Why a token? BLOCKTV makes the case for their upcoming coin listing

These are trying times for media companies trying to sustain a living from digital advertising. Despite $273 billion being spent on digital adverts last year, it is claimed that up to two-thirds of this investment is wasted and that only 9 percent of digital ads receive more than a single second’s engagement.

While businesses agonize over whether their Google AdWords spend is delivering an ROI, and print media bemoan the decline of their own advertising revenue, a handful of enterprising companies have taken it upon themselves to rewrite the digital advertising playbook altogether.

Noa Tamir is the COO and Yael Lavie the Senior Anchor of BLOCKTV, an Israeli media startup pioneering attention-based rewards as a new means of tracking and incentivizing engagement. The fact that BLOCKTV, an Israeli blockchain broadcaster, would seek to issue its own token is no surprise.

As CryptoSlate reported on Nov. 4th, the initial listing the company has settled upon, to be conducted on Bittrex Global on Nov. 21st, mirrors the fundraising trend that has defined the cryptosphere this year.

The BLTV token the company will be issuing (targeting a raise of $2 million) isn’t your typical medium of exchange or staking token, however. Rather, it’s designed to facilitate the disbursement of rewards between advertisers and viewers for the consumption of promotional content.

BLOCKTV Team
BLOCKTV Team in the studio. (Photo by: Pazit Dank)

Blockchain media company issues blockchain token

In an interview with CryptoSlate, the pair outlined the case for using tokenized rewards to disrupt digital advertising. As Tamir explains:

“Advertisers may spend for placements using the token, of which a share will be distributed to viewers who can prove they’ve spent the time watching the ads.”

“With the BLTV token, we can connect advertisers to viewers and content creators while retaining editorial oversight over the journalistic product,” explains Noa Tamir. “Viewers can use the tokens in BLOCKTV’s engagement center, and content creators can be paid in tokens for their contributions.”

“We put a lot of effort and budget in order to drive growth to the blockchain industry,” adds Yael Lavie, “whether it’s bringing the most important stories and voices of this world onto our 24/7 video network. We have many publishers from the sphere that broadcast our live feed, we believe that’s a real vote of confidence in the community of  BLOCKTV.”

The company, owned by Alignment Media, is seeking to offer 20 percent of its total supply of 3 billion BLTV tokens on Bittrex Global.

In addition to facilitating the exchange of data and revenue between advertisers and consumers, Tamir promises that token holders will be able to enjoy “direct access to exclusive premium content such as expert commentary and analysis, interviews with key industry players, as well as special interactive segments.”

They can also “influence the categories of news they receive, customizing coverage to suit their interests, having a say in which guests are interviewed, which topics are discussed and which investigations are commissioned.”

A brave route to take

There is only one noteworthy tokenized project whose own ERC20 asset bears comparison with BLOCKTV’s; that would be Brave. The pro-privacy web browser pioneered the attention-based rewards system which will be baked into the BLTV token.

BLOCKTV Control Room. Photo by: Tal Shahar
BLOCKTV Control Room. (Photo by: Tal Shahar)

With over 3 million active monthly users, Brave has shown that there is demand for a privacy-focused web solution that still permits opt-in advertising.

However, BLOCKTV will be the first crypto company to apply this approach to broadcasting.

Despite having started life as a media company devoted to covering events within the blockchain industry, BLOCKTV has grander aspirations, Noa Tamir explains:

“We don’t just cover cryptocurrency – we are big fans of blockchain tech in all its aspects. And as time goes on, we find ourselves expanding into other related technology sectors…The science, the financial and regulatory intricacies, the tangled web of interests at play, not to mention the culture and ideology.”

She continues:

“Our content is varied so there will be something for everyone. We have hard hitting one-on-one interviews with industry leaders, followed by lighter segments covering the latest crypto and blockchain memes. We try to maintain our core values of reliability, innovation and freshness in every product we put out, and we feel that the community is responding well to our substance and style.”

Senior Anchor Yael Lavie further explained:

“The main challenge was instituting traditional news practices into the cryptosphere. Just like cryptocurrency, fintech journalism is a new and emerging genre in reportage. We are a group of experienced journalists with an array of backgrounds from war reporting, to justice, and mainstream news. We were forced to use our combined skills and reinvent them in a way that was fit for the tech, crypto and blockchain spaces; Which are fascinating topics in their own right, but not as straight-forward when compared to reportage on Donald Trump for example.”

This month Bittrex, tomorrow – the world?

BLOCKTV’s COO has grand plans for where she hopes to lead the media company upon completion of its token sale. Noa Tamir elaborated:

“We want to be the go-to source for millions of people who want and need that information gateway into the technological world of the future. Blockchain technology and digital assets are just the beginning for us. We plan to expand our coverage into more and more fields. What we’re doing now can be replicated to cover other emerging sectors, some with very similar market conditions. We also plan to expand geographically starting with a bigger presence in the US and Asia. We will develop and expand technologically too, finding new ways to interact with the community both in terms of our content and with our network of partners and stakeholders.”

First, though, there’s the small matter of a token sale to complete, and a wave of new stakeholders to onboard. If BLOCKTV can prove its attention-based rewards model is more efficient than the current digital advertising model, it will have taken a huge stride towards realizing its bold ambitions.

The post Why a token? BLOCKTV makes the case for their upcoming coin listing appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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