as Nigerians and Africans who love Nollywood films. There was little consideration of producing for a specific age range, social class, or gender (Simon, 2022b). Though there was a general assumption that full-time housewives were the heaviest consumers of Nollywood films (Ukata, 2010), films were not primarily targeted at women.…”