-Kunle Afolayan Blasts follower for downloading ‘Citation’ from Unauthorised Website
– War against Piracy; opting for SVOD
Over the years, Nollywood movie producers lament over the huge loss they incure on their projects due to piracy. With the urge to combat piracy at all cost, movie producers have reinvented the cinemas and adopted the Subscription Video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms to market their projects.
According to the International Trade Administration, it reported that “Nigeria’s TV and video market revenue grew by 7.49% to reach US$732 million in 2018 and is projected to reach US$806 million by the end of 2020. The market is driven by Pay-TV subscription revenue, which accounted for 72.26% of the total in 2018. TV advertising accounts for 21.31% of total revenue while physical home videos account for the remaining 5.33%”
However, it becomes disheartening that pirates have found other dubious means to cause havoc and wreck producers’ market.
Kunle Afolayan, a renowned Nollywood producer, director, actor, unleashed his anger on a movie fan for patronising and downloading his latest movie ‘Citation’ from unauthorised website.
The follower expressed via Twitter that Kunle Afolayan did a commendable job in the movie but failed to subtitle the movie in French.
“@kunleafolayan Citation Is A Great Film No Doubt, But Non Subtitle Of French Part Is A Great Disservice To The Movie.”
READ ALSO; CITATION: A relatively known story told in an unfamiliar way (MOVIE REVIEW)
The tweet shows that the fan got the work from an unauthorised website because the authorised movie streams showing the movie subtitled the movie in a lot of language including French.
The renowned movie producer blasts the fan angrily not reckoning the compliment in the tweet.
Kunle Afolayan’s Endeavours to Combat Piracy
With his movie production titled, “Irapada,” Kunle Afolayan reinvented the long dead Cinema, reducing piracy rate on his project and making over N5 Million.
With the advent of the New Nollywood and arrival of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms such as Netflix, iRokotv, ibakaTv, Scene OneTv, in the industry, this has reduced piracy rate in the industry as movie producers produced low amount of compact disks.
How Piracy is Challenging the New Nollywood
However, piracy has continued to pose a great challenge on Nollywood despite the modern marketing strategy employed by movie producers. Late Amaka Igwe reported that pirates make about 82% of the market profit.
Recently, the popular movie producer laments that movie consumers aren’t helping them by downloading his latest movie ‘Citation’ from unauthorised video websites. This must have prompted his harsh reaction to a fan complaint on Twitter.
“You are a very stupid idiot. That’s what you get if you keep downloading films from unauthorized streaming platforms. Omo ale.”
Identifying some shortcomings of the new platform, and why piracy is inevitable:
- 2-Way subscription charge: Broadband data charge and SVOD charge. You will agree that many Nigerians would rather choose to pay only for the broadband data. Using the mobile cinemas (SVOD) appears ‘costly’ to the average Nigerians who seek good movies.
- Poor Internet Connection: the poor state of Nigeria’s internet connection is another problem that begs for discussion and resolution if Nollywood producers wish to opt for the internet as a market for their products.
Role of the Consumers in Combating Piracy
It is incontrovertible that the Government, copyright authorities and movie producers cannot fight the battle against piracy alone. Consumers have herculean roles to play in this battle by avoiding cheap products and visiting authorised SVOD outlets to watch and download the movies.
