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In the past, Yoruba filmmakers are known to explore traditional models of marketing. What this means is that, when a film is released, they give it to a marketer who helps them to handle the movie’s distribution and sales. With the advent of social media and Youtube , the game has changed.
TNS reports that in the past couple of years, Yoruba film marketers have hit a rough patch as many Nigerians are increasingly embracing the online film distribution platform.
The Yoruba Video Film Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (YOVIFPMAN), like the rest of the Nollywood industry, have continuously found it difficult to beat the monster called piracy.
Marketers are no longer making the desired sales after releasing movies and coupled with the recession the country’s economy is currently going through, times have become even harder for revenue generation.
Keeping up with the expenses of releasing an average movie which has so far tripled due to the rickety exchange rate, and the consequent increase in the cost of goods and services, has made breaking even for these set of filmmakers and marketers a hard task.
According to sources, pirated movie discs are sold at half the price the original copies are sold for within 24 hours of the film’s official release.
Even though the fallout of the present economic realities has affected the pirates, they are still able to make a lot of money from their act unlike the actual makers of the films as well as their Oshodi-based marketers.
One marketer who refused to be named said, ‘If you check, the number of films we release every two weeks has reduced because of this problem we are facing.
‘We spend a lot of money but we are not recouping enough money and the producers expect enough returns to do more films.’
Another said, ‘The truth is that we cannot continue this way. The government has refused to help us. We are on our own.
‘A lot of our films cannot go into the cinema yet so our alternative is to do online,’ the marketer continued.
Currently, iROKO TV, Ibaka TV, Araba TV, TVNolly and Apata TV are some of the biggest online streaming platforms in Nigeria.
Increasingly too, several Yoruba film marketers are testing the waters of the online streaming business. It has worked for some of them, while others have not been able to master the business side of online streaming business.
Change is a constant phenomenon. More Yoruba filmmakers will need to embrace the numerous online streaming platforms available in order not to lose relevance in these changing times.