The BBN is a program or show owned by Multichoice, which also owns DStv and GOtv. This indicates that Multichoice, Big Brother Naija Organizer Make makes investments for the show’s success, the most of which is the cost of the BBN house (N2.5 billion) and the expense of producing the program for the full 70 days (N1 billion). According to our calculations, the price also includes the winner’s big prize (N85 million) as well as N30 million for the 30 lucky fans who were present when the winner of the season 5 edition was announced. The N1 billion cost of producing the performance comprises paying the wages of the 374 production crew members and talent hired to ensure the smooth execution of the live show, marketing, and talent.
The show’s sponsors, of which Betway and Abeg are popular lead sponsors, are also present along with the show’s owner. As a result, Betway is able to pay Multichoice a set sum of money (reportedly $1 million against $5 million paid by Bet9ja in 2019), as Multichoice is essentially providing Betway with a platform to advertise its goods and services to the throngs of viewers.
The show also has other advertisers, which include Pepsi, Airtel, flutterwave, Guinness, Indomie, trivalent, Kuda Bank, Abeg, Piggyvest, and others. Additionally, they give a different sum of money to Multichoice, the show’s owner.
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), which include food suppliers, fashion designers, wig makers, lounges, housekeepers, etc., come next in the value chain. They contribute significantly to the value chain by making sure the housemates are attractive and engaging for the audience. Additionally, they guarantee that food and other supplies get to the BBN house when they are supposed to according to Big Brother Naija Organizer.
How Big Brother Organizers make their money
Multichoice gains from more DStv and GOtv subscribers. People want to see the program, but they are unable to do so without purchasing one of the aforementioned decoders. Obtaining the decoders increases one’s ability to vote. Therefore, one needs to have enough voting power to keep a housemate in the house. Voting power rises with each upgrade in any of the decoders and subscription options. Voting also benefits multi-choice. There are four ways to vote: SMS, MyDStv & MyGOtv apps, desktop website, and mobile site. While voting on the desktop and mobile versions of the website is free, voting by SMS costs N30 and voting via applications is free only if the user is a subscriber. Multichoice additionally benefits from the payment sponsors in addition to that.
BBN Revenue Streams Break-down
Gains for the Sponsors come from increased brand recognition, which results in higher sales. The show is expected to have hit a milestone of 1.2 billion viewers after 49 days of airing, with 24.3 billion digital expressions being made on social networks in the first month of running. It’s understandable why Twitter’s trend table crashed on the day the winner was declared. Aside from that, awareness is also spread through the hosts’ mentions and the house activities, tasks, and Saturday parties. In reality, the Airtel “444” commercial would not have been as well-known without BBN. This raises awareness of the product Airtel is attempting to market through the advertisement, which results in increased sales for them.
SMEs and entertainers also benefit from more customers. This is so that they may draw more people, improve patronage, and boost sales simply by using their names or just mentioning them. Additionally, it keeps them employed and has a multiplier effect that creates indirect jobs, especially as the orders grow more quickly than a single person or team could handle.
In the form of SMS revenue sharing with Big Brother Naija Organizer Make, telecom carriers also benefit. Multichoice does not receive 100% of the earnings from SMS. In actuality, the telecom companies get the lion’s share of the funding. The same thing happens when USSD is used to transfer money between banks. The bank receives a portion of the money, and the telecom companies receive the remainder.
Increased followers, brand interactions, ambassador appointments, forays into the creative scene, and other benefits also benefit the contestants.
The show’s purpose is to entertain the audience, which it does successfully. Yes, we enjoy ourselves.
Analysis of How BB Naija Revenue is Raked in
Sponsorship
Depending on the type of sponsorship, each of the BB Naija sponsors gives Multichoice a different sum of money. For instance, it has been claimed that Betway paid $1 million to serve as the show’s headline sponsor. When we take into account the money we received from Betway, Indomie, Guinness, TravelBeta, and other sponsors, we assessed the overall sponsorship amount to be N11 billion. According to an expert survey by Plaqad, N10 billion was collected from sponsors for the 2019 version of the show, which served as the basis for our estimation. The estimated amount, which has been increasing edition after edition, took historical sponsorship amounts (2017, 2018, and 2019) into account.
SMS
This is the only voting platform that requires payment because each vote costs N30. We conducted an online survey using our twitter handle and discovered that the majority of voters did not use SMS to cast their ballots. Our survey reveals that SMS voting was less popular in the BBN5 than in previous editions, and the reason for this is probably the customers’ declining income caused on by the lockdown measures put in place to stop the COVID-19 epidemic. This resulted in citizens staying at home, some of whom were laid off from their jobs, forcing them to dip deeply into their savings to maintain consumption despite pressure on domestic product prices to rise.
We chose to estimate that 35% of the 900 million votes cast during the 70 days were cast using SMS because the sample size was so tiny. And 315 million ballots, or 35% of 900 million votes, were cast. We calculate the total money from voting to be N9.45 billion by multiplying by N30. We discovered via further investigation and conversations with telecom value-added service providers that the telecom operators receive a sizable portion of SMS income. Particularly, MTN earns 70% of the revenue, Glo earns 80%, and Airtel earns 75%. Additionally, a 10% withholding tax is applied, with 5% going to the provider of value-added services (the shortcode 32052). By taking the average, we estimate that Multichoice only receives 15% of the SMS revenue.
Mobile and Desktop Site
A rise in organic visits translates into earning money from Google, provided that a website is monetized. Additionally, when a website is monetized, clicks can bring in money. An increase in visits also results in better sales of the various goods and services that are promoted on the website.
MyGOtv and MyDStv Apps
These only function for subscribers to one of the two decoders, and there are more votes cast via them than on the website and via SMS. As a result, there is often an increase in the sale of GOtv and DStv decoders, which helps to raise revenue.
However, because we cannot measure the other two sources of income in the same way as the first two, we only considered the first two in our analysis. Additionally, integrating the fourth revenue source will result in duplicate counting because it is likely to flow directly into decoder sales rather than Multichoice’s BBN account. In other words, it is more of an indirect source of income for BBN.
In Conclusion
According to our data, Big Brother Naija Organizer Make, Multichoice generates around N12.42 billion by organizing each BBN season, we estimate. However, according to prior projections, it suffered an average expenditure of N3.62 billion, translating to an estimated profit of 8.8 billion naira. This results in a profit margin of 70.9% in 70 days and a return on investment (ROI) of 243.1%.
