YouTube Revolution Redefines Nollywood Amid Piracy, Distribution Woes, and Streaming Setbacks
Nigeria’s film industry is thriving on YouTube – but not without growing pains.
According to journalist Eromo Egbejule.
Nollywood, the world’s second-largest film industry by volume, is undergoing a digital revolution. In the face of shrinking opportunities from global streaming platforms and persistent issues such as piracy and poor distribution infrastructure, a wave of Nigerian filmmakers is pivoting toward YouTube – reinventing both how they connect with audiences and how stories are told.
Omoni Oboli, a veteran actress and filmmaker, is among those leading this digital charge. Her YouTube release Love in Every Word defied industry expectations, racking up one million views in just 24 hours and crossing five million in three days. Despite criticism of the film’s melodramatic plot, it sparked widespread online debate and cultural memes, with fans spinning fantasies about their own odogwu – a term for a wealthy, charismatic man.
“I didn’t think it would be a movie on a YouTube channel that would break out like this,” Oboli said. “God has a way of using the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.”
Yet just months earlier, in January, Oboli had quietly pulled a different film from her channel after it was discovered the script had also been sold to another producer for a 2022 film. The scandal highlighted one of many unresolved challenges facing Nollywood’s evolving digital landscape.
The timing is precarious. International pressures, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threat to impose 100% tariffs on foreign films, have caused shares in Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros Discovery, and Paramount to tumble. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, platforms like Amazon Prime have pulled back significantly. In early 2024, Amazon laid off its entire African team and stopped acquiring original content from the continent. Netflix has also slashed its Nollywood acquisitions.
“Profitability is the very short answer,” explained Jessica Abaga, a former Amazon Prime Studios executive. “The business model still isn’t working in their favour.”
Filmmakers, especially emerging voices, are feeling the pinch. With streaming platforms turning to a handful of proven directors, and cinema infrastructure in West Africa limited – just 102 cinemas serve Nigeria’s 200 million people – YouTube has become a lifeline.
“The biggest appeal YouTube has is the ease of putting your stuff there,” Abaga noted. “There’s no red tape, no restrictions, no one stifling your creativity. But that also means there’s no quality control.”
That tension between creative freedom and professional polish is on full display. Many producers are working on razor-thin budgets and tight schedules. Some writers are paid as little as ₦150,000 (around £70) for feature-length scripts. Entire films are shot in Airbnb apartments over four to five days, with different costumes marking the only real variation between productions.
Promotional efforts are just as makeshift: actors and crew often create dance videos for TikTok to drive attention to their work. Due to rushed editing, it’s not uncommon for crew members to appear inadvertently in the final cut.
Despite these constraints, the industry is seeing unexpected breakthroughs. Nora Awolowo, a 26-year-old filmmaker, has secured angel investment for her debut feature film, Red Circle, set to hit Nigerian cinemas on June 6. While championing theatrical releases, she remains supportive of the YouTube movement.
“They get direct access to audiences and are giving new faces a chance to rise,” she said. “My challenge is to reconnect to this audience by giving them quality.”
But the YouTube boom has also reignited a longstanding nemesis: piracy. Actor-producer Bimbo Ademoye recently discovered her new film illegally reposted on more than 50 channels.
“Some even went as far as putting their watermark and their own soundtrack on the movie, claiming it to be theirs,” she said on Instagram. “Some had as much as 200k views … and it’s painful because we thought the days of piracy were over.”
Awolowo also fears that YouTube could eventually change its rules – much like X (formerly Twitter) did in 2024 – leaving creators in the lurch.
“We have a structural problem,” she warned. “Nobody wants to take risks. We are not addressing our problem in this industry, which is a distribution problem. How do we get to the grassroots? How do we engage the government? What are the policies?”
For Chris Ihidero, a Nollywood veteran best known for Fuji House of Commotion, the answer may lie in resurrecting Nigeria’s public broadcasting system. Once a hub for original programming, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has become largely synonymous with state propaganda.
“There are no substitutes for investment in quality content on free-to-air platforms,” he argued. “This is the NTA’s statutory obligation and it has failed at it for decades.”
Despite all this, the momentum is unmistakable. YouTube has empowered creators to bypass gatekeepers and meet viewers where they are. Oboli now operates two production units, aiming to release a film every week. In just one year, her channel has hosted more than 60 titles.
As the digital renaissance continues, Nollywood is racing to balance mass access with lasting artistry – and to prove that in an industry long plagued by instability, the audience, at last, is king.