EXPANDING THE YORUBA FILM CONSUMER MARKET
By ebenezer akinyemi
First, what or who is the target consumer market for Yoruba films? Different people might have conflicting views as their answers. A remodeling of the question is this: Who is Yoruba film being sold to; Video clubs or home user?This should give us a clearer picture of what is ahead.

According to Nigerian bureau of statistics(NBS) 2011 statistics,44.8% of Nigerians (67 million) have access or own a television. TV ownership is at about 13.3%(19.9 million). That ultimately defines the potential market for movies.(Only those that own or have access to television can watch a movie).
Further breaking it down by states
STATE POPULATION PERCENTAGE WITH TV ACCESS PERCENTAGE WITH TV OWNERSHIP
LAGOS *9.9MILLION 60.5%(5.9MILLION) 32.5%(3.2MILLION)
OYO 5.58MILLION 44.5%(2.4MILLION) 21.5%(1.19MILLION)
OGUN 3.75MILLION 53.8%(2.0MILLION) 23.8%(892,500)
ONDO 3.46MILLION 44.1%(1.5MILLION) 20.1%(695,460)
OSUN 3.41MILLION 55.7%(1.7MILLION) 22.6%(770,660)
EKITI 2.40MILLION 48.3%(1.1MILLION) 21%(504,000)
KWARA 2.37MILLION 52.1%(1.2MILLION) 20.4%(483,480)


In Lagos, about two-thirds of the population are Yorubas. In other south western states excluding Kwara, non Yoruba population is less than 15%. This means an average of 76% of the south western population are Yorubas. 76% of the Tv ownership population is 5,879,436, this modestly implies the potential or available market (home user) for Yoruba films

·Please note that this number does not include the Yoruba population in other states across the nation.
It does not also include the non-yorubas that patronize Yoruba films and it does not include the market outside the country(diaspora).It does not include people who don’t own a Tv but have access to one.

ANOTHER VIEW
A premise to this article is built on is the quantity of film sold and the number of Video club operators
With a case study of Osogbo, Osun state
FACTS
· There are two known Video club Operators association VCOAN and VROAN.
· Each association have about 100 and 200 registered members
· There are unregistered operators scattered across the city numbering about 100 operators
· Total number of Video clubs in osogbo city should be in range of 400-600 operators with about 70% actively in business
· There are two major film distributors and about 6 minor film distributors
· A regular film sells about 400-500pieces, Hot films can sell up to 1000pcs In osogbo, some exceptional films cross the 1500 mark and some don’t cross the 100pcs bottom line
· For hit films, some video club operations buy more than one copy; that accounts ‘High’ sales and a few home users who are either Yoruba film followers, Sympathize or addicts
· For exceptional films, it means it has a “Home-user” acceptance and subsequent purchases to cross the 1000 mark.
The premise holds true to other south-western cities and states with a few exceptions and adjustments.
Comparing the quantity of film sold with the population of the cities or states, we will clearly understand that at least 85% of Yoruba films sold are being sold to video club operators. This is where the problem lies
As long as the primary target remains the video clubs, only exceptional films will sell over 50,000 filmsnationwide.
WHY ARE HOME USERS NOT BUYING YORUBA FILMS OR NOT BUYING AS MUCH
We must first understand this before we can know how to increase sales. Here are a few of the reasons

1) NEW DELIVERY MEDIUM
Advancement in technology has brought various changes to the way we live. It has caused changes, which we did not envisage would affect our movie industry both for good and otherwise.
Today, People have diverse new access to watch movies. For a little token per month or even free, yorubaand english films can be watched on satellite TV (MYTV,DSTV,MULTI TV)
On our local stations, our film are aired for free. The internet now offers free Yoruba movie download and streaming through a lot of websites
All these cumulatively affect the sales of our new films. One of the few things we can do about this is to maximize revenues being generated through from Local TV stations, Satellite Tv stations and Internet service providers.

2) PIRACY
The majority of stakeholders in the movie industry blame everything on piracy. A lot of steps have been taken to fight it but none have yielded any permanent solution.
The low cost of piracy led to pirated DVD’s containing 4 -8 Movies to be sold for a price less than the cost of one original film. It means people get more movie content for less price. That is the Success Strategy that has helped piracy grow tremendously. Pirated DVD is a better deal to the 70% of the population living on less than $1 per day
This is the main reason the piracy industry is thriving, it has a ready market, it is meeting a ready need, it offers varieties, It offers the same content with the original version of films, it is extremely cheap and It is cheap to produce.
DIGITAL PIRACY- This is another level of piracy that is fast becoming a menace. Internet offers limitless access to free information. Most Internet users believe everything online should be free. This has led to lots of free websites streaming our films for free to the Internet audience.
According to international Telecommunication union(ITU), About 28.4% of Nigerians use the internet ; that’s about 44million audience /market for free digital piracy.
Mobile piracy is also another fast evolving problem.About 87 million Nigerians (58%) now have mobile phones. Pirates are now copying films from original CDs or downloading from piratewebsites and distributing the films on mobile phones via memory card. Have we imagined what effect this has on the sales of our films?
The figures above are high but they are also the potential market for our films.

its a long piece, the full write up is here http://ariyamedia..com/2014/08/expanding-yoruba-film-consumer-market.html
enjoy and comment

Yoruba people with their low quality films which is fond of showing women with big brea.st.