"NFTs bring a strong value proposition to the table as an alternative source of revenue and digital-native audience engagement.""Every major production company is looking into using NFTs."NFTs could grant the right to vote on how the next season of a TV show plays out, or access to special content that can only be seen by NFT holders.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have already begun taking over the music industry, and now they’re turning to the film and TV sector. Case in point: animated series “Stoner Cats” raised USD 8.4m at the end of July in a sale of NFTs (that grant holders the exclusive right to watch episodes), selling out in only 35 minutes.
This is only the beginning, since industry players speaking with Cryptonews.com say that a growing number of film and TV studios are beginning to look into NFTs. In fact, global production company Enderby Entertainment partnered with CurrencyWorks in June to form VUELE, the first full-length feature film NFT viewing and distribution platform.
And for many within the crypto and TV-film industries, NFTs might not only provide a new, lucrative source of merchandise, but could also help to shape this industry in new ways. This will include enabling smaller, indie production firms to secure financing, as well as potentially using NFTs to let viewers vote on plot developments, among other things.
‘A strong value proposition’
“As with any creative sector, be it film, photography, or music, NFTs bring a strong value proposition to the table as an alternative source of revenue and digital-native audience engagement,” said Alex Salnikov, Co-founder and Head of Product at Rarible.com.
While acknowledging that the NFT space is still in its early days, Salnikov nonetheless affirms that we’ve begun seeing more adopters from traditional industries — including film and television — experiment with NFTs, in the process validating them as a business component.
He reminds that, just this year, the first Oscar-nominated film was released as an NFT, while media giants as big as Fox started to explore investment and building opportunities within the space.
“All these actions have a domino effect: they influence other major players in the industry to give NFTs a go, while budding artists and creators get even more inspired to explore this new exciting medium
Salnivok also notes that Rarible itself hosted an NFT sale by award-winning director Michael Beets, held in order to raise funds for the world’s first documentary filmed live by refugees around the world. These may only be modest initial steps, but according to some figures within the NFT space, they signal an imminent widespread shift within the TV and film world.
“Every major production company is looking into using NFTs to drive fan engagement and find new revenue lines. The licensing arrangements for films are complex so it's taken some time to work through the proper ways to implement, but we expect once that's resolved NFTs will become a big part of the fan experience for movies,” said Wes Levitt, Head of Strategy at Theta Labs, the company behind Theta Network (THETA), a blockchain-powered video streaming network.
Mintable CEO and Founder Zach Burks corroborates this picture of growing interest in NFTs within the film and TV industry, suggesting that most will get involved in one way or another.
“I think we've already seen TV studios and production companies diving head first into NFTs. From CNN to Fox, to indie studios there is a lot of activity in the space already,” he told Cryptonews.com.
Burks takes Stoner Cats as an example of how popular NFT-based or -associated shows could become, given that it had such a successful release. Indeed, the show -- which features Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock, and Jane Fonda -- has already released its first episode, with more forthcoming.