Rise of American TV series, and piracy, in Nigeria

For some, the addiction to American TV Series may have begun with Prison Break, Desperate Housewives, Lost or  ‘24’ an eight season action movie produced for the Fox network, starring as its major actor, Jack Bauer, a Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) agent always out to save the day. Again, for others, their enthusiasm may have […]

For some, the addiction to American TV Series may have begun with Prison Break, Desperate Housewives, Lost or  ‘24’ an eight season action movie produced for the Fox network, starring as its major actor, Jack Bauer, a Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) agent always out to save the day. Again, for others, their enthusiasm may have begun with popular series, Arrow, Walking Dead, The Black List, Scandal, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Gotham and Game of Thrones, currently trending. Of course, the list of those before and the ones aired at the moment is endless.
Many Nigerians are known to have bought DVDs of these series long after they had ended, while others follow season after season while ongoing, their eagerness helped by the activities of movie pirates who had keyed into the boom right from the beginning. Finding original DVDs is usually difficult while copies of poorly made ones fill display racks of almost every DVD store in the country.
But change, as the saying goes, remains constant. When DVD players have the facilities that accommodate flash drives and many Nigerians own a computer, a different scenario plays out. They turn towards torrent sites, where file-sharing technology allows them to download virtually every episode of any TV show, including movies, music and other media. Android phones and other devices offer a variety of ways to download content illegally.
 A few people, however, use the itunes store run by Apple to pay and download legally. There are also some who wait patiently for their favourite series to feature on pay TV services like DSTV.
Nollywood and Kannywood, too, are constantly hurt by the bootleg DVD sellers, as most available wares on sale are illegally produced.
The Nigerian Copyright Commission, every once in a while conducts ‘raids’ on sellers of discs, but no real action is ever taken. Suspects are usually captured, pirated film works in DVD format worth thousands of naira confiscated across the country, yet the story remains the same. The market is ever-soaring for the bootleg disc sellers and compelling content created by Hollywood will see the trend continuing.