FEATURE: THE BLOCKCHAIN
Media’s Minds’ Anita O’Donnell
user tries to disguise it,” Chemla adds. He is currently working on Reel Track, a blockchain-based, not-for-profit rights-management and royalties-payment system for all industry stakeholders: “Our intention is to create the Gracenote [analytics company] of the audiovisual industry, which would mean that we could put an end to the $7bn per year of illegal usage of audiovisual IP and accurately keep track of rights to ensure immediate payments to all rights-holders.” Anita O’Donnell is co-founder of management consultants Media Minds, many of whose clients are active in international distribution. “We help identify the right solution and approach to bring change and value to our clients,” says O’Donnell, who also believes the blockchain has vast untapped potential. “However, we will have to wade on through these early days and the hype around it before we start to see real value,” she adds. “With the explosion of ICOs [initial currency offerings], we are in the midst of a lot a noise around how the new incumbents are going to disrupt and decentralise the TV industry supply chain. My belief is that we’ll improve the existing pain points around the
Reel Deal Group’s Laurent Chemla
business of TV with blockchain and smart-contract technology.” She also predicts that it won’t be long until we start to refer to BAAS — or blockchain as a service.
Anita O’Donnell:
“We are in the midst of a lot a noise around how the blockchain is going to disrupt and decentralise the TV industry supply chain. My belief is that it’ll improve the existing pain points” For O’Donnell, it is the lack of centralised governance that makes the blockchain so exciting. “Instead, blockchains are governed by the consensus of a decentralised network,” she says. “Often, the cause of delay in traditional financial settlements lies in the trust between the parties involved. With the
DNA.fund’s James Glasscock
addition of built-in smart contracts, greater speed and efficiency is achieved. Walmart, British Airways and Maersk are just a few companies to have adopted the blockchain to improve their supply chain.” David Lofts, founder of the 21 Million Project and CEO at Ethical ICO, a consultancy dedicated to maintaining ethics standards in the crypto-capital funding sector, points out a detail that often gets lost: “The blockchain isn’t a financial system. While it is the underlying technology to cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin being the first — it’s best described as an enabler of transactions. A blockchain transaction can be financial or simply the transfer of information or data, so it offers way more than financial transactions across industries such as healthcare, supply-chain management, identity authentication and, of course, film and television.” Lofts believes the blockchain’s major benefit for film and television is its transparency: “Unlike traditional Hollywood accounting and production processes, the blockchain doesn’t lie.” He also notes that there have been major advances in the way content is created and broadcast.
MIPCOM PREVIEW • 114 • September 2018
“Our specific goal is to change the way in which the creative people who make content are rewarded,” he adds. “We have a whole industry to empower with this new way of doing business. Tokenising funding will ensure that the people who do the work get the rewards.” As well as delivering action-drama Children Of Satoshi and putting together film-funding packages for emerging talent — including a “fantastic comedy” written by Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt — Lofts is now providing consultancy to clients in areas as diverse as hemp production, plastics recycling and tokenised education for disadvantaged girls in emerging countries. “And I’m also working on a blockchain solution that will ultimately stamp out content piracy,” he adds. According to Lofts, the blockchain has applications across the media spectrum, from the collection and distribution of royalties to rights management and distribution. “As well as my own humble efforts, revenue companies like FilmChain and crewing agencies such as Big Couch are emerging, along with a range of VOD and SVOD platforms, which will disrupt