Global platforms arrived in Nigeria with commissioning budgets, then pulled back. African producers rebuilt on the platform that never left: YouTube.

For a few years, streaming money transformed African screen production. Netflix commissioned Nigerian originals, Prime Video followed, and budgets, salaries and ambitions rose. Then the global streaming business turned to profitability. Prime Video stopped commissioning African originals in 2024, and Netflix’s local slate narrowed.

Producers who had built companies on commissioning revenue had to find another model. Many found it on YouTube, where a feature-length film financed for a fraction of a streaming budget can earn advertising revenue for years and reach audiences across the continent and the diaspora.

The economics to explain

• Revenue per view. YouTube pays by advertising revenue share, and rates vary enormously by viewer location. A film watched mainly in Nigeria earns far less than one watched in the United Kingdom or the United States.
• Cost discipline. The model works at low budgets, shot quickly, with a known cast.
• Ownership. Producers retain their rights, which is the single biggest difference from a commissioning deal.
• Discovery. Thumbnails, titles and release rhythm matter as much as the film.

The Central African question

Cameroonian, Gabonese and Congolese producers face the same arithmetic with smaller audiences. The comparison is instructive: what does a French-language African film earn on YouTube compared with an English-language one, and why? The answer, largely, is the size and location of the audience — which is also the argument for dubbing and subtitling.