In spite of their growing acceptance among African Diaspora in the United Kingdom, Nigerian video-films lose millions of pounds in distribution revenue every year due to widespread piracy and leaky marketing network
The African Diaspora communities in London's South-East boroughs provide Nigerian movies one of their biggest receptions in the world. But fame and popularity are the only gains accrued to the industry known fondly as Nollywood from the more than six million black population in London and other major cities in Britain. Hundreds of thousands of pounds accruable to producers in distributional and rental revenues are either lost to piracy and phony distributors or are not traced at all, according to findings by our correspondent.
The more Nollywood movies are exported to the UK, the revenue to the producers, according to many producers, film analysts and London-based Nigerian marketers/distributors who used the opportunity of a workshop on Nollywood and the African Diaspora in the UK between August 9 and 12, 2007 to assess the industry's earning potential and its vulnerability.
Due largely to piracy and leaky distributional network, Nollywood movies have become victims of massive exploitation, according to London-based director, Ayo Shonaiya, whose 1998 film, King of my Country, was massively pirated. He had had to cancel his distribution deal with a London marketer/distributor for his last film, Spin, after contravening the exclusive sales distribution deal to rent out the film illegally.
Similarly, the director of Afro-Hollywood awards, which enters its 12 consecutive edition in London this year, Mr. Mike Abiola, says many of the marketers have finished paying off their mortgages selling only Nollywood films. He has delayed the release of three of his films until they are guaranteed to recoup their investments. Distributors, he explains, make huge profit from renting out the films illegally, while deceiving producers that the copies kept by buyers were copied from the web or from rented copies.
Taking the sales formula in Lagos where distribution is largely kept out of the cinema theatres, Nollywood movies are sold at shops, video-clubs, bars and restaurants, barbers shops and major markets patronized by African-Caribbean communities either through direct DVD and Video Compact Sales or rentals all over south-east London. In the past few years, the movies are also being distributed online, largely through known dealers who declare meager returns to producers and those who simply run pirate web distribution companies, selling and renting out films with neither authorization nor remittance to the owners.
According to producers, conservative estimation of revenue on a movie is less than three thousand pounds (about N800, 000). But respected filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, thinks the figure is far less, declaring that he has not made up to five thousand pounds (about N1.3million) in total from all his seven movies marketed in the London.
"If Nollywood will collapse, I think it will come from the diasporan market, where our films are popular but from which get nothing," he said. He added that he was recently approached by a London-based Nigerian distributor in London for the exclusive right to distribute his movie, Abeni 2. "He wanted only five hundred copies at one pound each. I thought it was ridiculous to earn only five hundred pounds from my film and therefore rejected the offer. It will be pirated anyway," he stated.
Considerable revenue from television rights are also lost to virtually all the four black television station in London - Ben TV 1 and 2, Passion TV and the Original Black Entertainment, which all air multiple daily showings on Nigerian movies.
Indeed, the infrastructure of piracy in the London market for Nollywood movies underscores producers' frustration that informed the joint attempt in 2006 by the Association of Movie Producers, the Nigerian Copyright Commission and the Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group to stem the rising tide of piracy and undeclared revenues for Nigerian movies. The goup estimated that Nollywood loses about $400m (about N520m) every year to internet pirates, illegal distributors and broadcast organizations airing their films without authorization. More than a quarter of this potential revenue is perceived to be lost in the UK where new Nollywood films on DVD sells for five pounds, and four pounds on VCD. Old ones are sold openly around Dolston and Totenham Court Road markets for one pound, the same price paid by film buffs to rent one film.
With Nigerians recognized as the largest black community in the UK now, officially estimated at 1.5 million population (excluding the illegal immigrants), producers estimate that if only five per cent of that population buys one Nigerian movie in a year and rent 10 at one pound each, that should guarantee a yearly revenue of 375,000 pounds (about N97, 500m) revenues on sales on a hit movie and 750,000 pounds (about N195, 000m) revenue on 10 different movies rented by 75,000 people in a single year.
But Nollywood gets a fraction of this according to the director of Twisted, Niyi Towolawi, because the industry has no way of monitoring how much it sells, and also because acceptance of the movies as culture staple may not have translated into sellable artistic products using conventional means of distribution. Towolawi advocates a mainstream release through the cinemas for producers to make some returns before their films eventually go on DVDs. His film is the first Nollywood to be accorded a nationwide distribution in Britain by the cinema chain, Odeon.
The London market in Southwark and Lewisham boroughs had welcomed Nigerian video-films right from the early 1990s when harsh economy could no longer sustain celluloid films and the cinema culture. Other Africans and Caribeans have also embraced the movies for their roles in advancing an alternative image in the cultural identity of the black diaspora in the UK. Yet, the industry that thrived on digital technology has become under-priced and under-paid, totally vulnerable to the machinations of the new technology.
Many of the distributors and video-clubs such as Segun Akindaini's African Video Centre, one of the first and the biggest in Peckham; Phillip Dada's Sound Image; Pat Eleto's Solid Rock Entertainment and Wilson Akintunde's Klub Afrik, which provides online rental membership services for members that "can keep the films for as long as they want," selling Nigerian movies are still functioning in London.
However, a former producer and distributor, Mr. Ola Ogunloye, of Video Direct thinks the vague ownership structure of many of the films may be responsible for the low revenue being remitted to Nigerian producers. He is obviously referring to directors, producers and executive producers often laying claims to the ownership of a particular film with the aim of profiting without the knowledge of real owners.
Nollywood Fact File
- World's largest home-video industry
- Unlisted in top 20 global film (celluloid) ranking
- 2,085 movies released on video since 2006
- Average budget is N2.5m
- Average sales estimated at 15,000 on DVD sales
- Indigenous movies (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo) combined are more than English language films
Major sales districts in London
- Peckham
- Old Kent Road
- Brixton
- Camberwell
- Lewisham
- Dolston-Kingsland
- Croydon
Steve Ayorinde
