Telestream Tells IBC of Plans to Track Live Stream Latency

Streaming Media

Telestream aims to help solve OTT latency by adding timestamps to streams as part of its cloud-based playout solution Project Orchid. Still in prototype and with proof of concepts in the works, Telestream says it has reduced total channel start-up time from months to minutes.

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"Broadcasters can launch on-demand channels with a single click," claimed CEO Scott Puopolo at IBC. "We have diverted all of our R&D into the project and have all the intellectual knowledge for the future of IP delivery."

Orchid integrates live adaptive streaming production with live monitoring and actionable analytics in a completely virtualised deployment. What results is a claimed "one-click live channel origination" that supports real-time self-optimisation.

Telestream is far from the only company targeting the cloud migration space. Cinegy, for example, helped Globecast launch an UHD HDR channel in the UK using its software playout solutions.

According to Stuart Newton, VP strategy & business development, Telestream’s advantage is embedded live stream monitoring.

"As you move to the cloud, monitoring is no longer an option," he said. "With cloud, engineers can no longer simply plug in their test equipment. You need to tap between virtual machines and probe between containers because everything is more dynamic when you are spinning up and down a channel. You have to configure the monitoring system very quickly and take it down in a few days in order to facilitate the growing demand for pay-as-you-go channels."

Live streamed latency is a huge issue impacting the rollout of sports OTT. Telestream is attempting to solve this as part of Orchid.

"Latency is inherent in HLS and DASH-based systems, but the problem is that no one is really sure where in the chain latency comes from," said Newton. "We’ve always wanted to track latency, but it’s extremely hard because you have to track from ingest to encoder and ingest to packager, and at packager output, the CDN, and the origin. What we intend to do as part of Orchid is to timestamp at every point and then monitor at every point along the chain. We want to talk with the industry about adopting this idea more broadly."

Orchid includes Unified Streaming technology for DRM functionality and just-in-time packaging.

At an event hosted by Telestream at IBC, Fox Sports VP Field Operations Engineering Kevin Callahan said the sportscaster was looking to deploy an OTT solution for UHD HDR programming in the U.S. based on the successful OTT UHD HDR live streams from the FIFA World Cup Russia. 

"We’re not yet at a point where we can do this for the NFL in UHD HDR," he said. "Given the sheer number of cameras and the high frame rates of some specialist cameras at these ball games, then streaming at premium quality would tie up too many resources. If we did it it would have to be a significantly reduced or altered show."

He said part of the solution would be a means to be able to preview and switch more feeds without restricting bandwidth within the production facility.

The World Cup solution backhauled the host feed from Moscow to LA using Aspera and Telestream technology with a latency of just 124 milliseconds encoded in HEVC.

"We held all language rights in North America but Telemundo held Spanish language rights. It was point of principle that we beat the competition to air with all important action."

Viacom Follows Disney's Lead, Bets on Digital Short-Form Video

Streaming Media

Attempts by large media conglomerates to shift the balance of their business from linear to digital can work if social media platforms are treated as partners not competitors, says Viacom.

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"There is an increasing realization that the days of trying to build your own network and website then acquire and monetize an audience is hard and incredibly expensive," Kelly Day, president of Viacom Digital Studios (VDS) told an audience at IBC. "On the other hand, our ability to scale up by distributing across the social landscape is such an enormous opportunity that it is worth revenue sharing with those platforms. If you do the math, it works out your favor."

The digital studio, which launched last year, is the linchpin of Viacom CEO Bob Bakish's revitalisation plan, as the company moves to expand its core television business onto next-generation platforms.

"This is a huge priority for Bob," said Day. "Viacom is very focused on evolving beyond just being a broadcast company or a linear TV company to being a creative company that produces new IP and develops brands that can be distributed and monetised in lots of different environments." The chief way it is doing this is by producing fresh versions of Viacom brand staples for social media channels. Among them are the following:

• Bikini Bottom Mysteries, a series of 5-minute episodes culled from existing Spongebob material and aimed at 18-34 year-old Facebook users.
• A reworking of MTV series Cribs co-produced with and exclusively for distribution on SnapChat funded with shared sponsorship deals. Shot vertically to fit the platform’s format, the sixteen 3-minute long shows produced to date have had “tens of millions of views” Day said.
•  Between the Scenes slice of The Daily Show distributed on Facebook and YouTube in which host Trevor Noah talks to camera has been streamed 150 million times and landed Noah his first two Emmy nominations.
• A deal with Twitter brings red-carpet coverage and four show formats—including MTV News and BET Breaks—to the social media service's live TV platform.

Ironically, a decade ago Viacom was locked in a legal battle with Google, alleging that YouTube had engaged in brazen and massive copyright infringement. The parties settled out of court only in 2014.

"A few years ago, frankly, the talk was of YouTube taking your money," Day said. "The truth now is YouTube is one of the most mature advertising platforms available. There are many ways to monetize from pre- and mid-roll to sponsorship and branded content. YouTube is a priority platform for us.

"With Snap we've done some robust sponsorships sales and with Facebook we continue to licence content either as live streaming or original shows."

She acknowledged that extending the reach and relevance of existing Viacom TV-centric shows among new mobile-first audiences could be a mere marketing play.

"There is an intention that as these platforms evolve there is an opportunity to build a strong business. It may not necessarily replace linear TV dollars in the short term but in the longer term it allows us to diversify our revenue and to build new revenue streams for the future."

She continued, "In the early days of online video platforms there was a perception that digital short form was all cats on skateboards. We’ve come a long way and evolved to a place where you are no longer at the mercy of the linear clock. How long your content is, is dictated by the story, by the platform, and your budget."

VDS is one of several big media attempts to capture new audiences with premium produced short form content.

BBC Studios Chief Executive Tim Davie used his keynote speech at IBC2018 to announce a new fund to back high-end short form projects.

Former Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg announced earlier this month that he had raised $1 billion to invest in a new short-form platform in which Viacom has invested.

"You would never bet against Jeffrey," says Day. "He’s been trying to build this vision for many years. If anyone can do it, he can."

Amazon Alexa Voice Control Becomes a Concern for Broadcasters

Streaming Media

Amazon paints Alexa as the natural way to interface with your TV but its message has been forcefully pushed back by broadcaster Channel 4.
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At IBC, Sarah Rose, C4’s chief consumer & strategy officer, voiced concerns around the prominence of search and discovery of Amazon content as voice replaces the remote as the dominant TV interface.

“As a content provider we have no control over this service,” said Rose. “We have to actively defend ourselves.”

This followed the declaration by Amazon that it rates TV as the most important device in home “and the next space [for Amazon to tackle],” according to Amazon European GM for Alexa, Fabrice Rousseau.

“Voice is a great opportunity to change the TV experience since voice can control content in a much richer way,” he said. “Voice enables a much more personal and customized interaction and service. It will get you to specific content much faster and will cut through the noise. People will find more of the content they want, they will watch more and that drives revenue for all.”

This alarmed C4 – which, it transpires, is working with Google Assistant to trial voice services. Rose said Rousseau’s analysis over simplified the situation for the broadcaster and content owner.

She said, “We recognise that voice will be an unstoppable consumer force and that we have to embrace and leverage it but there are some bear traps we’re wary of falling into if we don’t think properly about how to engage with this technology.

“We need to feel that voice enables us to continue to deliver a diverse and plaurality of content and that that won’t be taken away. One concern is that some of this more niche content may not be surfaced on a home page and get lost.”

She urged broadcasters to work together to standardise voice interfaces (their metadata) “so that the consumer isn’t going to be confused” and also urged Amazon to share data on Alexa interactions with consumers around content.

“The platform needs to help us understand usage. Unless we see data we don’t know how to provide services for it. The communication between tech giants and smaller players like us needs to be much more open that it traditionally is.”

Rousseau insisted that there were no plans to prioritise Amazon Prime over that of other content providers – as yet, he caveated.

Richard Halton, CEO at YouView suggested that the spat between broadcasters and tech giants was a “proxy war” given that Amazon’s core business is retail and Google’s is search.

Adam Thibault, GM of TV and V2T Nuance Communications illustrated a middle ground in which voice assistant technologies and content/platform owners might partner. Amazon’s partnership with Microsoft in which Alexa and Cortana ‘talk’ with each is other was offered as an example of a more sophisticated interface for managing services such as search, viewing and retail in the smart home.

“Voice interaction today is not a conversation but it will develop this way,” said Thibault. “If a consumer requests their voice assistant to watch ‘Game of Thrones’ and they don’t have the right subscription, they will be able to use voice alone to navigate a path to HBO and sign up to, pay for and watch an episode or a series,” explained Thibault.

Rousseau said Amazon’s strategy was firstly to get broadcaster, platform owners and device manufacturers to integrate Alexa. The next step is around search.

“Our vision is for Alexa to be open,” he claimed.

Smart speaker sales topped 16.8 million in Q2 2018, up from 5 million in 2017 and will be in 100 million homes worldwide by the end of this year. Some 20,000 different devices can be connected to Alexa alone, up from 4000 at the beginning of the year.

YouTube Owns the Living Room: Fastest Growth Is On TV Sets

Streaming Media

Viewing of YouTube is growing fastest on the main household TV with potentially profound implications for broadcasters.
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Speaking at IBC, Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer at YouTube, revealed that 180 million hours of YouTube is being consumed daily on the TV worldwide. In Europe alone the time spent watching YouTube on TV has grown 45 percent year on year.

“Video and entertainment is being revolutionised by the confluence of hardware, software and content,” he said.

“Living room hardware has finally caught up with the demands of consumers. There is a creative renaissance in content led by TV. But the most important change in broadcast is as a result of software.”

He explained that at a simple level this is about apps enabling consumers to enjoy content on any device.

“Today, it is second nature for people to watch TV on mobile phones: more than 70 percent of YouTube viewing is done on phones. But the fastest growing screen is the large screen in the living room.”

Mohan attributed this to partnerships YouTube had struck with manufacturers, broadcasters and operators like Sky and Virgin to make the app accessible to people. Over a half a billion devices from STBs to gaming consoles carry the YouTube app.

“As the app has become more and more prevalent across devices, users are getting trained to easily find YouTube,” he said. “Now you see the icon there when you launch. My four-year-old can turn on the TV and find the YouTube Kids app. That is the modality kids are used to. So, it’s a combination of the prevalence of the app and changing user behaviour.”

Mohan said YouTube was using machine learning to refine recommendations and deliver a better lean back viewing experience.

He also said it was too early to judge the success – or discuss ambitions for – Google’s just launched SVOD YouTube Premium.

“We are not competitors but long time and deeply invested partners for broadcasters,” he insisted. “We all want great content to be readily available everywhere and to be about a seamless experience based on user context.”

Netflix focusses growth on broadcast carriage not sports

Streaming Media

Netflix has denied (again) that it plans to acquire live sports.  “There's nothing we can do differently or that would bring value to live sports that a broadcaster or those doing live don't already do,” VP business development for Europe Mid East and Africa, Maria Ferreras told IBC.
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However, she added, “We never say never.”

With international subscriber numbers surpassing those inside the US for the first time this year, Netflix focus is on securing more carriage deals with payTV broadcasters and telcos.

The SVOD giant has amassed 130 million subscribers worldwide with growth now rising higher – 42% year on year - outside than inside the US. 2017 also marked the first year of the 20-year old company in which its international business was profitable.

“When we decided we weren’t going to have our own box the natural thing to do was to partner with STBs and smart TVs,” said Ferreras.

In the past 12 months Netflix has renewed and expanded partnership deals with BT, Orange and Deutsche Telekom.It has also struck new deals with Sky, OSN and Telefonica. The Sky deal for instance sees the pay-TV firm bundle the full Netflix service into a new Sky TV subscription pack available through the Sky Q platform.

“It’s important to understand how we get to this point,” she explained. “One, is that we’re committed to producing good quality shows.”

Netflix landed 112 Emmy nominations in 2018 up from 91 last year.

“Another is Quality of experience,” she said. Most new Netflix productions are 4K on top of over 2000 hours of existing 4K HDR content.

The third touchpoint for Ferreras was to make the Netflix experience consistent across all devices.

“When we make a partnership we ensure that the Netflix experience is exactly the same,” she said.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the dominance of Netflix there is room for plenty of other SVOD players to make a decent business provided they have the right formula.

Kerensa Saminidis, GM for Turner’s Filmstruck movie SVOD boiled this down to access, audience and community.

“Filmstruck is not looking to compete with Netflix or Amazon. We’re about being additive or complementary,” she said.

Britbox president Soumya Srirama likened Amazon, Netflix and Hulu to broadcast networks with smaller SVOD players emerging like cable nets catering to specialist needs.

“They have become a utility, people won’t turn them off,” said Saminidis of Netflix et al. “At the same time people are overwhelmed by choice. They are fed up wasting time browsing for what to watch. Amazon and Netflix have to respond algorithmically but we feel there’s an opportunity to focus on a smaller volume of curated content.”

OB Sporting Innovation Opens New Markets

InBroadcast

Live sports content kit makers are finding new markets in video over IP production, eSports, virtual advertising and VAR.

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There’s a dual trend happening in outside broadcast. On the one hand the latest trucks are being equipped with IP production equipment to reduce cost, ease UHD workflows and make more content feeds available for purposing, on the other the same IP tech is making remote production a reality negating the need for giant OB trucks at all.

On the OB truck side, Arena TV - one of the first companies in the world to embrace 4K HDR production based on IP infrastructure - is also among those to have adopted the latest signal processing from Axon Digital.  The Synapse cards, which were developed with Arena, provide an Ethernet-SDI bridge and the ability to convert from one format to another within the IP domain. 

Lawo’s V__matrix IP routing, processing and multi-viewing core is also finding a home in new build OB trucks including at NEP Belgium. Its software-defined core handles processing, de-/embedding and RGB colour correction of the signals.

The same kit from Lawo is also being deployed for remote production. The pioneering IP project for Fox Sports Australia, enables live remote production of sports like cricket and Aussie Rules across the vast country from a Production Hub in Sydney. Developed by NEP, the project is using SMPTE ST-2110 for the IP transport of the video and audio signals. It’s also cross vendor – using best of breed solutions from Sony, Ross Video, EVS and Lawo among others.

Andreas Hilmer, director marketing & communications, Lawo says, “It’s seen as the blue-print for building a distributed infrastructure that makes use of IP networking in combination with the data centre principles.”

While not leaving its OB truck traditions yet, NEP has been busy segueing into data delivery. Its Netherlands division has built its own content distribution network for both live streaming (including of the FIFA World Cup) and the option to view films and series on demand.

Another remote live remote production solution comes from TVU Networks. Its cloud-based TVU Producer is being used within eSports and third league European football championship. It works by offering frame-accurate synchronization and control of multiple cameras over the public internet. The minimum required is internet access and a smartphone (and cameras).  TVU’s RPS is a claimed frame accurate solution which uses a broadcaster’s existing studio control room staff and equipment and a public internet connection from the field.

“With a multi-channel IP video switcher and simultaneous output to social media, including Facebook Live and YouTube Live as well as most CDNs, TVU Producer is the easiest way to produce professional quality multi-camera live events with perfectly synchronized switching,” explains CEO Paul Shen.

Sony has gone a step further and placed the hardware-intensive process of multi-cam switching in the cloud and replacing it with a remote operated Web UI. Its Virtual Production system relies on processing in Amazon’s AWS and on there being enough consistent bandwidth to get the streams from remote site to an operations hub. Since the only physical kit required are the cameras, it alters the business model for outside broadcasts too since a producer need pay on demand rather than invest in kit.

“To date, high quality and reliable live production has always required serious infrastructure, major upfront investment and an army of talented creatives and technicians,” explains Nicolas Moreau, Sony’s Live Media Solution Marketing Manager.

At top quality, each of the six cameras supported by Sony Virtual Production, would require bandwidth running at 6Mbps to deliver 720p. Sony says it is working on a 1080p version which will work at 10Mbps.

Sony is aiming the innovation at the corporate and education markets and Tier 2 sports and does not think this spells the end of the traditional OB – at least for the Tier 1 events (it still sells hardware switchers after all).

eSports production values rise

eSports is on the brink of breaking out of its niche space and firmly establishing itself in the mainstream. Data published by Statistica estimates that the eSports market will be worth as much as US$1.5 billion by 2020, and it will be an officially recognised competition at the 2020 Asia Games.

Its rise also goes hand in hand with higher production values, demanded by broadcasters like Sky (partnered with esports network Ginx), by sports like F1 which runs an esports series in collaboration with Codemasters to complement its traditional coverage of live races; and by enthusiasts themselves who expect high quality interactive experiences.

All of which has prompted eSports producers to upgrade their kit and work with vendors more associated with live TV outside broadcasts.

For instance, EVS worked with leading esports producer ESL to create in-game replays for live tournaments – something akin to output that would be delivered to fans watching any football or basketball game.

“For ESL’s first-person shooter games, we worked out a way to place ‘observer PCs’ into a live game to view the action as if they were cameras,” explains EVS’ Jens Fischer. “Feeds from these are recorded in the PCs’ native 120Hz and ingested by the EVS server. ESL’s technical team use an LSM controller to create a replay in the same way they would for a traditional broadcast, slowing down the feed to the broadcast-standard 60Hz. This creates a half-speed replay with completely smooth playout and no loss of frames.”

ESL also uses the Ross Video Carbonite Black production switcher and XPression graphic platform. Other technology in regular demand by eSports professionals include product from Blackmagic Design.

Red Bull Sphere, a esports studio in London, is packed with BMD kit for live streaming tournaments. This includes a Smart Videohub 40x40 router connected to dozens of Micro Convertors taking IP feeds from PCs and SDI signals from an array of consoles and PCs. Multiple PTZ hothead cameras, two BMD URSA Mini Pros and a BMD Micro Studio Camera 4K plus 12 mini-cams to capture gamers reactions worn by gamers are fed via HD-SDI into a ATEM 4M/E Broadcast Studio 4K to generate the camera sub-mix. The program feed is routed to vMix and mixed with the video over IP (NewTek NDI) inputs from the gaming machines.

Graphics enhancement

With sports increasingly becoming the most widely viewed and lucrative type of ‘appointment viewing,’ production value has never been more essential. Beyond the event itself, viewers expect instant analysis and context for the action on the pitch, court, field or rink. Graphics is an increasingly important tool to enhance live sports production.

One solution is Avid Maestro Live, marketed as the only all-in-one broadcast and video control system for live sports production. It features a sports-dedicated chroma key that distinguishes between different lighting conditions on the field, for displays like first down lines, player tracking, and virtual ads.

Sports data feeds and scoreboard protocols connect to Maestro to auto-populate and update information in the graphics templates. Pull-up starting lineups, player stats & pictures, and team standings on-the-fly. You can even improve and enhance your data displays by manually entering and editing your templates.

With up to 16 output channels available, users can send the main feed to air, a different graphics layer to digital media, and an animated background across a studio’s video walls, all at the same time, through the same UI.

Version 7.4 of Paint, ChyronHego’s telestration and analysis solution, now boasts full 4K support including built-in recording in 4K. Also joining Paint's existing integration with EVS slow-motion replay servers is integration with the LiveTouch replay system from Grass Valley. In addition, Paint 7.4 includes new IP capabilities including support for HTTP H.264 live IP stream recording.

ChyronHego has also improved its Virtual Placement product, including real-time data integration with the company's sports tracking solutions, TRACAB and ZXY; as well as integration with third-party, real-time data sources, such as NFL NextGen Stats.

Virtual advertising

Virtual advertising is coming into play on premium match broadcasts. Finland’s Supponor is a market leader in the emerging field of augmented reality digital replacement for real-time broadcast and streaming of in-venue advertising.

Its technology is being used by La Liga in conjunction with Mediapro and Bundesliga clubs in partnership with Lagardère Sports and the FA trialled the tech during England’s World Cup warm-up match at Elland Road in July. US leagues including NFL have also tested it.

Supponor’s DBRLive technology replaces traditional perimeter board advertising in sports broadcasts with virtual overlays. This technique allowing different brands to occupy the same space on existing pitchside boards while advertising to different markets. 

For the FA trial the company worked with Preston-based ADI to develop the system that would work with animated LED (as opposed to static) signage. Static signage still has a place, though. In Formula One for example, the FIA won’t allow LED signage even if it’s not animated because it could distract drivers.

VAR

While not without its controversies, video assistant refereeing (VAR) was rubber stamped at the World Cup Russia and is likely to see adoption across more sports. Among systems competing for this new market is Slomo.tv’s videoReferee FC System which recently introduced FIFA obligatory requirements.

The server records up to 24 3G/HD channels, has four graphics outputs and a separate multi-viewer for all channels capable of displaying live and delayed video.  The system provides two fully functional and independent work places working with live, delayed for 2 seconds or recorded video.  Video inputs can be displayed from a single camera, in Quad view (four cameras) or in multi-viewer format for off-site situations. Also, it is possible to quickly perform and prepare analysis of an on-pitch incident at the assistant’s work place and transfer it to the main on-pitch system for referees to review during the match.

While EVS’ VAR system called Xeebra is being used by the British Horseracing Authority and UCI, the world’s governing body for cycling (used for the first time during the 2018 Giro d’Italia) and incorporated in a special OB van to travel with the race. Users can view up to 16 live camera angles that remain entirely in-sync and can select preferred angles and zoom into the images with a touch-and-pinch gesture on the system’s touchscreen.

Net Insight is also playing in this game too. It has signed a Euro 1 million deal with a European telco to supply infrastructure based on its Nimbra system for a VAR network for a national football federation. Net Insight’s media transport platform will connect 19 stadia stadiums to a main central location for a centralised VAR system integrated with an intercom service for the 2018-19 season.

Arqiva Urges the Industry to Join a Blockchain TV Pilot Project

Streaming Media

The TV industry is dipping its toes into blockchain, the cryptographic technology with the ability to track rights and maximize the monetisation of content.

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Arqiva, which provides much of the infrastructure behind television, radio, satellite, and wireless communications in the U.K., has teamed up with music blockchain start-up JAAK to organise a decentralised TV rights database which users can connect to via a micro licensing app.

“Rather than execs worrying about where to put Bitcoin on their balance sheet they should start by asking ‘What can it do? What problems it can solve?'" argued Nick Moreno, Arqiva’s director of strategy for satellite and media, speaking at IBC in Amsterdam.

JAAK set up a similar pilot last year for the music industry, with BMG, Global Music Rights, Phoenix Music International Sentric, and Warner Music Group.

Moreno suggested he was acting on feedback from Arqiva customers which include the BBC, Sky, Sony, Telefonica, Al Jazeera, BT, Canalsat, Fox, Eurosport, and NBCUniversal.

The TV pilot will run from October to mid-2019, and will cap its participants at 10 including a national broadcaster (which could be ITV), at least one multichannel video operator, and a number of rights holders on both sides of the Atlantic. The names won’t be disclosed until 10 of them have signed up. Streaming Media understands that Netflix and other classic SVOD providers are not part of the pilot.

Each company will be required to make a small payment, offer up some of its content, and contribute descriptive and rights data for the database. The pilot requires hundreds if not thousands of hours of assets be loaded into the database and be fully searchable.

“All broadcasters are looking at blockchain since it addresses one of the key challenges facing many of its traditional broadcast and telecoms customers: maximising the return on its content investments,” explained Moreno. “Everyone in the video industry is spending more and more on original rights, so once you’ve shown a property as a first run on your own network you want to be able to maximise the rights to the property globally.”

The pilot will address a number of problems including the different metadata and rights schemas which different companies currently use. “Can this be simplified? Can there be a standard taxonomy for categorising licencing data? It also has to be easily searchable and easy to update across all distributed copies.”

The database could include automated smart contracts with real-time tracking and payment between licensees and licensors. “By putting licence holders and licensees together using blockchain then business should be more efficient, more secure, with less waste," Moreno said.

If successful, this “private sandbox” could be rolled out wider and commercially in the second half of 2019.

“It’s low risk R&D and a provision of proof that that the tech works in this application,” Moreno said. “We won’t be alone in doing this, but the fewer distributed databases there are the greater the network effects of having one place to put content and one place for searching and trading.”

He stressed that neither Arqiva nor JAAK or any participant in the pilot will own the database.

“Blockchain is only interesting if it has a practical application in adding value,” he said, suggesting two more such use cases:

One, in which Arqiva does not play, is in simplifying the advertising value chain where blockchain might eliminate the “huge number of intermediaries between actual advertisers and media channels.” This use case would bring ad inventory and advertisers together.

The second is more intriguing and focuses on streamlining distribution. The idea is to enable ultra-local peer-to-peer distribution similar to the Napster model for music.

Moreno acknowledges that these are very early days and there are no known pilots of this, but why not at least explore the possibility?

“There is potential to have copies of the most popular content stored ultra-locally on people’s devices in their homes—a desktop, laptop, even a smartphone. Potentially, content could be streamed through that local network on a legal basis with a blockchain ledger layered over the top for authentication, viewing analytics, payment, and so on.”

One challenge for this approach is that video files are vastly larger than music files and no smartphone is going to cope with storing an episode of "Game of Thrones" today, but who knows what the future holds with advances in compression.

Blockchain for artist revenues

Also speaking at IBC 2018 is SingularDTV which is looking to produce and distribute content using blockchain technology.

Based in Switzerland and New York, the company has developed a slate of film titles, including the feature "The Happy Worker," on which David Lynch is an executive producer. In early 2019, the company will put these and other titles through a blockchain-powered, on-demand hub that will enable viewers to download content in exchange for digital currency.

SingularDTV relies on a tokenised ecosystem using a local cryptocurrency called SNGLS to help artists and creators benefit from transparent media production and distribution.

“This is the beginning of a next great tech boom where trillions of dollars' worth of real world assets will be decentralized and placed onto the blockchain in the coming years,” declared CEO Zach LeBeau.

Start-ups Flixxo, LiveTree ADEPT, and Treeti are also using blockchain to launch content projects that rethink how content is funded and delivered.

Flixxo aims to become a decentralised YouTube, paying its users in crypto tokens for being part of a peer-to-peer ecosystem for video content and advertising.

Film and TV crowdfunding outfit LiveTree, meanwhile, has built a blockchain-based funding and distribution platform aimed at content creators. The platform also includes a Netflix-style subscription service, Blossom, which allows producers to upload their back catalogue as well as provide new content.

Unlike Netflix or Amazon, the creators of content on a blockchain VOD service are able to access behavioural analytics in real-time to see who is watching their content and understand what works and what does not.