Three decades ago, the print media was the ultimate source of news and information. But not anymore. Ever since the internet got mainstream adoption, traditional media has seen a constant drop both in revenues and reach. The internet has taken over the role of broadcasting information. 

Now, search engines like Google and social networks like Facebook and Twitter published news faster than traditional media. Additionally, these new media sites are not only expeditious but are also global, touching every corner of our universe

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A good illustration is Facebook, the largest social network that treats over 2.4 billion active users every month, according to Stastica. The internet has also gashed a massive part of advertising revenue from traditional media players. 

The biggest hurdle for any media player, whether conventional or online, is to recognize the best strategy for content monetization, at a time when most other outlets like Google provide it for free.

A recent report points to the blockchain technology as a remedy to the obstacles facing both conventional and online media outlets. According to Andre Dutra, Andranik Tumasjan, and Isabell Welpe, co-authors of the report ‘Blockchain is changing how media and entertainment companies compete’ the blockchain is introducing innovative business models for content monetization.’

At the center of the blockchain is a permanent ledger of data that is shared among the participants of that blockchain. As it’s decentralized, immutable, and traceable, blockchain technology has many compelling use cases in the media industry.

The report discovered that most startups were adopting the blockchain in inventive new ways, including micropayments, creation of smart contracts, and smart property.

Micropayments

Cryptocurrencies require no agents to process transactions. As such, they are perfect for micropayments and enable users to transact micro amounts of digital cash at low costs. That’s why a developing list of blockchain startups are utilizing cryptocurrency to reward content creators such as music producers and article writers. 

One among them is Contentos, a digital platform that promotes association among content creators, advertisers, and fans and to generate monetary value.

Contentos cofounder and CEO stated he noticed there was a need for a decentralized platform for content creators, one that doesn’t enable third-party censorship. 

Another startup, Yours, will allow authors to monetize premium content by imposing a small fee to whoever reads it. Many other players are utilizing the blockchain to generate a revenue model, a trend that could soon change the industry.

Smart contracts

One of the most prosperous innovation within the blockchain is the smart contract, pioneered by Ethereum. Experts recognize the smart contract as another avenue for monetizing content. Smart contracts enable parties to negotiate credibly without any third-party interference.

Once pre-negotiated terms are established, the smart contract uses automatically to execute the transaction.

Blockchain time stamping

At a period when personification and piracy of intellectual property are on the growth, blockchain could assist with an affirmation of content ownership. Timestamping is the portion of the smart property. 

Utilizing this innovation, we can see who held specific data at any given time. Typically, time stamping is a valuable device for photographers.

As blockchain gains extensive adoption, conventional media outlets, as well as blockchain startups, are proceeding with speed to monetize content. Their divine grail is the blockchain technology, where they are creating new business models. 

As these models attain friction, they could be disruptive, transforming the media landscape for good. At the same time, the before-mentioned models could also be utilized to maintain conventional media outlets.

Ultimately, this ‘Monitor Deloitte’ report verdicts show that the above content monetization models can efficiently be applied in other industries. The models could be adopted in industrial looking to circumvent aggregators, distribute royalties, build pricing models for paid content, and to promote secure C2C payments.