Everyone Has Their Guesses About the Netflix Geo-Blocking, on Nollywood Film Club in May

Since Netflix slowed its operations in Nigeria, there has still been no official word on their long-term strategy or future plans. So far, all we’ve gotten is a single statement last December to quell the panic. But you know what they say about silence, it breeds guesses, uncertainties, and eventually, full-blown rumours.

And of course, the Nollywood Film Club (NFC) wasn’t left out of the speculation during their May hangout. People just want to know: why does it now seem like Netflix has pulled back from Nigeria?

“Anything that isn’t yours originally, you shouldn’t expect it to stay or always be there as an option,” Oyinkan exclaimed during the discussion.

The geo-blocking of Nigerian titles — particularly affecting NFC members in the diaspora — remained a hot topic, and the group went deep into their theories. Let’s walk through them and rank from most likely to wildest:

1. The economics aren’t adding up for Netflix.
   This is the most common explanation. The cost-to-return ratio simply isn’t making sense. But that leads to another question: how does geo-blocking fix this? Why not just pull out entirely?
   
2. They’re saving money on cloud storage.
   Apparently, Netflix stores content in servers close to target territories to speed up delivery. Fewer territories mean lower server costs, maybe. So, limiting the reach could save them some coin. Makes sense.
   
3. The quality of Nollywood films is too low.
   Some claim Netflix is pulling back because the standard of Nigerian films isn’t up to par. Hard to buy as the sole reason because when has Netflix ever prided itself on consistent high quality? At best, this could be a secondary issue, tied into the economics.
   
4. Legal trouble due to Nollywood’s copyright chaos.
   Wildest theory of the bunch. The idea is that Netflix is quietly pulling back to avoid entanglements in copyright infringement cases. I’d need to see at least one public legal case to buy into this.

Interestingly, the same topic showed up at a NollywoodWeek Paris panel on distribution, where Lala Akindoju was asked to comment, given her past role as an executive at Prime Video. She clarified that she had left before the streamer pulled back from the region, but confirmed what many suspected: the subscriber numbers weren’t matching the investment. “The math wasn’t mathing,” she said.

So, do all these guesses get us any closer to the truth?

In the same NFC hangout, which they self-admittedly call overflogged, they also veered into questions around the kinds of stories Nollywood is telling and which ones it tells well, while bringing up the hints of industry doom and gloom (as the episode is titled) by Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and James Abinibi. There was a call for Nollywood to better use data to guide storytelling decisions, rather than chasing the latest genre craze. A key question emerged: Who are we creating the cinema space for?

Later, they discussed the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and how they can use “their reach”. Some suggested that if a true revolution is to happen locally, it might have to start with NTA. Mo argued for leveraging NTA’s infrastructure, while others proposed syndicating popular shows and using TV to create new stars. I think more government support will likely be essential here.

Interestingly, some of these wishes may already be coming true. Executive Director of Programmes at NTA, Tari Taylaur, has teased new sitcom Las Gidi, licensed Temi and The Labalaba Band from Anthill, and hinted at plans to revive some classics. So, maybe NFC spoke these moves into existence, or it is simply the path that should have always been prioritized

Without doubt, cinema will live.

My (not-so) key lesson: Netflix just isn’t spending like it used to globally. Things they would have acquired in a heartbeat a few years ago are now getting passed over. So, naturally, regions that were never high-priority to begin with (no data, but we can guess Nigeria was low on that list) are feeling the brunt. Or as Oyinkan puts it: “When they have to start cutting, it starts from places they don’t have responsibility to.”

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