Reality show Love Island will go into production in Nigeria this summer to air in the autumn, after the ITV Studios format was picked up by a partnership of Nigerian and UK players in September last year.
Odiri Iwuji, Toyin Subair and Neil Oyenekan at the Love Island Nigeria launch
Lagos-based media and broadcast investment company Digital Play Africa has acquired the format licence to the show from ITV Studios and has teamed with exec producer Odiri Iwuji of the UK’s Chudor House Productions and series producer Neil Oyenekan.
Casting for Love Island Nigeria is due to start next month, with production taking place over the summer. The show will see 20 singletons living and loving in a camera-lined luxury villa for seven weeks, the producers announced at a press event in Lagos yesterday together with sponsors, press and representatives of the UK Department of International Trade.
The Nigerian version of the format will be broadcast via Digital Play Africa-backed platform FreeTV’s free-to-air and premium channels including ONTV and MTV Base, as well as being available for digital streaming via the 9Vision mobile app.
Love Island began airing on ITV in the UK in 2005 and has since been adapted locally in 21 countries including the US, South Africa and across Europe, but this version will be the first to feature only black contestants, according to the producers.
Regarding the local adaptation, Digital Play Africa chief Toyin Subair said Love Island “perfectly sums up the expectations Nigerians have of entertainment as the programme offers a rich mix of fun while still touching on the subjects of friendship, love, romance and enduring relationships between islanders.”
“Love Island is perfect for the Nigerian youth audience; it simply ticks all the boxes,” said Iwuji, who is also co-founder and commercial director of C21Media.
Oyenekan added: “Dating is a critical part of millennials maturation in today’s Africa, and Love Island Nigeria offers a ‘verified’ format through which its key stages get tested – we expect great entertainment!”
Huub Van Ballegooy, head of global content and productions at ITV Studios Global Entertainment, added: “As we have already seen in different parts of the world, Love Island works equally well across linear, digital and catch-up platforms. With love being a universal language and the growing Nigerian market, we are very excited to roll out Love Island soon in Nigeria as well.”
Love Island is owned by ITV Studios and Motion Content Group and is distributed internationally by ITV Studios.
Nigeria’s digital switchover (DSO) was the key topic on the first day of broadcaster FreeTV’s three-day online digital series event. Priscillia Alao reports.
Olumade Adesemowo
The event kicked off on Wednesday with Inview Technology CEO Olumade Adesemowo anchoring a panel focusing on DSO and the future of Nigerian content. Speaking on the panel were Professor Armstrong Idachaba, acting director general of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC); stand-up comedian and actor Ali Baba; Film Video Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (FVPMAN) chairman Emeka Aduah; and 9Mobile marketing director Olayiwola Onafowokan.
Idachaba provided a report on the current status of the DSO, detailing some of the challenges of transitioning more than 30 million Nigerian households from analogue to digital and looking to the future.
“The DSO project is important to the future of the media industry in Nigeria,” he said, explaining that as well as improving picture and sound quality, the switch will result in more channels for creative-minded people to realise their potential.
So far, DSO has been rolled out in Jos, Abuja, Kaduna, Ilorin and Osogbo, as well as Enugu, where the switch has been carried out but not completed across the entire state.
Referring to his fellow panellist, Idachaba continued: “With the bank of content Ali Baba has been able to produce over the years, I wonder why he is not running comedy channels. This is the time to engage content producers, and regulators are ready to create that platform for them.
“Some of us don’t fully understand the potential inherent in the digital transition process and we also don’t realise that the entire value chain will be driven by the content we produce. As regulators, it is time to create the right regulatory framework that will allow creatives to have an entry point.”
Idachaba added that Inview’s partnership with the Bank of Industry meant there would be support for companies involved in licence acquisition and the production and distribution of content.
“At the NBC, there is a renewed commitment to delivering on the DSO project. The vehicles for delivering content are the signal distributors who are willing to commit their resources to the roll-out,” he said.
Armstrong Idachaba
The next places to get the switch will be Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, Idachaba said, noting that the NBC was also working on partnerships with other corporations.
“We are confident that once the lockdown is off, we will regenerate activities around the DSO,” he added, referring to the restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, Ali Baba discussed the impact the DSO could have on the entertainment industry when fully implemented.
While there has long been a lack of platforms for comedians in Nigeria, Ali Baba predicted that the DSO will lead to a proliferation of opportunities. “DSO is a welcome idea because there are lots of talents who just need the right platform,” he said.
“We are ready and, although platforms had been denied us because we had to pay for airtime, we now have free-to-air options.”
Aduah, whose association has been involved in Nollywood production and distribution since the days of VHS and through to VCD and DVD, outlined what the DSO would mean for the FVPMAN.
“The challenges holding down the distribution of VCD in the market is in the area of piracy, which has not been dealt with. But we are doing our best to curb it to allow VCD/DVD to sell. Everything has transitioned into digital and it is in our best interests to ensure the DSO comes to [fruition].
“When [DSO is completed] in Kano and Lagos, we are looking at the NBC to facilitate the launch so content owners can smile to the bank, because DVD is not selling as expected. This is a digital era – with the DSO, we will be able to make more sales through the use of dongles. We hope we will be able to witness the switchover so we can continue in business.”
Aduah said the NBC had work to do in order to address challenges in the distribution of content, noting: “TV stations play more foreign content than local content.”
Elsewhere during the discussion, 9Mobile’s Onafowokan talked about the importance of TV firms working with telecoms companies in the digital landscape. “Digital TV provides new features for viewers that analogue does not have, but all these depend on collaborations with telecom industries,” he said.
As part of aims to achieve the NCC’s target of 70% broadband penetration in Nigeria by 2025, around N265bn has been invested in infrastructure, with the government investing N65bn and the private sector contributing the rest, Onafowokan said.
“At 9Mobile, we give access, flexibility and mobility to clients so they can enjoy services the OTT players bring on board,” he continued. “We are empowering content owners by ensuring content is fresh and relevant; we have not ramped up our involvement in terms of collaborating with content owners and production houses, but we are providing infrastructure to ensure content is consumed.”
The session concluded with Idachaba highlighting more positives of the DSO. “We are beginning to explore the reality of tech convergence, and the key functionality of the set-top boxes will be affordable, simple, highly functional internet access for more engagements and an additional source for content dissemination,” he said.
Idachaba added that the DSO would create more opportunities for creative people thanks to the set-top boxes featuring technology that will monitor what is being watched, making it easier to identify programming priorities, fill in gaps involving the structure of content production and facilitate inter-creative exchange.
“We are hoping the Nigerian creative industry will cash in on the advantages of the ecosystem, because we believe the future of terrestrial and OTT is strong,” he said.
Nigerian digital TV platform FreeTV is to give its customers unrestricted viewing access during the Covid-19 lockdown.
From April 4 to May 30, new or existing FreeTV subscribers will receive two months for free, giving them access to more than 35 channels.
FreeTV CEO Olumade Adesemowo said: “We are also providing you with regular, reliable and verified news updates on Covid-19 via our FreeTV Information Services feature from government bodies including The National Centre for Disease Control, The Federal Ministry of Information, The Federal Ministry of Health and The Nigerian Police Force.
“We are doing our part and hope you are doing yours. Stay home, stay safe, stay entertained and stay informed with FreeTV.”
The initiative is supported by the National Broadcasting Commission.
Over the Christmas season, 30 or more local and national TV channels were made available on Nigeria’s FreeTV platform, thanks to digital switchover (DSO).
Lucky Omoluwa
The extra digital bandwidth made available by DSO has meant more television channels can be offered to homes with the right digital TV equipment.
Lucky Omoluwa, chairman of Nigerian tech firm Pinnacle Communications, said Nigeria’s population is now “more informed about the country’s events and issues” since DSO has been implemented in the country.
According to Omoluwa, the switch from analogue broadcasts in Nigeria has immense benefits on its citizens and the country as a whole. His comments were made as part of his annual Christmas announcement.
Pinnacle is reportedly the only private licensed national signals distributor as part of the DSO Nigeria programme.
The Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) has assured the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) of its support for digital switchover (DSO) plans, reports Gabriella Opara.
John Momoh
During a DSO stakeholders’ meeting held last Thursday in Uyo in Akwa Ibom state, BON chairman John Momoh pledged his support to the NBC over its plans to ensure DSO nationwide.
“We are witnessing an era in which the broadcast industry is presenting great opportunities and at the same time facing some threats. Opportunities in the sense that the whole of broadcasting is changing from content platforms like Apple to OTT services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime through to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter,” Momoh said.
“And so many companies are eager to get great content. This is where we, as broadcasters, need the support of the NBC – to ensure that it lays the groundwork for future success. The best way for us to invent the future is to put in place the best possible architecture and give the industry the freedom to thrive,” Momoh added.
At the meeting, NBC director general Is’haq Modibbo Kawu also pledged that all hands will be on deck to ensure the smooth sailing of DSO in 2018.
In a statement upon the launch, Nigeria minister for information and culture Lai Mohammed promised more DSO would take place within a few weeks across the states. He also said DSO would generate N100bn annually through the FreeTV distribution network, which has more than 200 channels.
