What is happening in the United States with the scriptwriters first, and now with the actors and actresses, it is undoubtedly a wake-up call for the global entertainment industry. Although today its epicenter is in North America, you have to think about what effect it will cause in other countries and regions.
The conflict, which is divided between three pillars –salaries, royalties by reproduction on platforms and the use of AI in content production-, is a spokesperson for some concerns that we have been hearing from producers, directors, actors and actresses, against which some of us are developing proposals to build a fairer ecosystem.
On the side of the salary claim, it is a subject of specific negotiations and it is perhaps easier for everyone to understand. Now, the payment for reproduction in platforms of streaming It responds to the problem that the large platforms, especially subscription ones, do not report the number of reproductions of their content, they do not provide any type of data on the performance of the series and movies.
They are very jealous of that information. Actors, actresses and authors are used to receiving royalties for each sale of the content in which they participated, and today it is information that is not within their reach. On the other hand, there are the platforms that follow a model of income sharing, which consists of sharing profits with producers. These platforms are generally based on pay-per-view or advertising models.
But there is no way to audit them, so we are not sure that this information is true and, on top of that, quarterly reports are usually given, so the producer does not have a constant flow of information that allows them to make decisions about their content or have a forecast of cash flow.
What solution is there? Eliminate intermediaries and develop a transparent and auditable model. At Flixxo, for example, we did the same thing. The platform is based on a monetization scheme through the blockchain in which the agreed value goes directly from the user to the creator after each display of their content.
The flow of value through the blockchain is absolutely transparent and auditablemoney moves automatically and immediately and it is easy to generate payment models in which not only the producer charges, but also rules can be written so that royalties are received for actors, actresses, authors and even the technical team if cooperative production models are faced (think of modern cooperative models, also based on Web3 technology and concepts).
For large platforms, this can be very complex from an administrative point of view, beyond the power they would lose by starting to share information. But also unions, guilds and associations would lose power, since today they are the ones who receive the royalties and distribute them among their associates. The game is open to everyone.
Regarding artificial intelligence, I think it is a revolution that is absolutely impossible to stop and regulate. As much as there is a call for attention to restrict the use of this technology, there will always be disruptors that come from outside the system. As long as the world’s Netflix is restricted from moving forward with AI, I do not rule out that other independent platforms may appear that they propose models in which the users ask them, for example: ‘Tell me a story for me, for half an hour and make it a comedy’ and that the content is generated immediately and only for that user, based on their tastes and consumption habits. And I am sure that it will be possible in a very short time, even in cinematic quality and with very realistic actors.
AI is a revolution that is already here. You have to make friends and think that we are going to have to live with content made by AI and by human beings. We will see who is more creative and, above all, who has more audience reach.
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by Adrián Garelik, founder and CEO of Flixxo.
