Bond Film Platform. A New Economic Model
Video is rapidly becoming the dominant form of media traversing the Internet. With the rise of services like Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu, streaming video is expected to account for 80% of all Internet traffic by 2020. Emerging social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram could push that already astounding rate even higher. This revolution was powered by the emergence of cheaper production tools and online streaming opportunities. Those have, in turn, brought about new consumption models, such as binge-watching for serialised content or following for videoblogs.
For the most part, the distribution choke point has been removed and that has generally been a good thing, but it also comes with a built-in problem. Increase the supply of anything and prices fall, which makes it much harder for creators to finance their work. Now, a number of new business models are rising up to fill the void and it’s changing what we read, watch and listen to. Current web video distribution models, including ad and subscription-based, are entrenched in the past. The online advertising model is often thought of as a re-boot of the television commercial model, but it’s really a continuation of the radio sponsorship system that originated in 1922.
The subscription model is built upon the paid television cable service system that began in 1948. In this system, consumers pay for a platform to provide them with a slew of content on a monthly or annual basis.
Both the advertising and subscription models have worked to a degree in the past. This does not mean they are now sufficiently benefitting video consumers and creators.
In the advertising model, many consumers waste time viewing ads for products and services that they do not want nor need. The average American spends around four years of their life watching commercials. Time is a precious human resource, and its waste should not be so readily accepted as inevitable. We should all consider the value of time not only to the individual person but also to the greater community. People need time and space to think for individual improvement and to solve complicated social problems.
In the subscription model, there is less time wasted through unhelpful advertising but many people end up paying for content they never watch. This is the primary drive behind the cord-cutting movement, where cable companies in the U.S. are losing a million subscribers per quarter. In ad-based models like YouTube, creators are beholden to advertisers for their income rather than to their fan base. This creates a dynamic where content is made to achieve the most viewers for advertisers rather than to serve the audience itself. Fans of unique content often find themselves left behind as creators broaden their reach to earn more ad revenue.
A new system: Bond Film Platform
BOND is one platform to stream content, invest in content and for revenue distribution. Transparent, fair and blockchain based. On BOND authors can create new content and users can support their favorite authors, help teams, curate content and become part of the new Film and Media Economy.
Bond Platform, with its unique system of content selection and user-beneficial economy, will attract authors, viewers and investors. By liberating the market from corporate decision-making, BOND will create buzz among the fans of decentralized models. BOND gives audience control of a project’s destiny through their investments, and ensures the projects with the biggest market potential will end up being made. This presents unique opportunity to the users of the Bond platform, they will not only be able to support their favorite projects, but will also benefit financially from a project’s success.
Bond is two services in one: a subscription-based video streaming service featuring content from independent creators; and a crowdinvesting platform, which allows anyone to invest in and profit from new film and video projects. The platform provides its users with 3 main types of activities:
Content Creator / Author
Publishes own content on the platform, so users can watch and like it. When users watch and/or like some content, Author receives a share of the revenue gained by the Bond Platform from user subscription fees. Authors can also publish Content Proposals to gain funding from the Crowdinvestors. The proposals can be devoted to new projects like sci-fi pilots or some doc series or new episodes of some existing content or any other type and form of content the authors want to produce. Users who like the proposal and want to support the Authors in making of the new content can invest any amount into any project they wish. Creators may submit a proposal for a script or series pilot, or present an already-produced pilot in order to seek investment for a full series production. When Authors produce new content and publish it on the platform, they and those Crowdinvestors who invested in their Content Proposal will receive the corresponding percentage of the revenues collected from user subscriptions.
Audience
Pays a small monthly subscription fee to get access to all content published on the platform. The user’s subscription fee is then distributed among all authors whose content this user watched and/or liked during the subscription period (one month). BOND uses a fair and transparent formula to distribute the revenues, as described in the WhitePaper.
Anyone
Any user can become an investor by simply buying the ownership stakes in Author’s Content Channel and thus becoming eligible for percentage of future revenues from this Content Channel. Bond Platform provides UIX, own cryptocurrency and Smart Contract mechanism to ensure that service’s economy works securely, transparently and smoothly for all types of its users. Bond also retains a small fixed percentage of all subscription payments in order to maintain server infrastructure, pay for traffic, develop new features, and increase platform growth.
Eager to learn more? For details on the Bond Platform project, please visit our website, read the Whitepaper and join our Telegram for a discussion!
