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Digital media is driving a substantive change in the way we consume media content and media-related materials in general.
With key index indicating an exponential increase in the acquisition of smartphones and smart device(s) in Nigeria, it is expected that digital will over time trump the “HOW’, “WHERE’ and “WHEN” we consume media content.
Currently, Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people with over 167 million people using mobile phones and over 97.2 million people accessing the internet from their smartphones. This has led to the rise of digital media giants like InstaBlog, YabaleftOnline, People’s Gazette, The Pulse, Legit, NaijaLoaded and of course the controversial GistLover blog not to talk of content syndicated on social media juggernauts like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the ever disruptive TikTok.
I was privileged to work on a project where the initiators decided to allocate a major chunk of their marketing budget to advertise on a national television station for figures running into millions of naira. I expressed my reservations but was paled by the strong controversial views of the founders. Well, the result was poor and I believe they’ve learned their lesson.
The real truth is that GenX and GenZ (which describes the generation of people born between the 1990s and early 2000s) are increasingly moving from syndicated content on terrestrial media channels and increasingly moving towards the content on digital media channels. And ironically 88% of Nigeria’s population falls within this population demography.
Most of the contents of the future will not be on the hitherto television stations, but rather on digital media channels. I believe terrestrial media devices will have to become smarter and content will have to be more flexible in order to be able to catch up.
Currently, we have smart TVs which are can easily be connected to the internet and according to research carried out by Adobe’s CMO, the connected TV penetration rate in the United States rose to an all-time high in 2022, with 87 percent of American households owning at least one internet-connected TV device. So, people while watching television programs can also access the internet with their TV. I see more of this trend going into the future as failure to plug terrestrial media broadcasts into digital streams will result in a catastrophic effect.
While I’m not forecasting a major doom for the terrestrial media space, I believe there is a need for media agencies and creative agencies to begin to rethink their operational module and begin to see how they can command a stake in the ever-evolving world of digital media.
