How Much It Me Cost To Build LITV – Linda Ikeji Speaks On Newly Launched TV, Future Plans
While speaking in an exclusive interview published by Pulse Nigeria
Business Insider, Nigeria’s most famous and richest blogger, Linda
Ifeoma Ikeji, who recently launched an online television, LITV, opened
up about her multi-million Naira new investment, how much it cost her to
build it, and her future plans.
The Imo State businesswoman also talks about her social media platform, LIS, why it failed and her plans for the future.
Here are excerpts from the chat;
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You’ve finally launched your own streaming platform. How does this make you feel?
So, getting to this point where I can own an online TV platform is
one of the best feelings in the world. When we first launched, people
bombarded our site, subscribing and commenting on shows I was part of
100 percent. It’s an amazing feeling to see people finally view what we
have done and commend us like this.
How many shows do you have on the platform?
So far, we have 10 reality shows and 21 TV shows. More content is
on the way. What we currently have is just one percent of what we want
to produce. We just wanted to launch so people can see some of what
we’ve produced so far.
Right now, some of my staff are already on different locations, producing more shows, because we plan to have much more.
How long did it take to put the shows together?
We’ve been working on these shows actively since June 2017. I had
to understand that I was a novice producer but I am not a novice at
putting things together. As a producer, I was learning on the job. So,
we made some mistakes. We hired a few people who didn’t know what they
were doing and we had to bring in more professionals. We have gotten it
right now. But, that’s why it took us that long to put the shows
together. There are over 35 shows. One year is not a bad time to produce
that amount of content.
Take us through the process of creating the platform.
Thinking about what equipment to buy and what to replace was
hectic, but I fully enjoyed the creative process. I like sitting down
with my producers, going through ideas, and going over scripts – I wrote
some of the scripts for the shows. I came up with 90% of the titles on
the platform. I always argue with my head of programming. I say, “I
don’t know how to carry cameras and lights, but when it comes to ideas, I
am very creative.”
I think being a blogger for the last 11 years has helped me
understand what people really want to watch. Using data from my blog, I
see what people want to read and I see that the serious stuff is not as
appealing to the youth as the mundane stuff, content about Bobrisky and
the lighthearted things that will just make them laugh. They love drama,
controversy, and gossip. So when you know who your target audience is,
you create content for them.
However, I am not just creating content for young people. On the
site, you have "I Survive,"which is for everybody. It’s a show about
people who have survived the most heartbreaking moments and they are
still standing. Even Betty Irabor is on one of the shows where she comes
to inspire people going through all kinds of issues. We have "The Black
Room," which is a sexual show, so it’s not for children.
When you’re putting something together, you have to understand who
your target audience is and I knew the people I was targeting. So,
probably 70% of our content was targeted at young people and the other
30% for a more mature audience. I haven’t done anything for kids. I am
thinking about it, I don’t know if I should, because a lot of the stuff
coming is too x-rated to be on the same platform.
How much did it cost you to set this up?
About half a billion naira. We have so many equipment – that’s how
we were able to do multiple shoots. We have a lot of cameramen,
presenters, sound technicians, and editors who are in-house. We have a
mini jib and a fully loaded music studio. Sometimes I think to myself,
‘Did you need to go that far?’ We also have a place in Lekki Phase One
that I got for two reality shows in the works. We bought eight cameras
there. We have three studios right here. We have the green room here.
And then, we have done reality shows with celebrities.
For the reality shows, everything is self-funded. We have some
reality shows that have 6 cast and crew members in total. There are
people in Magodo right now that I paid for them for at least two weeks.
Some people have been there for a month. Some people are there for
"Highway Girls," they are going to be there for two weeks. We are
shooting simultaneously and we have to pay for everything. The cost of
production is capital intensive.
For the channel, because we can’t create everything at the same
time, we had to acquire already produced movies. We haven’t shot any
movie at all. I want to make movies completely different movies from
what you have seen. My vision for our movies is totally different from
what Nigeria currently produces, so I am not ready for movies now.
We have produced only one in-house TV series, and we are shooting
another one right now. The one we have now has 22 episodes. It’s on the
site – “The Igwe Must Hear This”. I came up with the idea: the name, the
style – because I used to really love something called "Ichoku." It is
like a modern remake of "Ichoku."
I enjoy creating content, from my blog you can tell that this is
the same thing – creating content for people to enjoy, content that is
informative, educative and entertaining. It’s just on a higher level
where you have to turn it into visuals instead of just text.
