Divan.TV – Blockchain Video Streaming Open Platform

Introduction

Different blockchain companies have entered the market in the last few months. But there is one project on our radar that aims to disrupt over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms. Divan.TV wants to move away from outdated models of video services to a new blockchain video streaming platform that benefits everybody in the ecosystem, and for the first time will offer Real-Time Bidding (RTB) for Smart TV.

Problems and Solutions

According to the company, there are currently some problems in the video streaming market.

Low-income households are sometimes not able to afford the current prices of OTT services such as Netflix. Viewers are also forced to pay for content that they don’t consume in subscription packages.

Moreover, brands partnering with these companies do not have immediate access to their target audience through advertising since the cost of entry is so high. They also experience fraud and lack detailed data on their viewers.

Content owners are also not very satisfied with the services currently provided as they only receive between 3%-15% of ad revenue for their content on platforms such as YouTube. In fact, according to new research out of Germany, 96.5% of YouTubers don’t make enough money to live above the U.S. poverty line. To address these concerns, Divan.TV is launching a new platform that leverages blockchain technology. With a decentralized platform, viewers, brands and content owners will all be more satisfied with the services provided and the revenue generated.

With DIVAN.TV, viewers will watch ad-supported freemium content and earn credit passively. Furthermore, content owners will be incentivized to move to DIVAN.TV with offerings of 5-7 times more than what they are currently receiving in ad revenue on other platforms. Finally, brands will be able to participate in the Smart TV market at lower costs and hyper-target their audience with relevant advertising thanks to detailed, irrefutable data being shared between parties through smart contracts.

In order for such a platform to work, viewers will receive 30% of the advertising revenue for viewing advertisements on the Divan.TV platform. Content owners will receive 50% of the total advertising revenue.

For the first time on Smart TV, Divan.TV plans to introduce an RTB system that will allow brands to control pricing, eliminate fraud and manipulation of data, ensure traffic quality and ensure transparency of the bidding process. According to PwC, by introducing a blockchain-based RTB system specifically designed for Smart TV, programmatic will dominating the global TV ad market by 2021.

DIVAN.TV intends to be a global platform, targeting immigrant and ethnic communities speaking Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French German, Polish, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Ukrainian, Russian and English.

If you think this sounds similar to the upcoming TaTaTu project, you would be correct. But, what interests us most about Divan.TV is that they are an early player in the OTT streaming space. Their existing video streaming platform has been in operation since 2011, has over 2 million active users in 200 countries. The company, which already has partnerships with LG, Samsung, Philips, Sony, TCL, Skyworth, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku and others, which as we understand takes years to develop and will greatly impact any rollout timeline for a blockchain platform.

About Divan.TV

Divan.TV was founded in 2010 by Andrey Kolodyuk, and the original platform launched in 2011. The team is 60 strong with offices located in San-Diego, Cyprus, and Ukraine.  Executive Director is Arkadiy Kanyuka.

Divan.TV wants to revolutionize the way video streaming platforms work and how they relate to viewers, brands and content creators. We’re interested in seeing where the project goes.