In order to promote local content, Shileola Ibironke, CEO, Micro Media Marketing Limited, a big player in the distribution of local content for television, will be launching a cinema hall at its new subsidiary known as Heritage Mall. To be launched today, 30 August. The cinema hall is located in Abule Egba and is equipped with two viewing screens with a capacity of nearly 200.
Speaking on the location at a media parley held in Lagos, Ibironke, told journalists at the event that the project was out of a desire to bring the cinema experience to the middle-income neighborhoods.
“We chose the location because of the income level of the people in that environment, and the affordability of that. Are they lovers of entertainment? Do they seek these things in other places? Do they go to nerve centres to seek for this service? Yes they do, and we have a cluster of them,” she said.
Explaining how she discovered the hunger of the community for entertainment, she said a children’s day party was held at the same location and the turnout was overwhelming. “We were swamped by the crowd of fathers, mothers, and children who had nowhere to go. We wouldn’t be going to such a location if it wasn’t a high yielding income environment. The truth of the matter is that that area is underserved and we are filling the gap,” she said further.
For a facility that is well equipped and built to bring services comparable to others anywhere in the world, the location
could cast doubts as to the success of such venture given that most cinemas are situated in the crème de la crème places. But Ibironke is convinced that Heritage Mall would deliver its purpose, serving the underserved. “For us, not being in the central or key cities is a plus because we try to look at, where exactly is the underserved environment? Where do you want to play in the market? What chunk of that market share do you want to take?” She asked with great conviction.
Earlier, she had explained that going into cinema was progress from just showing content on all media platforms and because bringing value to consumers in all media is the core of her organization
However, Ibironke, who has about 20 years of experience in the industry, emphasized the need for more cinemas in Nigeria, while saying that Heritage Mall was just the beginning of other chains that would come up.
According to her, for local content to be well promoted and generate more revenue, the number of cinemas, currently peg at 55 including hers, is not enough. “The future is opening more locations, expanding, offering the same opportunity for blockbuster content distribution to different localities in Nigeria. That’s what will be beneficial to us” she said.
She further adds “The truth of the matter is that the distribution of content, especially movies, is determined by the number of exhibiting halls that are available because that is where you can generate more revenues from. So the more halls that we have, the more the avenues that we have to generate more revenue”.
