The media content industry has grown considerably over the last decade, particularly with the spontaneous offshoot of several new platforms and the exponential growth of pre-existing ones (Netflix says hi). Infact, despite the COVID-19 menace of 2020, the global media and entertainment market is expected to still be valued at about $2 trillion in 2021.
Even with the pandic the world is battling, video content increased tremendously but so did the gulf between content owners/distributors and the audience. But what can we expect in an industry so big now one can actually truly measure?
Current Issues of the Media Content Industry
Content is the universal language that binds everyone. To stay in constant meaningful communication, we need to improve how we communicate. That said, it is not enough to construct appropriate channels and optimize the content. You have to tackle the underlying issues, or all efforts will be for naught. It appears this is what some brands are already working towards.
As you may already know, laws differ from country to country. Heck, from state to state even. Because of the discrepancies in international laws and lack of standard licensing laws, deals take longer to close. Sometimes, the producer and consumer are at loggerheads because of these differences. Contracts are often renegotiated in many of these scenarios costing both parties additional time and money.
License trading can be a maze in itself, even more so with its bureaucratic structure. And the lack of standardized and uniform guiding laws stagnates the efforts of both content producers and the consuming audience. This has led to the proliferation of mistrust between both parties. Middlemen seized this opportunity to act as "trustworthy" brokers and blow up prices the way they see fit. In essence, they get paid to do nothing.
Trust is all, maybe not all, that plagues the media content industry. The current structure makes it difficult for laws to protect the interests of end-consumers and distributors/producers alike. Contract automation will, to a long extent, make the process of licensing more transparent. The more time it takes to finalize a deal, the more room there is for mistrust to brew. Talking about this disruption, a serious contender will be the MILC platform.
What Can MILC Really do?
This platform aims to suture the growing divide between media producers and end consumers. They seek to become a one-for-all marketplace for all stakeholders of the media content industry, stakeholders who implement the latest technology. The implementation of blockchain technology, analysts believe MILC could be a potential game-changing platform.
At a casual glance, it appears their solution provides answers to the following primary challenges of the media content industry:
The global availability of content
The laborious discovery process of buyers
Complex licensing structures
Early viewer feedbacks
Before now, global content licensing has been primarily offline, grossly inefficient and expensive. The digitalization of this process is a first for the industry, and MILC might just be putting appropriately shaped pegs in the holes they fit.
Experts believe Hendrik Hey's Welt der Wunder TV, having been around for like 25 years in the media business, surely has the experience required to break grounds. But then, the markets has a way of testing ideas and making a choice.
Tackling the issues of the Media Content Industry
Like any neutral party or reputable licensing outfit would, MILC equally profits the parties partaking in the deal. As the sales will be brokered over the blockchain technology of smart contracts (SC), they will go through much faster because the process is automated.
And with the laws guiding these contracts being double-blinded, i.e., being done in a fashion where neither party is favoured, no one will feel cheated. Due to this automotive, time-saving, cost-effective, and party-neutral laws, trust is no longer needed for deals to see the light of day; AI has no use for your money.
The intermediaries who have dragged media content licensing into the pit it currently is in will be eliminated from the supply chain. Unlike the negotiations mediated by greedy brokers, those done on these new platforms (MILC, for instance) tend to enjoy a greater spectrum of flexibility because there are usually no hidden fees.
In an industry where brokers enjoy as much as 50% of sales commission, it is perhaps time to free up things a little and reduce the total commission to as little as 10%. This singular act benefits both producers and the end audience. Producers do not have to suffer so much because they are trying to get across to the audience.
The audience, in turn, won't suffer from the producers trying to profit by overpricing their content. So if the team behind this idea intends to create a free-for-all fair where producers and consumers of media content can interact freely with minimal restrictions and lower costs, they're welcome.
Conclusion
The idea of eliminating middle men in the media content industry is very new. In due course it could get crowded but it goes without saying that the doors to this new phase have already been swung open.
Like many adaptations of blockchain technology, the solution herein illustrated will look like blockchain startups in some ways. For instance, the project we've been referencing throughout this article has its native token: the Media Licensing Token (MLT). There is no doubt that many more similar solutions will spring up.
However, end consumers will react accordingly as they are the ones who decide where the industry tilts. But while the market decides what technology the world should adopt, the press will keep a close watch on how this industry evolves and the trends that will dominate it.
