Netflix & Chill No More? Blockchain Is Going To Kill Netflix & Cable

Cable TV has been harbouring massive hits ever since YouTube and Vine gave consumers the power to generate and publish content online. Even so, YouTube still holds the power to censor any content that its management team finds objectionable, and all the content is hosted on the website itself.

The process is more complicated with Netflix. Content creators must get past a certain number of “gatekeepers” and strike business deals with the network, which then puts the content on a server and distributes it over the air, via coaxial, or more recently, over the internet directly using CDNs (Content Delivery Networks like Akamai or Amazon CloudFront). Decisions about what content is offered, when it’s offered, the price, and the distribution route are still very proprietary and hierarchical.

Blockchain has the power to massively disrupt the entertainment industry because it brings out a completely new, decentralized model for content distribution. In a blockchain, computers all over the world act together in a peer-to-peer network to work on some task — there is no central server or authority.

According to a report by Deloitte, while some applications of blockchain technology may still seem farfetched and require further technological advancements, payment-focused use cases have already been proved to work. Parts of the media value chain are therefore already endangered by new blockchain-based payment and contract options. These can fundamentally reset pricing, advertising, revenue sharing, and royalty payment processes.

With Blockchain, content creators need not wait for their content to be approved by major websites like Netflix or Amazon Prime; all the content will immeidately go live. New channels can be established in a much easier fashion without the intervention of the government, and subscribed to by other content creators.

Technology changes have always impacted the entertainment industry. While the internet has created new ways to consume content, the creation and distribution of high quality shows has, for the most part, still been dominated by a small number of players, studios, TV networks, cable providers, and aggregators - just like Netflix. We need to watch out - times are changing fast.