LAGOS – Dr Ikechukwu Obiaya, the Director, Nollywood Studies Centre in Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, on Friday said that content producers were ineffective without a viable platform to distribute their works.
Obiaya made the remark at the “Celebration Series of the Entertainment Sector’’, organised by the Centre for Values Leadership”, Lagos, under Prof. Pat Utomi.
He said that a good system of distribution was a site of power and mediating process in the creative industry, which helps it to thrive and pay stakeholders for their content.
“They are often times forced to accommodate unfavourable terms just in a bid to get their products out by all means for their economic benefits.
“This happens, especially in the film and music culture which the system of distribution controls what the audience has access to.
“It determines what films we see and when and how we see them. Crucially it determines also what we do not see,” he said.
The director further said that distribution goes with regulation, provision and denial of audiovisual content. It is about power and profit.
He argued that power comes into play especially when distribution is controlled by limited a group and where such control exists; the publics’ freedom of choice is reduced.
He expressed the view that the digital era had unlocked marketing and distribution channels for music, digital animation, films, news and advertising and had also encouraged economic benefits of the creative economy.
Obiaya, however, said that the prevailing socio-economic conditions of a country like Nigeria, had placed limits on these channels.
“The problem of cost and smooth running of internet, lack of electricity are the challenges of online piracy.
“It means that these channels are not yet fully viable as means of reaching the greater majority,” he said.
Meanwhile, a musician, Paschal Ejikeme, popularly known as “Execetra’’ said that as far as he was concerned there was no music industry in the country.
“There is no organisational ability, there is no coordination and there are no plans to move the music sector forward.
“Everybody who is anybody just jump into the music sector and packages anything and calls it music, there is no industry without a well planned strategy.
“Until there is unification of purpose, we are not going to get far rather we are nose diving.
“How can a musician take his music to Alaba to sell it out and another person is benefitting and the owner of the content gets stipends,” he said.
The event is just to speak grammar and we all go home and sleep, nobody is ready to do anything; “I’m just here to enjoy myself”, Ejikeme said. (NAN)
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