Commentary

Will TV Upfront Media Deals Be Paid In Cryptocurrency In The Near Future?

With the potential unease over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, economic uncertainty continues to escalate. And that might be an issue for the value of the U.S. dollar, with global media companies of all types considering this.

Closer to home, think about Sling TV, which is now allowing consumers to pay for its pay TV bundle using Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and many other crypto-wallet applications through BitPay -- reportedly one of the largest global blockchain payment providers supporting more than 90 crypto-wallet applications.

Media companies like Sling might look to expand to all kinds of financial payments to boost business -- especially for a virtual pay TV business that have seen soft growth over recent periods.

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Looking further, this might expand into other areas. For instance, are there any hard-pressed TV networks looking to help ease mid- to-low-level or new TV upfront marketers find a new home to place their media dollars?

Sounds crazy. But consider the the recent and anticipated changes in TV upfront-land -- business outcome additives, cross-platform guarantees, more programmatic options, increased flexibility when it comes to quarterly options. Why not consider that payment of TV upfront media will also expand?

For sure, one may guess that new, edgy streaming platforms might be getting into the bitcoin race first -- to push their related digital media businesses to new cryptocurrency payments. This might be particularly attractive to recent digital-first and direct-to-consumer TV-media marketers.

The downside to all of this might be that those streaming platforms still have very limited advertising inventory to sell -- around four to six ad avails per hour.

Those limited avails help to keep the whole supply-and-demand formula working in their favor. Currently, much of streamers' high-profile, highly viewed programming goes quickly for those who need immediate non-duplicated viewer reach.

The downside for Sling TV and others would be that the value of cryptocurrency is notoriously volatile. The positive is that when a customer pays with cryptocurrency, their data isn't stored in a centralized hub where data breaches commonly occur.

What's not to love? Any TV marketer can always cozy up to quiet, secure transactions, not letting on to their competition about what they are up to.

1 comment about "Will TV Upfront Media Deals Be Paid In Cryptocurrency In The Near Future?".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, February 23, 2022 at 9:20 a.m.

    I assume that this piece was a tongue in cheek proposition, Wayne. But you may be right---especially for a long tail network which reaches 5,000 viewers per mijnute. Somehow I don't think that NBC, ABC, CBS, etc will go that route as the producers of their shows and the actors, writers, directors, etc. would also have to accept payment in fake money---which I think is unlikely. Then again, as we move into the Metaverse I guess anything is possible.

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About the Author

Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.