Online Streaming: A Paradigm Shift for Nollywood Movie Distribution

Abstract

The Nigerian movie distribution and exhibition business has undergone major transformation in the last few years due to technological innovation. The study is about Nollywood paradigm shift from hard copy movie distribution to online streaming services. The aim is to ascertain why producers are moving to soft screening through online pay-to-view platforms. The objectives were to find out if this new trend is financially beneficial to the producers and whether it will likely continue in the future. The study adopted qualitative methods to interrogate existing data on some of the most popular Nollywood films released online by Netflix. This is based on a snap-shot of Netflix’s popularity chart in the month of October, 2020 and news of cinema theatre films release around the same period. The findings are that the online distribution deals must have been profitable for the producers, judging by repeated use by some of them and others enlisting in the business. The expanding scope of Nollywood producers using these online streaming platforms for distributions of their work suggests the likelihood of a continuing process. The study concludes that this is a mutually beneficial relationship between local producers and online business global entities. It, therefore, recommends that Nollywood producers avoid signing exclusive deals with online distributors only. This will allow home-grown cinema theatres to be financially rewarding to prevent the nation’s cinema theatre chains from collapsing due to redundancy.