The Big Brother Naija television show may have raked in N43b in the past four years, just from telecom subscribers voting for their favourite housemates between 2017 and 2020.

This figure excludes sponsorship and advertisements that are heavily prominent on the seasons of the show, held once every year for between 70 and 90 days.

According to records, when the Nigerian version debuted in 2017, the regional director M-Net/Africa Magic, Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, said a record-breaking 26 million votes were recorded in the final week of Big Brother Naija, with 11m votes recorded previously. That is about 37m votes at the cost of N100 per vote via the telecom lines, comprising MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9mobile. At this rate, the organisers were said to have generated N3.7b.

In the 2018 season of the reality show, Big Brother Naija, tagged “Double Wahala,” was said to have raked in about N5.1bn from just voting by telecoms subscribers.

The Pepper Dem season of the Big Brother Naija Reality TV Show in 2019 raked in an estimated N7.2bn from the votes through the telecoms lines by viewers.

Each vote costs N30 and the host of that season, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu said the season got over 240m votes. Out of this, over 50m votes were cast in the final week of the season, amounting to N1.5bn.

In the 2020 edition of the reality TV show tagged, ‘Locked Down,’ there were over 900m votes, officials said, making it the biggest season ever since the series launched in 2006. At an N30 SMS cost for the 900m votes, the organisers made about N27bn from the season.

https://dailytrust.com/how-govts-others-prioritise-entertainment-over-education-contests