Day Marketers Sneezed And Nollywood refused to catch cold

By Shaibu Husseini (First published in The Guardian on April 24, 2012)

President of FVPMA Norbert Ajeagbu (First from left) and Famous Otamkpowen at an industry event 

If the leadership of the Film, Video Producers and Marketers Association (FVPMA) think that because they sneezed last week with their decision to place a ban on further assigning of rights of Nollywood movies to broadcast stations, then Nollywood should catch cold, then they are mistaken. If some of their previous decisions like the ban they placed a few years back on some notable actors in Nollywood got the industry feeling giddy, their recent pronouncement which ironically has the endorsement of some of the leaders of guilds and association in Nollywood including the still evolving umbrella body-Nollywood Guilds and Associations (CONGA) got most practitioners not only wondering about the marketers real intentions but it got most of them wondering how that pronouncement will help an already chaotic  distribution situation. 

At a well attended press briefing held penultimate Wednesday in Lagos, the marketers through their Chairman Norbert Ajaegbu announced that to address the menace associated with indiscriminate broadcast of Nollywood films by numerous cable and terrestrial television stations in Nigeria and in the continent, the FVPMAN and the entire control structure in Nollywood will enforce a ban on further broadcast of films capable of being released through the conventional distribution channels in Nollywood as from May 1.  The marketers chairman emphasized that ‘no such films capable of being released through the conventional distribution channel’ will be assigned to any broadcast station as from May 1, 2012.  Similarly he said that any movie up for broadcast on television and on any of the cable networks in Nigeria will not be distributed through channels controlled by the Nollywood Film, Video Producers and Marketers Association (FVPMAN).  Ajaegbu maintained that the indiscriminate broadcast of Nollywood films has eroded the usual value attributable to films by Nigerians and that have caused the show inherent in the business to be totally lost.  He lamented that some practitioners have ‘lived and died in penury’ while the broadcast stations that acquire the works at very ridiculous amount smile to the bank.  According to him: ‘many practitioners hardly meet up with their basic needs. Some shine like stars and wither like ashes while the broadcast stations continue to expand in their operations.  We are all living witnesses to the incessant cases of strokes and other ailments owing to the fact that we don’t get back as much as we invest. This cannot be allowed to continue’. The Marketers chairman however explained that the future commencement date of the stoppage order is to allow a window for alignment and perfection of all enforcement procedure as solicited by key stakeholders including the adoption of a standard contract form to ensure total compliance. But he stressed that by ordering the ban, filmmakers were only acting ‘in accordance with the immutable law of nature-an economic liberation and the principle of self defence’. He said further: ‘we are neither prejudiced by this hell of fortune made from us by these stations nor the peanut they pay to producers in the purported acquisition contract. But we believe that time has come for our distribution system to undergo a complete overhaul starting with the broadcast reform. We shall further progress with other essential reforms and expansion of our distribution network and hope in no distant time to regain our lost bliss’. 

Ugbomah

 Minutes after the briefing, reactions mostly of those opposed to the decision of the marketers and some of the industry leaders to stop the assigning of broadcast rights came in torrents. Only the veteran filmmaker Chief Eddie Ugbomah supported the move.  In fact for the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) the decision came seven years late. ‘Its seven years late’ he said. ‘They would have taken this decision a long time ago. It is one of the reasons Nollywood is presently on its knees. I was preaching that it was going to lead to the death of Nollywood and that is exactly what we have today. People no longer buy movies or even stock them at home because they can easily see the films on television and cable stations. I told them this several years ago when they rushed to take their films there either for peanuts or that thing they call barter but they didn’t listen. I told them that they will come back bruised and crying and that is what has exactly played out’ Ugbomah said. Although aware that assigning of rights to broadcast and cable stations constitute one of the revenue streams open to a filmmaker, the Septuagenarian filmmaker lamented that what filmmakers get in return for assigning such rights is nothing compared to what their counterparts in ‘far less developed movie societies’ like Kenya and South Africa are paid. He explained: what some of these stations pay here is ridiculous. Some are offering as a little as 35, 000 thousand naira for an episode and as little as 15,000 naira for documentaries. I shot a documentary recently and they were offering me 500 dollars to air it. That’s nonsense. How much did I rent the camera and how much did I spend in actual production. Even the films that you see on all these wonder, high and magic stations how much do you think they pay for them? Peanuts. We pressed for them to pay us something higher like in the region of 2000 to 5000 thousand dollars when they started but we had hardly return home from the meeting when they started offering our boys 500 to 1000 dollars. Today I hear they pay as a little as 200 dollars per episode while they pay as much as 2500 dollars to filmmakers in East Africa and South Africa. That’s slavery’.  

Reminded that like in all commercial ventures the power of negotiation lie with the seller in this case the content owner, Ugbomah reasoned that the situation was different in Nigeria as the filmmakers are not even given any room for negotiation. ‘It is just that we don’t have a united industry. If we had, we will not be complaining today. If we had, we would have set a benchmark and we would have insisted that no new movie should be shown on that channel except the movie has exploited other distribution channels including cinema release and even when a new movie is to be shown, it should be under an exclusive arrangement and the pay must be good. Not al these pay peanuts and show for two years deal that we have all over the place. In fact recently on a channel, I watched the same thrice on a day. Who will ever go to the market and buy that kind of movie especially now that we even have decoders that can record films while you are at work. No one, except you need the film for research. So I support the move and I think it is coming years late. May be this will force these broadcast stations to begin to invest in producing local content’ he surmised. 

Shooting in Progress

If Ugbomah supports the decision, two notable filmmakers Mahmood Ali-Balogun

Ali-Balogun

and Yinka Ogundaisi do not subscribe to the position taken by the marketers.  In fact for Ali-Balogun who is in Tribeca to seek marketing opportunities for his jubilee hit Tango with Me, the decision by the marketers amounted to ‘crying over spilt milk’. The one time President of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) noted that the marketers were in the first place responsible for the rot in the broadcast rights assigning regime and so he is amazed that all of a sudden they are the ones calling for a ban.  ‘Why are they all screaming now?’ he asked. ‘Were they not the ones who made the direct to video release look as though it was the norm? Were they not the ones who carried bags filled with DVD’s to these stations and were ready to accept any amount just for the films to be aired? When we were negotiating for a better deal for filmmakers were they not the ones who went behind us and started accepting peanuts? Were they not the ones who made releasing in parts look as if it is a crime not to do so? Check the films that are currently running on these stations unending, are they not by those FVMA members? So why are they crying now when they are responsible for the current state of the industry?’ Ali-Balogun asked on and on. ‘I think those guys (the marketers) should just sit down and carryout a reform within them. They are the ones who negotiate the left when we the industry is heading towards the right.  How did we get to the stage of all these 10 in one DVD’s if not the activities of some of the marketers? They need to first agree to abide to certain industry best practices. Once that is done, then we can listen to them. Outside that I will wait to see how this can be enforceable’ he said. 

Even Ogundaisi doesn’t see how their decision can be enforceable because as he argued members of FVMA control only a segment of the market. He described as very ‘minute’ the market they control.  Besides he doesn’t think that the decision was a product of wide consultation. ‘I don’t think key members of the industry particularly independent producers who are not part of these supposed umbrella bodies are part of the decision. I think it is just an initiative of a group of individuals who most times take advantage of problems in the industry to position themselves. And I ask what is the decision meant to achieve and what will be the level of compliance because there have been several of such pronouncement in the past even among the practitioners in the Yoruba movie industry and the compliance level there was zero. So they can make any pronouncement they like but it is of no effect especially to licensed distributors who have been licensed by law to engage in distribution and marketing of movies’ Ogundaisi submitted. 

Ogundaisi

 Rather than engage in schemes that are of ‘no use to the industry’, Ogundaisi counseled that the marketers should channel their energies towards ensuring the take off of the National film and video distribution framework promoted by the National Film and Video Censors Board.  Ogundaisi maintained that if well implemented the framework, which was launched nearly three years ago was capable of eliminating all challenges impeding the economic viability of Nollywood films including piracy.  ‘We need to channel our energies towards activating the distribution system which will also be responsible for our operational funding, and effectively neutralize all inclinations to piracy and other illegal activities. That is what we need concentrate our energies on now and not engage in schemes or in making high sounding pronouncements that will not lead us anywhere’ remarked Ogundaisi who in a previous interview listed ‘In-auditable processes, ceaseless proliferation and fragmentation, personalized standards and ethics and the lack of in-built challenges and incentives for the distributors to fully explore the marketing potentials of a movie to maximize returns on investment as the defects and limitations of the present distribution system in Nollywood which is mainly championed by the marketers who want movies on television and cable stations banned.

Eyengho

The leadership of ANCOP who last week issued a short terse statement distancing the body from the decision to stop the assigning of broadcast rights to television and cable stations says their position has not changed.  President of ANCOP Alex Eyengho clarified that their decision to oppose the ban was informed by the fact that members of the association were not consulted on the matter and that it will be wrong for such a decision to be forced on the industry when the industry is not ‘owned by people who constitute only a small segment of the industry’. He said: There was no proper consultation before the decision was arrived at. We ought to have sat down as an industry to agree and take a position that will be binding. We refused to have our hairs shaved behind us. Besides our problem as an industry is not airing of content on television or on cable. That is even an income stream for producers. Our problem is piracy and distribution. Let us face those two monsters instead of trying to cure headache when we have typhoid’.