Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts

Friday, October 21, 2022

Public and Private TV Stations in Nigeria are Grossly Underfunded

Both the public and private TV stations in Nigeria are grossly underfunded.

I am speaking from professional experience since I started my career in the largest TV network in Africa, the  Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) as the youngest professional scriptwriter for TV in Africa at 18 and from the 1980s and in 1998 worked as an Independent Production Manager of "Money Wise" on  the private DBN TV for two years when I was 35. 

When I look at both the public and private TV stations in Nigeria, I shake my head is disappointment. The underdevelopment of NTA in programmes is embarrassing when compared to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

The federal government gives peanuts to the NTA and expect the NTA network of over 36 TV stations to produce world class programmes, because they are clueless about the economics of the TV industry which can be learned from the more advanced TV industry of South Africa. 

If the public and private TV stations in Nigeria are producing great content for entertainment and enlightenment of the best standards, they will be highly profitable to compete with MultiChoice, the South African company that operates DStv, the leading satellite television service in Sub-Saharan Africa and GOtv operating in several countries and has the popular streaming service, Showmax. 

The NTA network and private TV stations in Nigeria have channels on DStv and GOtv instead of competing with MultiChoice. But how can they compete without the required infrastructure for a world class international TV industry with the budgets for the best TV productions and for the premium content that will increase their revenues from TV commercials and international distribution of their content. 


- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOOD MIRROR® Series.

Friday, March 18, 2022

Cinemas in Nigeria Are Losing Millions of Dollars Due To Poor Marketing and Publicity


The trailer of "The American King", a new Hollywood and Nollywood comedy showing in selected cinemas in Nigeria.
Popular NIgerian actress, Shan George in front of Genesis Cinemas in Asaba, Delta State, NIgeria.

Cinemas in Nigeria are losing millions of dollars, because of poor marketing and publicity.


Nigerian film distributors and exhibitors don't seem to have any  budget for the marketing and publicity of movies for cinemas in Nigeria rated as the second largest film industry in the world after India for the annual quantity of film productions.
The more marketing promotions for their movies, the more people that will be attracted to watch the movies and increase the population of moviegoers in Nigeria with more sales of tickets.

I have been increasing the attractions of cinemas by having screenings of documentary films for secondary schools at the cinemas since 2013 to date. The secondary school students who were teenagers seven years ago in 2013 are now grown-ups in their 20s and majority of them have graduated from tertiary institutions and gainfully employed with enough disposable incomes to pay for tickets for movies at the cinemas. 
Many of them have commended me for their appreciation of the cinema culture.

Film distributors and exhibitors in the established film industries of Hollywood of the United States of America, Bollywood of India, China, UK and South Africa have  budgets of millions of dollars for marketing and publicity for movies and their movies have been the highest grossing movies in the world which the NIgerian film industry has not achieved with the thousands of movies produced annually in Nollywood and Kannywood.

South Africa does not produce up to a quarter of the movies produced annually by NIgeria, but  has produced the highest grossing movies in Africa with "District 9" grossing US$210.8 million in 200;  followed by "The God's Must Be Crazy" - US$100 million; "Zambezia" - US$34.4 million; "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom" - US$27.3 million; "Khumba )" – $28.42 million (which the producers even reached out to me for the publicity in 2013) and the critically acclaimed "Tsotsi" - $12 million. It was the first African film to win the highly coveted Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (now Best International Feature Film) in 2006.

No NIgerian movie has made up to US$3 million from the box office.
The ready made common reason would be that South Africa has hundreds of cinemas whereas NIgeria has less than 100 cinemas. But the 100 cinemas with about 220 screens can make up to US$3 million monthly with proper marketing and publicity for movies. 
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) reported that cinemas in Nigeria made N301.48 million from tickets sold across the country in February, 2022 
National President of CEAN, Mr. Patrick Lee said this was a tremendous increase compared with N224.34 million made from ticket sales in February, 2021. 

UNESCO reported that the African film industry has great potential, but the lack of infrastructure like one cinema screen per 787,402 people makes it a laggard.
According to a new UNESCO report, about 5 million people currently work in the film sector in Africa, which contributes $5 billion to the continent's GDP. 

Film distributors and exhibitors in Nigeria should increase their budgets for marketing and publicity of the movies they have accepted for their cinemas. They have to increase the appreciation for cinemas by millions of people in NIgeria from the lower class to the upper class of the society.

Over 60 million Nigerians spend over N730 billion annually on sports betting and at least two billion naira is generated daily according to a recent data with each one spending more than N3, 000 weekly on betting. So, millions of Nigerians have disposable personal income (DPI) to afford paying for tickets for movies at the cinemas. 


- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor, 
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 
247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

           The American King is currently the #1 Comedy in NIgeria from March 4-17, 2022 and has attracted thousands of moviegoers to the cinemas.                           


Sunday, November 28, 2021

THE NEW NNPC BOARD AND STRATEGIC BALANCING

THE NEW NNPC BOARD AND STRATEGIC BALANCING

- By Frederick Harry


On August 16th 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the much awaited Petroleum Industry Bill into law. The signing of the Bill into law was hailed as a timely intervention as it is expected to “provide certainty to potential and existing investors on the applicable fiscal regime in the Petroleum Industry”. By the powers vested in the President under section 59 (2) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, on September 19, 2021 he approved and appointed the Board and Management of NNPC Ltd with Senator Godwin Ararume as the Chairman of the Board.

The appointment of the Chairman of the Board from Imo State in the South East was applauded as evidence that the relationship between the people of the region and the President was heading north.

The inauguration of the board has however been suspended twice as a result of scathing criticism against some members by some activists, civil society organisations, petitions from powerful interest groups and alleged resistance by the International Oil Companies (IOCs).

Mr. Deji Adeyanju, the Convener of Concerned Citizens of Nigeria had described the appointment of Senator Ararume as a travesty and criticized the Buhari government’s “penchant for outlandish and unconventional methods of appointing cronies and men of questionable character” to important public offices. He insisted that there are many qualified technocrats and experienced oil and gas industry players from Imo State that can lead the charge at NNPC and manage the country’s main source of revenue and that Senator Ararume does not fit in that mould.

This type of blistering and witheringly scornful criticism coupled with fight back by the IOCs and counteraction by the political elites across board allegedly led to the indefinite suspension of the inauguration of the board as announced by the Secretary to the Federal Government on November 23, 2021. It is now being speculated in the Energy Halls of Power and Corridors of Political Influence that the federal government is considering nominating another person as Chairman of the Board.

It is very imperative therefore that the Buhari administration should take certain salient factors including but not limited to political environment, economic challenges, management skills and social issues into consideration before making such a nomination.

On the political environment, the ruling party, APC has been striving to make in-roads in the South East and the South South regions of Nigeria. Senator Hope Uzodinma, the Imo State Governor has been leading from the front in ensuring that  citizens from the two regions embrace the party wholeheartedly. This can be seen from his tenacity and doggedness in persuading his brother Governors from Ebonyi and Cross River States to join the party. He has essentially converted all the big and influential political players in the South East to APC. It is the prevailing public opinion that if the nominated Chairman of the Board would be changed, the President should consult the Governor to liaise with other relevant stake holders from the South East to present an acceptable candidate with cognate industry and management experience to lead the board and that person should come from Imo State.

What many people may not know is that oil, the bedrock of the Nigerian economy was first discovered in Iho Dimeze community in Ikeduru LGA of Imo State in 1937 by Shell Petroleum then known as Shell D’Arcy. The company established a base in Owerri before it left for Oloibiri in Rivers State when it discovered oil in commercial quantities there in 1956.

With the recovery of 43 Oil Wells from Rivers State by the Uzodinma administration which is the greatest economic feat by any Imo Governor since 1999, Imo State is now an assertive 4th oil producing state in the country. Imo State is home to over 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas deposit and upside of potential 600 trillion cubic feet. Natural gas has today become a catalyst for socio-economic renaissance all over the world as the urgent need for clean and renewable energy need not be emphasized. With the emerging importance of Imo State to the nation’s economy, it would be unthinkable to deny the state the chance to lead the Board of NNPC Ltd.

It must however be reiterated that the new NNPC Board needs to be led by a certified change agent who is conversant with processes and management strategies of formulation, implementation, evaluation, modification and monitoring. It must be someone ready to implement a paradigm shift agenda with his eyes on the ball of common good not the next election. He must be an innovative thinker with excellent track record and culture of excellence in service crafting tactics to achieve objectives. He must demonstrate outstanding problem solving skills and exemplary team leadership ability with knowledge of climate challenges.

Nigeria is considered 58th most vulnerable and 22nd least ready nation to adapt to the threats of climate change. With 25% of the population living in exposed coastal region, a vast majority of the citizens plagued by devastating poverty and insecurity fueled partly by climate change, NNPC led by the Board should be ready for transitioning into “Green Economy”. The Board must be ready to create platforms for engagement to achieve climate readiness with clean energy and improved decision making.  The country cannot afford a misstep now.

The ball remains in the court of Mr. President to consult widely and give the Board a Chair that would lead the way for the nation’s economic progress. 

###

Frederick Harry, a Nigerian from the Grand Bonny Kingdom, is a contributing editor to CNBC and Africa Business News.




Tuesday, October 12, 2021

What Makes A Great Movie?



Hundreds of thousands of movies of different genres have been made since  the Skladanowsky brothers who used their self-made Bioscop to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on November 1, 1895 in Berlin to the Lumière brothers who showed their short films in Paris on December 28, 1895 .

What Makes A Great Movie?

What makes a great movie is not the size of your camera;

It is not the size of your cast;

It is not the size of your crew;

It is not the size of your budget;

But the size of your IMAGINATION.

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Artist, writer, filmmaker and publisher.

Author of "Children of Heaven", "Scarlet Tears of London", "Bye, Bye Mugabe", "In the House of Dogs", "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "The Prophet Lied",  "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream" and co-author with Dr. Chika Christian Onu of "Naked Beauty", the first Nigerian screenplay published for commercial distribution.

One of Chima's most popular short stories, "Daughter of a Beggar" is included as "Beggar's Daughter" in the critically acclaimed "CAMOUFLAGE: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria".



Thursday, August 12, 2021

What You Need Most To Make A Great Movie

#movies

#filmmaking

#cinema

#filmmakers

#budget

#actors

#Bollywood

#Hollywood

#Nolllywood

#Netflix

What You Need Most To Make A Great Movie 

"My mentor said what you need most to make a great movie are not big cameras, not big budget, not big cast, not big crew and not a big story. But a Big Imagination."

- Success Iyoha, from Benin City, Edo State, NIGERIA.

Case Study:


The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland in 1994 to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly "recovered footage" is the film the viewer sees. Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvised. A casting call advertisement in Backstage magazine was prepared by the directors; Donahue, Williams and Leonard were cast. The film entered production in October 1997, with the principal photography taking place in Maryland for eight days. About 20 hours of footage was shot, which was edited down to 82 minutes. Shot on an original budget of $35,000–60,000, the film had a final cost of $200,000–750,000 after post-production edits.


Budget

$200,000–500,000

Box office

$248.6 million



Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Our President has Ph.D, But low IQ

It is pathetic that a President who never fails to remind us of his academic achievement of having a Ph.D in Zoology fails to realize that the measly 3% of the budget allocated to education is a barbaric rebellion against the 26% proposed by the United Nations for developing countries.

Only N35 billion is for capital projects in the education sector and over N350 billion for the National Assembly!



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