Digital Technology and Film Distribution in Kenya

Abstract

The twenty-first century is a decade of shifts. Since its onset, film as an offshoot of the twentieth century’s technology and its impact is a recipient of its adjustment. Notably, alterations emanate from unending innovations that sway on its content, production and distribution. This proposition is made after a realisation of what the Third Industrial Revolution has done to Film technology, particularly, to its transition from analogue to digital modes. I argue that film-related businesses have been created with a parallel disruption of others. However, amidst all these changes, a marked boost on its precision in quality, accessibility as well as the democratisation of what viewers need has been noted. These observations are universal, nevertheless. In Kenya, I acknowledge that these shifts impact on the dissemination and consumption of film. It is these findings that narrows this study into two objectives: One, to examine how digital technology has impacted film distribution in Kenya and two, to investigate the impact of digital technologies on the exhibition of film in Kenya. As a result, the study hypothesised that in Kenya, digital technology impacts on both film distribution and exhibition. That is why, in probing on the aforesaid duo impacts, this study has employed Clayton Christensen’s Theory of Disruption of innovation and Everett Rodgers’ Diffusion of Innovation theories as frameworks of my debate. Among many findings, I argue that conventional film distribution business models have been replaced with modern ones because of their transformation potential.