Naturally, Nigerians were over the moon. Everyone wanted in on the action. Back then, many people did not quite get the real meaning behind ‘Netflix and chill’, and were taking it quite literally. Even telecommunications company were running ads using ‘Netflix n chill’ to promote their data plans. Of course, cost was important, so some people got busy with the naira-dollar calculations. Then, there were those who were focused on how many other businesses Netflix was going to send packing in Nigeria.
Well, the excitement was rather short-lived, from my own personal experience. After getting high on the idea that I no longer had to ‘trick’ Netflix that I was watching it from the US or elsewhere, I landed back on earth shortly after. I wisely kept my Netflix on standby. Meanwhile, the speed and cost of data are things we don’t talk about (enough). Now, didn’t I read somewhere that Nigeria has the world’s most expensive Internet?
In September 2018, Netflix was in the news again. It was announced to have bought the worldwide rights to Lionheart, Genevieve Nnaji’s directorial debut. And the headline was ‘Lionheart becomes Netflix’s first original Nollywood film to be bought’, or words to that effect. I was a little confused because I remember there was some noise years ago when Fifty, directed by Biyi Bandele for Ebony Life Films, got on Netflix. But Lionheart, being bought by Netflix, was good news; so, I rejoiced all the same in the proper Christian spirit of being happy at other people’s good news. One still has to watch the film though. In any case, there isn’t much to do since the movie is yet to be released. The release, which was initially scheduled for December, has been shifted to January 4. It will be a good time to dust off my subscription.
Now, the real reason I started this was another headline I saw on Screen Africa: ‘First Netflix Original Series in Africa to star South African actress Pearl Thusi’. Another first? What is it with Netflix and first? Looks to me that very soon, Netflix might run out of firsts. As far as Nigeria is concerned, after three years of Netflix coming to Nigeria, we should now be having Netflix ‘seconds’ and ‘thirds’, etc’.
Actually, the last thing I heard about Netflix was that Nigerians pay 45 per cent more than its US customers. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for this. It would still be worthwhile for Netflix customers to check it out. Although, whatever we pay for Netflix will always sound small compared to the cost of Internet service. At this moment, we should probably deal with the high cost of Internet first.
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