Money talk: Kenyan entertainment industry ranked third in Africa with over Sh 189 billion revenue

 According to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, the local entertainment industry made more than Sh189 billion in revenue. Now, this is expected to rise to Sh347 billion by 2019.

Before the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report titled Entertainment and Media Outlook (2015-2019) was released in September last year, a local projection released to Pulse by the Music Copyright Society of Kenya had placed Kenya’s entertainment worth at Sh200 billion.

This wasn’t far from the latest outcome. Indeed, the talk about numbers is a non-issue. The truth is that the local entertainment has steadily risen to affirm its position as one of the greatest earners and employers as well in the Kenyan economy.

What is even more exciting is that beside the conventional entertainment outlets such as TV, radio, film and music recording in general, new media players among them YouTube and everything social media has thrown in a whole new twist in the entertainment game; and so, a future that very few, if any, saw coming is here with us.

According to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, the local entertainment industry made more than Sh189 billion in revenue. Now, this is expected to rise to Sh347 billion by 2019.

The report that accounts for data collected from Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria cuts across a number of sectors in the entertainment industry among them Internet-based forums, television, filmed entertainment, radio, recorded music, publishing, out-of-home advertising, video games and sports, had a favourable leaning on internet, filmed entertainment and video games – all of which were projected as growing new frontiers.

The Internet is taking charge of the entertainment space. Literally, everything entertainment; from video access, gaming, selling of music can now be done with the click of a button. That is where the new money is. They call it over-the-top streaming revenue.

With much of the new support coming from the Internet and for that matter increased use of social media, PwC had it that the entertainment and media industry earned Sh150 billion with a projection of Sh88 billion expected from TV and radio alone in the next four years now.

According to the forecast, the music industry is expected to slow down with more people migrating or opting for social media sites as sources of entertainment. This is expected to favour video games whose growth rate is expected to hit nine percent.

This is not to say that the increase of social media use will mean an end to conventional media such as newspapers, TV and radio. According to the survey, in Kenya, the three remain strongholds attracting advertising revenue as first choices for the advertiser.

“Today’s media companies need to do three things to succeed: innovate around the product and user experience; develop seamless consumer relationships across distribution channels, and put mobile (and increasingly video) at the centre of the consumer’s experience,” said PwC Southern Africa entertainment and media leader Vicki Myburgh.

Then, South Africa entertainment revenue stood at Sh884 billion with the second-placed Nigeria scoring Sh418 billion.

Gone are the days when celebrities would boast of making money through tours and concerts through gate fee and ticket sales. Long gone are the days when musicians would thrive on CD and album sales, days when we would talk about albums going platinum.

It is all about transforming fame to fortune through the new age platforms that have changed the game completely, forever. As a matter of fact, the above traditional methods are now being used as complementary aspects in the entertainment games for celebrities to cut their niche in an otherwise cutthroat showbiz market.

A few months ago, Safaricom released a whopping Sh152 million to artists, money that was earned as royalties raised through the online Skiza tunes.

It was the first time an artist was paid over Sh20 million for a single song. The boom was redistributed to artists through their associations among them the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK.), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRiSK) and Kenya Association of Music Producers (Kamp) as well as Premium Rate Service Providers (PRSPs).

This Skiza platform only has 5,000 registered members out of the estimated over 10,000 musicians, promoters, songwriters and performers we have in the country. Strange enough, out of all the music recorded by local artists, only 11,000 songs are on this platform.

The biggest lot of entertainers has locked itself out of the new windfall with cry-babies claiming that the industry is “dying” as they cling onto old methods of raising entertainment money.

As this happens, leading telecommunication service providers have been wrestling to grab a share of the big entertainment pie with Safaricom and Airtel even going ahead to factor big budgets to sponsor music events and help record artists’ music as they negotiate their way into being part of the millions.

Clearly, in the lead, Safaricom now has a foothold on local music after introducing the Skiza platform in 2008, a service that has millions of subscribers paying at least 75 cents daily; per Skiza tune.

Before a renegotiated deal between artists’ bodies, PRSPs and the giant telecommunication firm, only 7.5 percent of what was collected was being released to artists in loyalties.

It was only last year when Safaricom announced it was increasing royalties to 15 percent. This was reviewed to 17 percent this year and projected to 20 percent for next year.

And as artists’ bodies initiate digital monetization on radio and TV stations through logs for every music that goes on air, we can clearly see how the PwC Sh347 billion by 2019 estimations will be achieved, on the part of our celebrities.

“The truth is that there is a lot of money to tap in this entertainment industry for our artists but many are still stuck to the traditional ways of earning,” says Maurice Okoth, one of the leading voices in the entertainment industry - who was the MCSK CEO before quitting to join TV Cosmopolitan, a digitally driven new TV station.

“Many young people are tapping into the entertainment industry. We are seeing scores making good cash through YouTube channels, homemade TV programmes, running social media accounts for celebrities and other prominent people. The World Wide Web has just opened limitless and endless possibilities for all young users. This should help boost the entertainment industry, and there is no doubt, Kenya has tapped into this space,” he adds.

“I have been able to make money through one single song through online outlets and I agree that is time we artists refocus on how we sell our art. We can say that there is so much money in the entertainment industry but unless we tap into that, that will remain mere talk,” remarks Gloria Muliro, a leading gospel star whose hits songs have profiled her among the highest earners in the Kenyan market.