The entertainment and media industries constitute the Blockchain Global Entertainment Alliance (BGEA)

Blockchain technology brings benefits to a global ecosystem, from content creator to consumer, redefining how content will be created in the entertainment and media industry.

A group of companies from the entertainment and media industry have formed the Blockchain Global Entertainment Alliance (BGEA) with the objective of promoting the adoption of blockchain technology in order to develop common standards and best practices in the blockchain environment.

The BGEA is a non-profit alliance designed to educate all forms of entertainment businesses about the benefits that blockchain can provide to the entertainment industry, as well as promote and support the use of the technology for financing, rights management, transparency, payments, contract enforcement, royalty distribution, micropayments for content, ticketing, aggregation, and creator/end-user relationships.

Millennium Media's Rouslan Ovtcharoff, a founding board member of BGEA, says: “Blockchain technology has the potential to fundamentally change the way our business is conducted. In addition to helping us solve the piracy problem, our understanding of how the technology works and why it is important remains very limited.”

"The learning curve for anyone unfamiliar with this technology is steep. We are creating the Blockchain Global Entertainment Alliance to promote blockchain technology while educating those unfamiliar with this technology and its many uses in the ever-evolving entertainment industry," adds Ovtcharoff.

Benefits for members of the Blockchain Global Entertainment Alliance include access to educational materials and research reports on blockchain technology, access to webinars, regular member meetings, events and newsletters on the state of blockchain technology in the entertainment industry.

The companies that initially formed the Blockchain Global Entertainment Alliance Millennium Media (USA) with: Capstone Group (USA), Nu Boyana Studios (Bulgaria), FilmTrack (USA), Purely.Capital (United Kingdom), Home Box Office Singapore (Pan Asia), RightsTrade (USA), CineMundo (Portugal), Scanbox Entertainment (Scandinavia), Take One (Scandinavia), Berkley Media Group (United Kingdom), PlayArte Pictures (Latin America), Havoc TV (USA), Cinezen (Sweden), Cinemarket (Germany), among others.

Stephen Kassin, president of FilmTrack, assures that "it is vitally important that industry participants understand the technology and its effects on their business models. FilmTrack is always looking for ways to better serve our clients and believes that blockchain will have a consequential impact on the areas we serve. Specifically contracts, rights management, royalties and other financial flows related to intellectual property."

Yariv Lerner, CEO of Nu Boyana Studios, adds that "We continually face the question of how to retain the audience's attention and are always looking for the latest technologies to remain relevant. Blockchain technology brings benefits to a global ecosystem, from the content creator to the consumer, and will redefine how entertainment content will be created. The technology is very promising, and we are proud to join the Blockchain Global Entertainment Alliance as a founding member."

Blockchain technology is like a ledger, a digital database that is distributed across a large network of computers. New entries cannot be added to the database unless each computer agrees to make that change, and old entries are extremely difficult to manipulate once they are recorded. This opens up many use cases for accounting, finance, and value transfer.

This means having an immutable record of entries, with new entries being virtually immune to fraud. The data can represent anything from rights management, ownership, or financial transactions. It could host file storage, digital content, and even permissions when someone is able to view the content. Virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network, reducing the risk and cost of verification for everyone involved.