SBI Media Workshop Confirms Radical Opportunities In Blockchain

Stakeholders at the SBI Media workshop held in Lagos have declared that blockchain technology could bring monumental shifts to the media industry.

They disclosed this at the third edition of the workshop held in Lagos, recently.

Convener, SBI Media Workshop, Rotimi Bankole, identified blockchain technology as a potential gamechanger, and is keen on training young individuals in the industry to leverage blockchain to build profitable careers and businesses in media.

In his session titled ‘Blockchain Fundamentals: Why It Matters’, Opeyemi Awoyemi, founder of the job site Jobberman and the webhost Whogohost, laid the foundation for the rest of the program by defining blockchain as a tamper-resistant database for storing items of value, and within the context of money or records, it can be thought of as a ledger.

As an investor in at least five blockchain start-ups, Opeyemi expounded on the concept of blockchain. Across media and its expressions in entertainment and other sub-sectors, the issue of ownership and rights management over content remains one of the greatest in the industry. For centuries, it has been a challenge to effectively identify true ownership of content and materials, and this has often led to lawsuits and payment disputes. Blockchain can remove these issues, Awoyemi predicted.

According to Fisayo Fosudo, YouTuber and tech media entrepreneur, “You can’t claim what’s not yours, what’s yours can’t be claimed and your identity is unique to you and is validated.”

He said this during his session at the workshop where he affirmed that blockchain promises an effective way to track ownership and process payments easily. By using blockchain technology, Fisayo explained that intellectual property rights can be properly tracked, and digital rights management companies can access the full record of transactions made.

Another SBI Media Workshop facilitator, Olubunmi Fabanwo who is the Affiliate Programme Manager for Binance Africa and founding partner at Ports Connect, identified other use cases for blockchain technology in media, including streamlined royalty payments, peer-to-peer sales and content distribution, usage-based billing models, and immutable ad metrics.

Many facilitators emphasized that there is no short supply of propositions for blockchain use cases in media, especially as the industry looks to address many limitations with innovative technological solutions.

According to them, in an industry where middlemen are often hindrances instead of enablers, shifting consumer habits, unequal distribution of profits and a myriad of inefficiencies, blockchain is being embraced as it promises disintermediation and the introduction of a more transparent ecosystem all across the value chain.

According to Bankole, “these use cases are easy gamechangers and can also facilitate the establishment of new career and business models that will allow the industry progress beyond the challenges that were discussed during the workshop. By offering innovative solutions around micropayments and automated settlements, use of immutable records of data shared between parties, the clarity that blockchain brings to previously ambiguous practices with metrics and results. There is finally something that can deliver a fair deal for all players while creating space for further innovations and progress.”

Olubunmi Fabanwo, expressed this point also when he said, “ultimately, effective use of blockchain could make the media space fairer and more equitable, while also introducing practical advances that change the way that we consume media”.