Ruto’s Announcement That Grammys Will Begin Shooting Movies In Kenya Raises Questions
In his sixtieth Jamhuri Day celebrations speech at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi on Tuesday, President William Ruto spread out what he called deliberate steps his administration had taken to build and invest in the creative economy.
Ruto said Kenya had entered into a partnership with the Recording Academy of the United States, the presenter of the renowned Grammy Awards, which will see Hollywood film studios begin shooting movies in Kenya.
This, he said, was set to begin in January.
“The famous Grammy Awards have a partnership with us and starting January, the innovation studios of Hollywood have agreed to begin shooting multiple movies right here in Kenya,” Ruto told the crowd.
His comments, however, raised eyebrows as the Grammys have nothing to do with movie production.
For starters, the Recording Academy is an academic association of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals, headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
On top of the Grammy Awards, it gives annually in recognition of achievements in the music industry, it is also behind the Grammy Museum, a non-profit aimed at preserving and educating about music history and significance.
The academy also runs MusiCares, a charity that champions the welfare of the music community in the United States.
Some of Hollywood’s major film studios include Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Sony Pictures, but none has links to the Recording Academy.
None has made any announcement either on partnering with the Kenya Kwanza administration to shoot films in Kenya.
In his speech, President Ruto also said he had good news for Kenyan content creators who share their content on the Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram social media platforms.
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He said the California-headquartered technology conglomerate had on Monday, December 11, committed to monetizing Kenyan creators’ content.
“I have good news for our creatives and those who imagine and produce content through Facebook and Instagram. Just yesterday, Meta committed to helping creators in Kenya earn money for crafting original content. Following a pilot program with eligible creators in the country, Meta will be expanding monetization opportunities and allowing more creators to earn a living doing what they love,” he said.
But content monetization on the two Meta platforms goes back a few years.
As of October 2019, Facebook had rolled out content monetization in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya for creators with at least 10,000 followers and over 30,000 one-minute views on a video that is not less than a minute.
In the last quarter of 2022, more options were made available to them, including Reels Play Bonus, a payment feature for Reels content, expanding the limitation of creators depending on sponsored campaigns to make more money in comparison to their counterparts in places like the United States.
Play bonuses apply to creators with over 1,000 views and are paid based on the play target set and views.
Meta at the time also launched In-Stream or Overlay Ads, which when they appear on Reels, creators receive 55 percent of the advertising revenue, with Meta taking the remaining percentage.
As of Tuesday, Meta had also not yet announced a new content monetization plan for its users in Kenya or across Africa.
Ruto’s Announcement That Grammys Will Begin Shooting Movies In Kenya Raises Questions
