Veteran comic actor, Chika Okpala, a.k.a ‘Zebrudaya’, has said that foreign television channels like Telemundo and Zee World have won Nigerian fans over to the disadvantage of local channels.
He said indigenous drama series were being ignored because of this development.
“Foreign soaps like Mexican soaps, Telemundo, the Zee World and the rest of them have flooded our TV screens now and our indigenous TV drama series are suffering. Those popular programmes the New Masquerade, Cockcrow at Dawn, The Village headmaster and others were left to slip away.”
The renowned actor revealed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria. He noted that the lack of sponsorship has hindered production of most television series in the country.
According to him: “The dwindling economy is the major problem of production in the country and lack of sponsorship has contributed to the dearth of programmes on Television stations in the country.”
Popularly known as Zebrudaya Okoroigwe Nwogbo alias ‘430’, he hit national prominence through the New Masquerade, a comedy series that aired on the network service of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA.