CHAPTERIS

Future of the media business

Challenges and opportunities for media
management in the age of Ai

IN THE MEDIA BUSINESS

RELENTLESS EVOLUTION
D th^ firtional media industrialist character at the centre of the HBO
As Logan Roy, ^^3, xhe past is made up.” The media is a sector
wLh'^nsrntly looks forwatd, and even teinvents history to suit that forward
facing narrative. examples of how quickly media Companies have
Tt is instructive to reflect on some

founlthemselves rendeted obsolete by compeffon.

r'i Kodak had 90% of the US market. The brand was
In
^ ^ Uhat
„„ universal
SO
that a^^o^d
g Photo was actually ‘Googling.’
called a ‘Kodak moment.’ Kodak was
a verb, m the w y Engineer, Steve Sasson, made a bulky gadget to save
, For fun jgl^jng out US Patent 4131919A for an “electronic still
images 9091 ^
Camera” (Azhar, zu ^hain in photography, its top brass
. But, as Kodak j[,eir own model by adopting his reinvention of the
didn’t see a need to tn capitalise on Sasson’s design. Consequently,
6lm category. , .„„phy market, which would destroy its film business.
it missed the digital pn B j„ 2012. (Two years earlier, Blockbuster
. Kodak filed for Chapter Streaming opportunity.)
Video had gone bankrup p^t^ms were sold to inter-
. In the wake of that ’ 2Q12). Those Companies were dealing with
mediary Companies the decade; Apple, Google, Samsung, Adobe,
tech giants that woulü
l'cebookandAma^on. DOI: 10.4324/9781003213611-23
 318 PIONEERS

'=>ken annually and the global

2021). This was Kodak’ billion, growing at 7% per ycar (Ocean,
contributed ’ as the" co
“"’P^"y
one to which its technology had
'hat created the world’s first consumer digital
Camera.

Centrality of technolo gy

The first is thatentire mecfia^^ ^0-year-old story.> In fact, thcrc are two.
exhibition, newsprint, physical ^Iready been reshapcd by digital
Home Video and DVD sales or r thcatrc, books, business publishing»
tography businesses - and thi<! magazines, some commcrcial radio,
Many of these Segments m T Wappen,
textbook, but found themselve.?^''-^ twenticth-century media business
any twenty-first-century study of to the cutting room f\oot in
magazines much any more or m the age of AI. People don’t buy
-choTheeither-theypLerp^sra
second point is th r T ^^''^aming.
Z^on’t mueh'isten to «he
nobeT'**’!r"’^'’‘'‘'‘P“''ioncLTeL®'*"‘n"'®^ hc tomorrow’s top ten*-
of thfKod'^k ® value 'f t 'f ^ Company misses a teob'
anfll, ' Ph°tography eolu r" Companies that boughtsontc
Amaaon - ,t u „ot axiomal'et' Samsung, Adobe, Facebook
t 'hese current Champions will invent the futute-
The global top ten bra a ●
‘"-rhranä, were Cord Co/d.
● Th'e bSo„,, . , McDonald’s) (Statistics&Data-
‘^■og
after Streaming)
the 2011 o"r leg'hat
^ mistake (UK {Blockbuster Video not
● Meta CEO Phone hacking scandah^'^^P^P^'
competitors do “You vouf
aggressive in makinp'"'“"^ '^"'tily tweeted V° '''®'“P' hefore y
Like Kodak Skvt> ^ next F , ""Facebook is being
Microsoft i’ ?oiT r/'- a Z" ^OH).
lost market share to 7 ^'Hion. After h it
2020-21. ^om, which was th ^ received design refres
tool>
* 2oom’s market capit I' ● ^ l^^*^^omic-defining Software '
realised, given‘"s^yp^.“''y Miclsof^ '"^'●"'y 2«21 (Levy,
$24 bdlion, pardy „ c®fher market d .""'cstors may feit they should ha
● Interviewed 1^02 ° ,''' «>">Pedtion7"“"“' A'.gust 20I2, it was ,us'
Campbell of G|> gy. ’ 'cading European »wned by Microsoft.)
“'"'““Hputthe^an ^oge of continual,
‘"vestment banker, Hug
radical technolog‘<'^
 FUTURE OF THE MEDIA BUSINESS 319

evolution like this: “If you’re not a technology Company, you’re not really a
Company.”

The dynamism of media is both the challenge and joy of studying the sector.

Next generation
This Book deliberately looked at very different media Business segments through a
single value creation construct, from development, through production and distribu-
tion to monetisation. r j- i u r ^
Within each segment, there are analogous stories of radical change. Instagram
has been challenged by TikTok, Netflix by Disney+. A dominant player will be
u 11 hv a new arrival with a better product (say, the iPhone) a better inter-
iPhone) or a better Creative idea - again, like the iPhone, whose 2007
i i, ..„^Intionised three industries at once: phone, Software and music (Jobs,
9^007) Many failed to spot the threat. Steve Ballmer, 2007 CEO of Microsoft, said
(h Phone- “Five hundred dollars? ... That is the most expensive phone in the
1 ^ ^ d it doesn’t appeal to Business customers, because it doesn’t have a key-
H”^fHardwick, 2016). Ballmer was wrong, and the iPhone became the most
suTcessfuI consumer product of all time,
the future of media and entertainment Business
The rest of this chapter looks to .j will● j- ● i
models, in light of evolving technologies. It considers how editorial creativity
It looks at the level of automation likely to drive creativity
interplaywithAIanalyt.cs

Media value creation: Future of media

inputs Al distribution tools protiferate
All organisations and increases Global diversificatlon of
content sources Direct monetisation
individuals become gynthetic voices and Stars Digital privacy debates by ecommerce
publishers y ai nroduction tools
AI in ideation

Flywheel Flywheel
Flywheel
Distribution Monetisation

Developmef’* o
Production

Growthofsubscription Cash flow

Video continuesto Growth of tech such as NFTS Equity value
oiication of Companies dominate
as

value CREATION
ia enterprises
in the future are likely to directly scale up as a function of
across the entire value creation process

their sales,
320 PIONEERS

in future, the interface between Content and c-commcrcc — and othcr key factors inä
new era.

questions for dass discussi to in othcr chaptcrs. Thcre follow some

the Kodak, Skype Yahnr^t ^ ^'^^dcrs can think about which brand will
● or indeed the iPhone, Netflix or TikTok of the future.
Pr/macyof/Pgroivsiv/fft
IP will technohgy Solutions like NFTs
remain core to value
new platforms, and monetised in ^ sectors. IP will be iterated acro
purchases, live events, Metavpr«^» ' ^*^^*^*^ - subscription, in-game ads, in-ga^™^
ownership will
with blockchai
temain the most media-drivcn c commerce. Butand^
am may become equity drivcr for mcdia businesses,
e transparent, harder to infringe and more valuable-
The arrival of NFTs (no f
blockchain) can tilt the balanf*’'V°'''""’ ^^sets underpinne dby
«■sation, towards the contenror”^ <=°Pyright identification, and therefore WO«'

their success in bringin

models of
t>verview said- “Th n ● nf NFTs a^d
Customer
. engagement andT^ ti^*v>ty to digital goods will
‘""Ovation, gteater ^ .
Tne number of empowp They’ll also lead to more dig
ir "^typtocurrency
internet creators.” (Deloitte, 2022);
also heavily biased
towards in tcn in Thailand.) C<
aged between 55^64 own
valuation i ^typto only one in twenty
>tt niid-2022,
with even ‘blue^ ^^**yPto saw a dramatic decluje
The challenge for .. *^"'"h,p’ Bitcoin losing two thirds of its
which currently carerthr*!‘nsurgencv kis toi "ormalise and de-risk the technolo^’
For evidence of thar
tränt*
KaraSwisherdescribeTo"^^'i'^'^‘’“*®'‘on,Lre new. alternative market en tot
leading Nft int^novator: leading US media comm^^*^
Beeple is one of its m
.gnt

h^’^exactlyth ir'^We-headed «nton t" " Holding ß««

2021). Person to ushe - Then, again. "'‘>£
bixxaro frontier of NFTs”
Togo mainstream, NFT>s need a less
brands like Disn edgy
Poster Child
■^"ee the They need storied, mains"'^*"J
'»>th that Change, each fragme"'
 FUTURE OF THE MEDIA BUSINESS 321

creativity could be reliably monetised on consumption, producing a revolution in the

equitable allocation of returns from IP creation.

Major impact of AI
AI and other technologies will continue to dynamise distribution and production
short-term and radically impact content creation in the longer term, as discussed
extensively in other chapters. will drive universal translation, opening up the
Natural language processing IS all but invisible online.
internet to the 3 billion people whose first language .
^ Vision will enable automated video-to-text Interpretation at scalc, and
^°Tction workflow will radically change; editing will be fasten or even auto-

nisrribution algorithms will facilitate ever more targeted provision of content

"'^individuals, especially
to within streamer-owned walied gatdens, which gain data
at enrolment.
Collection permissions
● A consequence
of further Al-driven personalisation may be further erosion of
broadcasters, as
advertising efficiency segments mass audiences into ever more
granulär major titles (S^uid Game on Netflix, or the FIFA
But
, iV*nl mav augur a different future. Here, mass audiences are algorithmic-
World populär content to a moment of live transmission, producing
fldSotof Broadcasting.
● ce AI agents are trained on real-world datasets, disputes will
In media ownership, with multiple parties able to credibly claim
proliferate around c ^round whether synthetic content is owned by any one
input. Court cases wi training data, the algorithm creator, the
nf four possible part.es: he source
artist (if there even is one).
rigSmfunderor the human allocation of responsibility for the production of
for the
. »New mechanisms^^^^ röbably be needed ... A better digital culture will be
semantic artefacts wi ^ citizens, users
and Consumers aware of the

required, to ... and hence able to understand

new infosphere m w „^„ed by advanced digital Solutions such as
and leverage
‘'’"andChiriatti,2020).
GPT-3” (Floridi

Production will turn on at head^_^^ j ^

Movies will be „ fhat the clapper board for ‘take one will be closer to
f r«e is even shot, meanmg process, than the first. (This is already the
the
^
last
of the content p
Stage or
|j|;e Disney’s The Mandalorian or HßO’s
large vir tual Studio pro j,|,5tanding the charms and nostalgia value of
2022 hit, House ofthe Dragon.) Mo
casc on
 322 PIONEERS

analogue, Companies which disavow AI Production technology could lose Business

efficiency and equity value.

them virtual) (Ramtchrn!!^ in thc UK (some of

relationships at Shepperton ^21). hietflix and Amazon arc Building sim« ^
● Transitioning to an .●1
jn the field explained the diffi komplex. One UK government officiakle
●n of AI gold dust bn a q ^‘'S^nisations have. “ You cannot just sprin*^
you have to understand ” ●●●Vou have to understand your cornpa^^y
to analyse it... AnZ"
^smg these
--ns, you need to clean it, Vf
^Technologies.” ^n^^'^ey allows you to get to the point where

Power incre^ses, but

^here are three likely ch ^oice and Video compticate it

-a J«-h Hill, Jennifer Lawrence ^

^ Second, stars hav^ ^ ^Ppear on streaming-first shoWS or
from
partially**”'^" *^usinesses, thc"n ‘^‘^"’and, by owning their
● Reese Wirk«
°'vn future projeet, ’ l’ased on the expccted cash
*-estorst?°""^°'‘lproducf
■■'8'’ts.Theinvestr''*"‘' miT “"’Pany Hello Sunshine to private
Tu..»»
°Pportunities likelv^”^ '''^Wed as"V"''**' ® limited catalogue ;ness
● Tl 2oSi ° "^<=ated bv 4'’t‘ ‘^e future shows and other bus‘>;tiv^
fit^I ”^ed med- star power and good crea
a S725 mi||io„ of the N,*e, Epic Games and fe«^j
80V (Hayes, 202]) ~ agai„ Liverpool Football
Third, AI svQ^« *● P^'^^l-oated on future pTojects as much as e«
-*‘hlPa„dethSlTi;Pandanu,„^p,. futut^’
‘ --aruar
wr.ingwereturn'^.P^rso^nio with svmk ^^nrdain,
^oadrunner^ a documentary
in

Statements he had jjie,

"yithetic voice by director Morgan Nc
 FUTURE OF THE MEDIA BUSINESS 323

after inputting ten hours of Bourdain’s speech into a machine learning System as

● training dau (BBC^2021

AI was irishman, by the
Geome Lucas Company Industrial Light & Magic, which involved scanmng i^ges
of hifvoungerface. James Earl Jones* Darth Vader voice was synthes.sed, in 2022.
. Dirital Domain scanned Josh Brolin’s facial movements to map onto the char-
acter Thanos in Masquaerade (Sweeting, 2020).
. 11 u m bring stars back from the dead for new roles, with Creative, ethical,
feiaT tasm^opyright, financial and other issues yet to be solved.
of Stories and storytelling
Radical global dhrersification
, will change the Balance of media we see.
Globally, differential media growthrates
46.3% to $2.8 billion.
a i- ● Uiddle East, content spending grew
. ln 2020, ^rica a began i„vesting substantially in expan-
ston iSribrdon (ctaemas) and production (facilities and locations) as part of
a partial, wider j9 g°% to $27.7 billion, with expansion of film
. In Asia, content spen i g amongst other Industries in China. The
production and ® „ y expansion with home-grown product, at
Chinese ^ .^inema chains faced potential bankruptcy.
idn AmerTcan content spending grew 32.9% to $5.2 billion.
lobahsation of Streamers and their need for audience growth
Equally important, g owns^l^^^ content growth, which then mtermit-
nutside the saturated US ^Uanging cultural perceptions.
tentlyachievessuccessgbbal^^ h^^ in Africa (Mitchell, 2022) and South Korea -
This will benefit content ^
where even before breako 1^^^ ^ subscribers.
ment in new Shows m 202 „rhina new ... in fact storytelling is deeply rooted
●●Great Korean ^ VP „f content for Korea. “But today
* ● Lrean culture,” said Academy Award Best Picture winner,
hve in a
we ""d
sweet Home" ('^"'“^n^'treamers were seeking to export content.
. ^ "''"to the 2022
Prior Ukraine war, R
ai least atemporary
bits have travelled.
That came to
, „rent Investment, with $149.3 billion spent on
● «afps global coni ^ entertainment cul-
can

ture into the mainstre*

 324 PIONEERS

potentiallygrow.Given wider
social good. geopolitical challcnges in thc 2020s, therein may bea

0/#iecf mo/ieffsaf/on, via e-

The dial will commerce, of democratic production
not be turncd back on
smartphone with a 4k camera democratisation of mcdia production. Owning
transmission, an i ^pable
'ncreasingly large of crcating movics good enough for cinenia
continue to
grow into semi- "p Segment of thc world’s 7.75 Billion people wil
oc'ologicalshiftthat billi ons of It remains an extraordinary
Mise Content (includi with e-co ^ produce, disscminate and even
. rnerce) without any Professional mediation.
Live social commer
. Tlof
t “; boTght30fromTi"®
J;r TT
^^oppcrs
P-»' 12 montL.
in three s.yi"g
(McK ° generated an imn” l^ay presales campaig"
♦ ""P^“3,ve $7.5 billion in total transaction value
social commerce strea

viewetl wL^tosTsTn e'commerce

' platforms (McKinsey, 2020)-
-ups -

^hroughtheefficient '"OSf/,/g/,jy '■atedinonetfsaf/o/i tool

'l’oae with ^^‘^utrTng'evf Chapter 3) compani«

!! ">°;e effieientj am^ flows" highly rated *co^
'S fact of economic i ^h^ough Ion '* because customer acquisitwj’
g^ammaticdigiraul''f^.'^*"mclinem!re"'“^™ cash flows than one-off
^ ^ ‘="'*i"gtosubac7n7""'^^^
n Video games Xh *’cvenue as their primary incorne.
million Users 25
2022, “ b-o
aorv,ee. ""d are hkely to be countered by a rumoUf^
^hem'plrSco" 8^“^.
them to both m*
The
of cu^r ^ ‘achnolo
§y of Streamers in all categories gives
ble
‘beir Producers details
^od IP addresses, which
"●onetise
P°tentia|ly^ wider Ives,
Content more efficiently for theinse ’
A Latin American Consumers.
wil^
that cutting piracy in a
(Rodriguez Ovejero et al., 20l
 FUTURE OF THE MEDIA BUSINESS 325

Noni^^^n of Companies and govemments as media producers

Ar fhp «art of the book, we discussed how the media industry is no longer the coherent
, ● U. heen recoenisable in text books of a generation ago.
ITke l^dTnSauts in Jurassic Park, the media has broken through the elec«ic
fencZlt iS now toaming free actoss many other industnal pta.nes. Evety retader,
is a content Company,
and every government their roles as producers of content in volume will
How these businesses manage
Industries as a whole.
define the shape of production [
e-commerce Companies like Pretty Little Thing (UK) and
. The signs are Ukraine to China, will continue find the
^ onCics of is-intermediating agencies and media Companies compelling, and
●
grow as direct
The UK government
“published social media playbook (Gov.uk).
has extensive control of many media outlets; “Now it
● The Russian government
sees reporters public servants first, and journalists second - if at all” (Kovalev,
as

2017).

anies take the approach of Unilever’s award-winning

Meanwhile as big ^hat will potentially constrain growth of the
U-Studio (discussed m F Business control being dir-
agency sector. How „,edia Companies, is significant commercially,
cctly “"‘*®”j‘‘^",,^crand the accountability of institutions.
and also to democracy a
debates continue to profoundly shape the media market
Digitai privacy
A IN aurvey found that “Consumers are more concerned about data
A2021 UK and Ub surv y
itv th^n tney
violence, natural disasters, crime, drug
privacy and secur.^
and job security.
use
be used as a hacking
is so compromised that phones
can

Mobile phone privacy and microphone are disabled. “The gyroscope on

● device, even if your Camera detect motion and orientation, is sensitive enough
there to
your
iphone, pnt ' vibrations and therefore can eavesdrop on conversations”
acoustic
pick Up
(Schneiet, 2018). f the FBI, installing a fake cell phone tower to intercept
. Once the preserve
became
so asy that hackcrs demonstrate it onstage at Conferences.”
phones
urity compromise is j ust the tip of a much higger iceberg
. ^rential inforn’«'“’" » management across media and social media.
Thä'P" hes and ^^jia brands to re-tool their businesses towards a
of an approach, and away from models driven by the exchange
luch more Services,
„fcustomerdatafor
 326 PIONEERS

Francis Haugen was the whistle blower who came forward in 2021 with a cn-
ique of Facebook's Business model. Haue noted that Google was running a
en

System where humans and machines were
might be a model for other r
algorithm, it’s not a decision
just look at the performanr
raters ... they will go in the ^ H
give you a judgment And th
operating^ in a form of harmony that
●
time thcy changc thcir ranking
algorithm. It’s not like they
Thcy litcrally havc thcsc peoplecalled
^arefully compare the search results and
are deciding where the

approach feels likely to succr*^! *-**“*"'^"* Facehook and Google or not, this
and other formsof digital advertis."n'^Tf'"® the challenges of programmatic
a vertising, whilst mindful of tho ^ requirc User data to cfficiently target
" 2021, Apple made privaev '"'‘«encies of User privacy.
tequired Consumers toopt in toi?®“ to the iPhone operating System which
demic ohserver, Scott GaVwav sal f?® ‘^ircumstances. A USbrand
aca-
™oves m history was anticplil?? <^hanges: One of the great
khtb Business m 'H'TT'’*"^ e’srokvance of ori __ privacy . Violating

them hefuddled» (Gallowal S) rivals, and thwarting that has

Understanding the algorithm is the
● Alan ""'^skill which Boards are going to need:
2021 Rusbridger, former
on the Facebook
go. "These nn» ● “''^■'S'ght Board 1 ^»ardian newspaper (UK) ,

what to promnr ®bout how Faceh^^T °f ^ow far there is W

m Order to Crea? *1 ot Pron^” what to go in your feed and
to get as far as we^""'®*' ‘‘‘^agtoLen“ ’ f? 'T’’“''" ^^“book is engineered
the foothills” (R. k ?''**'^*'‘^n*'standin k * otk, probably our job as a boat
● One of the wayrthef
by Ptolerllld^l|®‘=°topanl,anj?®^'
Those tools are oftell"® “"‘^nrlyina
board - and~ similar"^edbodies in othnt
to navigate
IS

'hing is to say 1? box’ AI in Content recommendatio*^-

nnderstand whatyou??’’® ®'gorithn[.> l** “"tinued: “The easy
^ing shown” je ^ving the technical capability
To satisfy the '"«to challenging.
privacy, customH?*?'*' ® <^nstomer
toproperly understand' nnd for responsible digi'^'
data. Since the algotith^ ^'«°'hhms
mevitable. * P'^form is it.
'^“1 need to develop the experd*,«^
"tedia Companies’ use of the^*"
Protected IP, clashes of interest are
 FUTURE OF THE MEDIA BUSINESS 327

Information warfare proUferates

Even before the February 2022 war between Russia and Ukraine, information war
was widespread. But at that date, it became existentially pressing for democratic
governments and platforms to combat misinformation (material that is wrong) and
disinformation (material that is deliberately wrong).
AI tools amplify potential disinformation, as they deploy mass-personalisation and
dynamic content optimisation for the digital marketing of falsehood.
. Nicole Perlroth’s book, This is How They Say The World Ends, is required
reading for anyone looking at the evolution of media and tech in the 2020s in
contextof Cyber-and information wars. ...... ..
One specific threat identified is a dystopian combmation of media production
d black ops “Al-enabled malign information campaigns will not just send one
powerful message to
’ I million
. .,
people,j like twentieth Century Propaganda. They
Lo will send a million individual,zed messages - configured on the basis of a
detailed understanding of the targets’ digital hves, emotional States, and social
networks (US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence Final
Report, 2021). existence of ‘adversarial harmful networks,’ like
. Francis ^hich came to prominence in 2019-21. These are groups
the QAnon
and content streams
that are deliberately constructed to engage and enrage.
r 11 ffhis for the platforms, perfecting AI in content moderation(from
In the face of all o iJentification) will be crucial (see Chapter 6), as will be
text analysis to deep 5^^.^ ‘rabbit hole’ algorithmic content selection.
addressing anomalies in u
, n be scrutinised by regulators and advertisers. These bodies will
, Networks win recommendatioji algorithms to point user predilections
look for any tendency
to
wards ●■^'^'^^^'^^^^"■gcbnologies for protecting the truth may be the use of
● One of the ● ● 3„jthereforetheveracity,ofnewsitems. (Seethe
blockchain to Show the o g ,
BBC section in Chap
● the new epuity
Reputation: jndustry Professionals, corporations and creators
The levelling play'"g another dimension. Reputation management will
driven byy
the smartphone ^ content will be both visible, searchable and a
. „„„ increasingly '"'P'”'“" j employability- This is already visible in ‘cancel
Slrminant of f^P““"°"and potentially catastrophic impact of, say, an ill-judged
tweet on an mo'
328 PIONEERS

semantic analysis are'fuLti*oning on a global'’V scalc

AI. Natural language processing an^
Chapter 9), thereby chansitT (scc Signal AI analysis section ’ in

Reputation iS aLe:a;uT"°'^ -J Communications Companies.

before choosing to work with “Sing AI scarch tools, by brands and employers
Companies, influcnccrs or individuals. Influencers
associatcd - cven fleetingly '

media before hiring. creatives risk losing work as fir'ms' check social

J^cputation plays a deci ‘

and obstacles to emplovmpnf'^”^*^ "vercoming Barriers of cntry to netwofkSi
earnhowreputational Capital c! '-'.-‘^eeative projccts. Thus, it is crucial »
●g er and Azarpour, 2020) ^ dcvclopcd, preserved and expa^ ^
Sumnriary

evTdil^“"’ ‘‘"'"'’ution and**Mo'7'’’

t'sation - certain
_ Developmc*^/^m
common factors ace
AI technologies are dfi ●
teXTcardelWe“* ’’7
The flywheel efP' “^“ntent prod„ J
Peocesses. This is scen in the developn-c"'
executed ideas. And it is seen m
tion. This

-«"r“● --. rr;:—“i-rS

media

As we think about the

the virtues ofadc^rculaj. Business th .V«; W>t^
^‘^“nomic model Wiln!''"^^® intelligent technologies
ecome ever more important.

^lass
● Are the ten hjture f
different t^uestions
ones busi
Would trends
● Identity a nnedia y°upic|^9 Identified above the right ones?
market, i ^^“ipany i
‘dcluding^i
an^t"h'pSakes't''^ Technology changes in th®
● Find a
“seofAiin ‘
'ddustry whioK Ptopose a recovery plan,
h could also be deployed in the media-
 FUTURE OF THE MEDIA BUSINESS 329

Analysis: Blockchain and NFTs In a Hong Kong production Company

Background

Award-winning production Company Phoenix Waters Productions aimed, in 2021, to

bring Hong Kong entertainment to global audiences - by incorporating blockchain and
NFTs into their financing and production. Was this an attractive business model?
British banker of Chinese descent Bizan Tong combined a finance career at Barclays
with a film production Company, but after making independent film The Escort, he moved
to Honq-Kong (Alderson. 2021) and went full-time in entertainment.
There he joined up with former broadcasting Company ATV. and directed suspense
thriller Lockdown (Shackleton. 2020), a UK/Hong Kong film and shot during the pan-
demic in the UK US Hong Kong, Italy and Japan (Frater, 2021a).
Lockdown _ also took Phoenix Waters Production into Non Fungible Tokens. With tech
Company Marvion, Tong
auctioned five limited-edition “hybrid NFTs” of the theatrical cut
Hong-Kong 12 x 30 minute crime series
Thenextproi^t wa 2021 (Shackleton, 2020),
Forensfc Psycholy . (^iseman, 2021). Tong also developed an English-
distributed by Enoea ^ason, co-founder of London production

Company

Blockchain
on Lockdown, Phoenix Waters integrated blockchain
interestedby the NFTS experienoe
and NFTs into projects:
hiP movie. Chungking Mansions, Tong and his team added
● For Hong Kong d Fusion NFTs memorabilia (Tokenizer, 2021).
blockchain marketing es Crypto Keepers, about crypto users and bankers
● In Asia’s first
(Shackleton, 2020),
' ’
^■^ofC^Watersteamedup vvith Duncan Wong’s CryptoBLK
,,ote on the second season storyline
NFTs
to offer the audience
(Shackleton
2022). NFT Company Coinllectible bought a stäke in Phoenix
● Metaverse Blockchain F“®“" ,|gg Companies. The plan was to use Fusion NFT
Waters' Hong Kong and UKproducwn^^
to
entertänment sector (Cosmos,
in technology
and blockchain
2022: Frater, 2021b)j like Music Monarch, an NFT-only music com-
their works curated on the
● There were more ^ around nd the
the World would ^nFTs.
have
Petition where artists to voteithroughtheuseu ^from across the globe, curated
in
blockchain for Viewers stones
interlinked short available as NFTs (Frater, 2021b).
the film would be
entirely on the
 330 PIONEERS

Class discussion questions

There iS lots of interest in blockchain ini the Gntertainment business.
● Howcouidthetechnology open up payment opportunities for creators?
● With NFTs, how could
projects? P oducer be paid all the way through the royalty lifespan of
● With NFTs, how could
sn audlence get agency’ in shows through decision-taking
Power in the Stories?
MIthePhoenixWaterscombination of great stories, Asian star power and blockchain
beawinningcombination'?
● Would you i
«nvest in blockchain led
reasons.
Entertainment projects? Either way. give your

bibliography
Alderson, G.

Azhar^ ^"(2021) p"'’ '’"P®-^*l’cfilmniakcrspodcast.com/filtnmaki ng-

London:Pe„gl.®~«^'^ How to Bridge the r u
BBC. (2021) AI narrat' f bctween Technology and Society
BelLt;Ä2t?J: I - www.bhc.co.uk/ncWs/
S^nshme. ‘'«P^d/open.sporify.co’^^f^^^jdia with Peter Kafka on Puck, salc of
Cosmos. (2022) Co, ^‘'^KPJs2GFPn2NB2LC:cfh.’si=46f9cfl5^
(HK) LMted aZ pZ “ Con^pletes A
scs/coinllcctibles-comnh,T '’*<>«»« Waters PwäueUO^
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Datastream. (2021) Visual Ca ■
Dcloitte. (2022) 2022 „ j wwwvi! ,
l, ’!''^^"‘-s-Productions-hk-limi tcd-ancl-
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n>cd.a-and-entertainment-i^d H«/<>«te. |online| Availabic
pl

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Music Show. Retriev iV'“**'® Launchrr wrT'*Hovision-l234 928099/
omn.fic-blockchain-studio-lari ^“^l-li-og, NFT-Backed <Karma’ Film mndal
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