Adrian Garelik (CEO) and Facundo De La Iglesia (VP of content) in front of the Palais des Festivals, Cannes

When you think about the French Riviera the first thing things that comes to your mind are sunlight and glamour. That sight was nowhere to be found during the four rainy days of MIP TV in Cannes, which started last Sunday and it is coming to an end today. Humidity has ruined all the stylish hairstyles on the red carpet (which is actually pink this time) of CannesSeries. However, once we found ourselves under the roof of the Palais des Festivals during the frenetic content market, excitement could be felt in the air.

This place is meant for business and meetings are held one after another every 30 or 60 minutes. The vertiginous rhythm of everyone’s pitches, repeated a thousand times like a mantra during the meetings, can suddenly make you feel in the middle of a speed dating event.

In the midst of that accelerated choreography of men and women walking among the stands giving each other business cards and in between several cups of coffee, some curious people approached the panel opened by NextGen, the market’s technology forum. This year, and for the first time, MIP TV has decided to explore the possibilities of blockchain technology and how it could revolutionize the audiovisual industry.

“If content is king, will blockchain spark the revolution?” was the title of the discussion panel where Ashley Turing (LiveTree), Amorette Jones (Treeti) and yours truly had the chance to bring some clarity and knock down some myths about the possible uses of blockchain in the entertainment industry. What will change first? Monetization? Distribution? Financing?

Of all the topics discussed during talk, the official Twitter account of the conference (@MIP) highlighted one concept; the necessity to get closer to these technologies and bridge the gap between blockchain and the entertainment industry in an empirical and progressive way.

We are in the middle of the transition towards the internet of value. Information industries need to collaborate with the mentors of new technologies in order to develop ways of bringing more and better content to consumers in an accessible and transparent way for all the players in this ecosystem.

After the panel, the discussion was far from over and was taken to the halls, receptions and after parties, where people approached us to ask further questions about our projects. The good news is that Cannes will be hosting MIP again in October, with a market twice as large as this one and a bigger participation from #blockchainment companies — off the record, we can start talking about a blockchain front in MIPCOM which shows the collaborative spirit among several blockchain entertainment companies-.

“If content is king, will blockchain spark the revolution” opening panel at MIPTV

We spent the rest of our days joining the agitated rhythm of markets, where we had the opportunity to resume the talks we had already started with several companies. If wind keeps blowing in our favor, in a few weeks we will be announcing the first official industry collaborations with Flixxo.

All in all, MIP TV was an extremely positive experience and it is amazing to see the amount of content that is being produced each year. This content is looking for new alternatives for distribution, protection, monetization and financing. Will blockhain light the spark?

Adrián Garelik

CEO, Flixxo