How Replay and Theta’s blockchain technology can disrupt the video streaming market

Announced on February 10 this year, Replay, a blockchain-based video tracking and payments platform for content owners powering the web3 content economy, emerged from stealth with backing from Theta Labs, to launch the industry’s first blockchain-powered video tracking and payments platform.

For content creators, the back-end of video streaming is often opaque, including how revenue is shared; how long it takes for creators to receive compensation; exactly how successful a piece of content has been.

Replay’s protocol benefits content creators and owners by offering transparency and control over their content with visibility into content performance, allegedly helping provide liquidity and secure real-time payments as content is being consumed. All content viewership is recorded and powered by smart contracts on a decentralized, distributed ledger on the Theta  (THETA) network.

Theta’s blockchain video infrastructure allows viewers to earn RPLAY

According to Replay, the protocol also benefits the content distributors such as YouTube and Vimeo. Regardless of the business model; whether platforms sell subscriptions (SVOD), run ads (AVOD), or provide rentals or PPV (TVOD), Replay lets businesses operate using a predictable model that allows operators to streamline their tasks and compensate content providers in real-time, eliminating the need for manual record-keeping and compensation.

On the technology side, Replay wraps any digital-ready streams with its proprietary tech to track video assets on the blockchain across distribution endpoints. This is combined with Theta’s blockchain video infrastructure that allows viewers to earn RPLAY tokens, a TNT-20 token built on Theta, for sharing video streams to their nearby peers. TNT-20 is the Theta equivalent to Ethereum’s ERC-20 fungible token standard.

John Lemp, the founder of the OTT (Over The Top) aggregator NextFund with over 2.5 million subscribers, owns a network of Roku apps has partnered with Replay to integrate their protocol.

“Content creators need a revolution to take control back from the platforms that effectively own their livelihood. The blockchain enables radical transparency, and that transparency will level the playing field for content providers to take back control. I believe the Replay protocol can be the backbone of that revolution,” Lemp says.

Using the Theta Video API as the underlying infrastructure

Additionally, Replay Now, a cross-platform OTT streaming service that uses Replay technology for tracking and payment, and the Theta Network for video distribution, will reward consumers with RPLAY for subscribing and watching content. By using the Theta Video API as the underlying infrastructure for video delivery, Replay Now’s users can share video streams peer-to-peer to earn while they consume content.

Replay is led by a founding team with deep experience in the video space, across OTT video platforms, digital advertising, and video distribution. Replay co-founder and CEO Krish Arvapally co-founded and worked as CTO at Mojiva and MoceanMobile before co-founding OTT video platform Unreel which was later acquired by Powr. tv (now Bitcentral).

Arvapally is joined by Lead Blockchain Engineer Maduri Arvapally, who served as Lead Engineer at NscreenTV, Senior Engineer at GoPro, and holds four patents for building video indexing platforms using social data.

“Replay is going to remove monetization friction for content creators of all kinds,” said Krish Arvapally. “We’re incredibly excited to launch this innovation in partnership with Theta Labs, who has been a clear visionary in this space. By delivering unparalleled transparency into viewership and performance, we’re excited to reward both the end-users and creators powering the content economy.”

NFT solution allowing content owners a share in the success

Replay’s platform will offer decentralized video delivery with video tracking and payments using the RPLAY TNT-20 token. Further innovations will include an NFT solution allowing content owners a share in the success of their asset with an instant pay-per-use model using ThetaPass NFT authentication, as well as a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) which will enable communities and fans to control and participate in the development of their favorite content by directly purchasing licensing rights.

“We’re thrilled to back Replay as they launch a transformative product in the video space using Theta technology,” said Mitch Liu, CEO of Theta Labs. “This is exactly the kind of project we envisioned when we set the vision for the Theta ecosystem – deep innovation in the video and entertainment space, launched by experienced technologists and entrepreneurs and utilizing Theta Video API infrastructure, peer-to-peer video streaming, and ThetaPass NFTs to offer content creators and end-users a more fair share of revenues.”

Theta Networks’ infrastructure enables existing video platforms to drive incremental revenues and reduce content delivery CDN costs while end-users are rewarded for sharing their bandwidth to relay video on any PC, mobile, Smart TV, or IoT device.

Theta’s enterprise validator and governance council are led by global leaders including Google, Samsung, Sony, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Binance, Blockchain Ventures, DHVC, and Gumi.

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