Love in Every Word, a movie by Nigerian filmmaker Omoni Oboli, racked up more than 20 million views on YouTube in the first three months of this year, like many Nollywood productions. It points to a shifting pattern as Nigerians grapple with one of the toughest economic crises in decades after Nigerian President Bola Tinubu halted gasoline subsidies that kept prices all round low and stopped support for the local currency. Streaming platforms, cable TV and Internet service providers are meanwhile on a price-hiking spree that has put off many clients.
Netflix increased monthly subscription fees twice last year to 7,000 naira (US$4.38) from 4,400 naira for its premium package — a substantial amount in a country where, according to the World Bank, more than half of the 230 million people live in poverty.
Many people are slashing their entertainment budget, including cable and streaming subscriptions, Lagos-based think tank SBM Intelligence said.
Photo: AFP
Nollywood, Nigeria’s massive film industry, releases an average of 50 movies weekly, the second-most prolific film industry in the world after India’s Bollywood.
Health worker Adeleke Adesola, 31, from the southwestern city of Ibadan, has switched to watching movies on YouTube, driven not just by costs, but for its interactive nature.
“I feel good when I read a comment that speaks my thoughts about a scene or the movie. Also, because I don’t have to pay monthly subscription to have access to YouTube movies,” she said.
Africa’s pay TV giant MultiChoice reported losing about 250,000 subscribers between April and September last year.
Despite an uptick in subscriptions last year, streaming juggernaut Netflix has cut back on commissioning new productions in Nigeria.
Prime Video has also adopted the same approach.
With movie tickets now considered a luxury by millions in the west African economic powerhouse, consumers and filmmakers are veering to YouTube and other cheaper alternatives. Filmmaker and cofounder of iBAKATV YouTube Channel, Kazeem Adeoti, said the number of full-length movies on YouTube had grown tremendously.
Several top actors own YouTube channels to directly distribute their movies to consumers, he said.
Income from YouTube depends on factors such as watch time, audience engagement, copyright ownership and viewers’ location.
“We see consistently high watch time ... indicating strong audience interest in Nollywood content,” Google West Africa spokesman Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade said. “This increased watch time not only benefits the creators but also results in higher ad revenue for YouTube.”
Seun Oloketuyi, film producer and founder of the Best of Nollywood awards, said YouTube had become more appealing to filmmakers, as there were no specifications on the types of cameras to be used, the quality of costumes or the language mixes.
“Movies shot for YouTube are significantly cheaper than those to be screened at cinemas or on the digital streaming platforms,” Oloketuyi said. “It seems like a win-win for filmmakers who can spend significantly less on production, maintain ownership rights of the movies and still make good money.”
Netflix and Prime say they do not plan on exiting Nigeria, but the contract terms for Nigerian filmmakers have now changed.
Nigerian films to which Netflix has screen rights are restricted to African viewers, leaving YouTube as the major alternative for the diaspora.
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (better known as Foxconn) ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose 60 places to reach No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc. at 348th, Pegatron Corp. at 461st, CPC Corp., Taiwan at 494th and Wistron Corp. at 496th. According to Fortune, the world’s
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
RSS