In the last ten years, the Nigerian creative industry has been on a steady rise, moving from a neglected industry that suffered lack of funding for many years to becoming a prominent contributor to the nation’s GDP.
According to Pwc’s Entertainment & Media Outlook report released in 2019, the Nigerian entertainment and media industry, principally driven by the film and music sub-sectors, is expected to be worth $10.5 billion by 2023.
The United Nations said Nollywood alone generates $590 million annually and provides more jobs than any private-sector employer except agriculture. Also, Aisha Abubakar, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, revealed that “Nigeria’s music industry grew by nine percent in 2016 to reach a value of $39 million and is set to grow by 13.4 percent CAGR by 2021, with an estimated worth of about $73 million.
Meanwhile, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), said Nigeria’s music industry is the biggest export from Africa, after oil and gas.
One of the major contributors to the year-on-year outstanding growth of Nigeria’s creative industry is reality TV shows.
Reality TV shows are increasingly gaining a strong foothold in Nigeria’s contemporary and new media landscape and serves as a springboard for ‘ordinary people’ to break into one of Nigeria’s most lucrative industries and become part of commercial media.
Multichoice, leading PayTV company, has been instrumental in establishing the reality shows as a social phenomenon, a talent discovery pool, a platform connecting brands with their audiences, as well as a money-spinner contributing billions of naira into the Nigerian economy.
Some of the reality shows and series produced by Multichoice Nigeria on its Dstv and Gotv platforms include; Big Brother Naija (Bbnaija), Ultimate Love, The Voice Nigeria (seasons 1 & 2) and the ongoing Nigerian Idol season 6. Other reality TV shows, which have aired on the Africa Magic channels include; Mercy and Ike, Judging Matters, Confessions, Date My Family, Shoot Your Shot, the medical reality TV series, Dr. Laser among others.
One of the fundamental factors that make reality programming stand out is the ability to move the show’s characters and audiences from one point to another; making them more enlightened, richer with information, and transforming them economically and socially.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigeria’s creative industry accounted for 2.3 percent, approximately N239 billion, of Nigeria’s GDP in 2016. Producing shows that, in turn, making talents that drive Nigeria’s GDP is no small business. The business of promoting talents to the limelight does not come cheap.
According to John Ugbe, CEO, Multichoice Nigeria, the production of BBNAIja Season 5 in 2020 gulped N3.5 billion. The effect of the spending is felt by the hundreds of people involved in the production process, the brands and organisations that identify with the shows and the nation’s economy as the shows lead to injection of billions of Naira into the economy from taxes and purchases made for the show.
In terms of sponsorships, reality shows such as Bbnaija and Nigerian Idol have been big wins for brands as they lead to increase in awareness and visibility during and after the shows.
Naspire, a Nigerian research firm, in a report published in 2020, said ecommerce store, Payporte, the headline sponsor of Bbnaija in 2017 and 2018, Bet9ja, the 2019 sponsor and Betway, the sponsor of the 2020 season, were most searched during the periods when Bbnaija was on the air. This is amplified by the popularity of the show.
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Beyond the gains for brands and the nation’s economy, there is also a growing trend among contestants and those aspiring to be on the shows that even if they only spend a few weeks on these shows, their careers are as good as made as they will forever be shot into the limelight and positioned for lifetime opportunities in the creative industry, with business deals, brand endorsements, and diverse career opportunities coming their way.
From Ebuka Obi-uchendu, host of Bbnaija, to Mike Edwards, Tobi Bakre, Ozoemena ‘Ozo’ Chukwu, Nengi Hampson, Natacha Akide aka Tacha, Erica Nlewedim, and many others from previous editions of Bbnaija, who though did not emerge as the winners of the shows, went on to become the toast of brands, landing endorsement deals and making headways in the creative industry.
The shows also afford ordinary people the opportunity to walk in and shoot themselves to celebrity status. This is the story of Verity Haruna, who auditioned for the new season of Nigerian Idol and got a ‘No’ from the judges at the audition show on Sunday, April 4, 2021.
On her way out, IK Osakioduwa, the host of the show asked for her Youtube channel handle and from less than 200 subscribers that night, she presently has more than 1,600 subscribers as of Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Even though we will not be seeing her on the Nigerian Idol show this season as a contestant, Haruna has been rewarded by the show even before it kicked off. Such is the power of the Multichoiceproduced reality shows and how they make celebrities out of ordinary people.
Multichoice has also realized that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ in the sense that as much as the brand has the capacity to produce these shows (BBN and Nigerian Idol), it still needs the support and collaboration with other brands to complete the jigsaw and build truly inclusive shows that leverage on the strength of each partner. Season 5 of Big Brother for example had Betway and Flutterwave as headline sponsor and category sponsors respectively on the show.
The two brands and a host of others brought more color, fun and glamour to the show. The brands also benefit immensely from the exposure that BBN offers. It is no coincidence that a few months after the curtains were drawn on BBN season 5, Flutterwave is now a Fintech company to reckon with.
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