The fintech entertainment company MovieCoin recently announced a partnership with TV-TWO, which uses blockchain technology to pay viewers to watch personalized television programming. MovieCoin will advertise films it finances on TV-TWO’s platform.
The companies are among those looking to use blockchain to change the way entertainment is financed, distributed and consumed. Two others that stand out are Reel Cash and AlphaNetworks. Though each of the four has its own characteristics, together they highlight several emerging trends.
New Financing Models
First, fresh models are emerging for financing films and other entertainment. As MovieCoin CEO Christopher Woodrow told ThirtyK in a recent interview, “The film industry is the modern Wild West when it comes to investing.” The MovieCoin platform, he says, uses blockchain and tokenization to allow a broader range of investors to participate in the financing of major motion pictures.
viewers already Provide lots of valuable data for free to Netflix. why not pay viewers to watch?
MovieCoin will sell $250 million of its Smart Fund Tokens (MSF), which will give holders stakes in a fund that invests in films and other entertainment assets. The tokens will fully finance eight to 10 widely released films each year during the life of the fund. Token purchases will be open to “accredited investors” as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In TV-TWO’s system, viewers will receive tokens for watching customized programming. For example, a film studio might pay them to watch a movie trailer. But viewers can also reward creators of content they like with tokens, thus providing direct financing.
Reel Cash, which launched the sale of REEL tokens on July 25, will provide funding for content creators in several ways. Revenue from paid subscriptions to its Reel Pass system will go toward financing new content. Additionally, Reel Cash will sell anonymized viewing data to studios, agencies and others, and half will be used to fund the creation of films and streaming series.
Data-Driven Production and Delivery
Collecting viewer data is at the core of the Reel Cash system. Founder and managing director Jeffrey Carr tells ThirtyK that streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon’s Prime Video have an enormous advantage when they produce original content: data providing valuable insights into viewer preferences and behaviors. Reel Cash will allow other content creators to gain access to the viewer data it collects as Reel Pass users watch Netflix, YouTube Red, YouTube TV and Hulu.
