Connections

Whip Media on March 29 announced the commercial launch of the Whip Media Exchange, a data-driven content planning hub and marketplace for film and TV licensing.

The Whip Media Exchange has been in beta testing since late May with a group of leading media companies around the world.

Whip Media will be at MIPTV in Cannes, France, from April 4-6 to showcase the Exchange, which it described as the “only global platform that predicts demand across hundreds of thousands of titles while seamlessly enabling buyers and sellers to distribute and acquire content rights.”

The company will be located at booth R7.L3 in the Riviera Hall.

The Exchange is “transforming” licensing and programming, helping media companies to meet customers’ “growing appetite for compelling content,” Whip Media said.

Key features of the Exchange for buyers and sellers include:

Data-Driven Licensing: The Exchange, through its proprietary Demand Score, allows buyers and sellers to measure demand for titles across hundreds of platforms and over 80 countries. The Demand Score, using Whip Media’s consumer sentiment and engagement data from 20 million viewers, places a specific score on film and TV episodes, allowing customers to predict content performance in a particular territory and on a particular platform.

Robust Insights Around Hundreds of Thousands of Titles: The Exchange offers buyers and sellers the ability to compare the predicted performance of a film or TV series across hundreds of thousands of new and library titles globally, whether the rights are listed on the Exchange or not. The new research and content planning tool provides valuable insights around key audience characteristics, including age and gender, as well as similar titles viewers are watching, helping customers better evaluate what content to license and feature for their audience.

Real-Time Decision Making Buyers can immediately see rights for the thousands of titles available to them to acquire across windows and territories. Sellers can easily list and offer rights to buyers through an intuitive dashboard.

Sherry Brennan, GM and EVP of the Whip Media Exchange, discussed the Exchange with MESA just ahead of the commercial launch.

MESA: In a nutshell, what is significant about the Whip Media Exchange?

Brennan: The world of content has become increasingly complex, making it harder to pinpoint whether a film or TV title will be successful. The Whip Media Exchange uses data to predict which TV and film titles will perform best on a specific platform and in a specific territory through our Demand Score, which allows buyers and sellers to make better informed choices. This ability to predict performance with an audience provides a competitive advantage in this high volume content ecosystem.

The newest feature of the Exchange is that we provide buyers and sellers insights for content evaluation such as deep dives into gender and age appeal, territory and cultural fit, and other modelled insights across hundreds of thousands of new and library titles worldwide, whether or not the rights are listed on the Exchange. Clients can use this data to make better content decisions even if the deals themselves are done outside the Exchange.

MESA: What companies is this targeted at specifically?

Brennan: The Exchange is an enterprise product targeted at most buyers and sellers. For example, a larger organisation can use the Exchange’s insights to make better, more informed buying and sales decisions as they expand beyond their current territories. A smaller company can use it to connect with new partners, break through the clutter to reach larger players, or find titles available to license that are likely to perform well.

MESA: What is unique about the data-driven licensing feature? What kind of companies stand to benefit most from it and why?

Brennan: The Whip Media Exchange, via its proprietary Demand Score, allows buyers and sellers to more accurately predict demand for titles across hundreds of platforms and more than 80 countries.

Demand Scores help customers understand which titles are likely to perform better than others in terms of viewership for a particular audience. These insights provide answers to critical questions such as: What titles should I feature, given the wealth of content available? Which library content should I promote? Which foreign content should I license? And should I expect a certain title to perform better or worse than other titles?

Additionally, the Exchange offers key insights on audience characteristics, including the age and gender of likely viewers and key indicators such as Territory and Platform fit. The Exchange also highlights similar titles that may appeal to the audiences of our clients.

MESA: Can you be more specific/provide some examples of the kind of robust insights it offers?

Brennan: Imagine a platform that has been operating in a certain territory for years, and is now planning to launch into a new country. The Demand Score can help the platform determine if its existing catalogue of content will perform well with the new audience, or if it should license a completely different set of titles.

Or a platform that currently serves males aged 18 to 34 may want to expand to a more gender-balanced user base.

Demand Scores can be used in conjunction with filtering by age/gender appeal to help it decide which female-leaning or gender-balanced content to license.

Lastly, think of a studio looking to decide who it should license its titles to. With the Demand Score, it can determine which platforms the content will perform best on, or which territories it is best suited for.

MESA: Can you explain how it’s able to provide real-time decision-making? What technology/technologies are involved?

Brennan: Demand Scores and other predictive metrics are pre-calculated on hundreds of thousands of titles across hundreds of platform territory combinations, so buyers and sellers have access to this information with a few button clicks, and can use it to make immediate decisions. Data is constantly updated in our models, which are re-run regularly to ensure the most current data influences our metrics.

MESA: What companies have been beta testing since late May?

Brennan: The global buyers and sellers that participated in the beta include Lionsgate, Pluto TV, Globo, TelevisaUnivision’s ViX., AMC Networks International Latin America, Vodafone Hungary, Tastemade and Keshet International, among many others.

MESA: What has Whip Media learned from the beta testing? What changes/enhancements have you made as a result of the feedback so far?

Brennan: The feedback from our beta clients on the features they liked and what they felt we needed was invaluable. One frequent request was access to insights about content whether it’s listed for sale in the Exchange or not. So, we’ve added a new content planning tool which provides predictive metrics on hundreds of thousands of film and television titles worldwide.

The tool provides valuable insights around key audience characteristics, including age and gender, as well as similar titles, helping customers better evaluate what content to buy or sell, and where.

MESA: What have beta testers said are the features they liked most and why?

Brennan: With the growth of foreign language content another feature that’s helpful is that any language, any dub version, sub-titles and language specific versions can be listed and deals can be struck within the Exchange or separately.

Our search feature makes it very easy to find content with original or subbed/dubbed language characteristics that match a client’s needs.

In addition, regulations such as the EU’s 30% mandate for EU-produced content are easy to fulfil with the ability to find content based on its country of origin.

Clients really love how easy it is to search for whatever they want. Buyers also love the fact that, with literally one button click, they can make content inquiries to multiple sellers at the same time. Sellers love that they can incorporate unique financial terms on a per-buyer basis. The system is very flexible, which reflects the varying needs of buyers and sellers in this ever-changing ecosystem.

MESA: Is March 29 the official launch date?

Brennan: Yes, and we’ll be at MIPTV next week to showcase the Exchange on-site at Stand R7.L3 in the Riviera Hall at MIPTV.

For those not attending MIPTV and wish to learn more or schedule a demo, they can contact us at [email protected], or visit whipmedia.com/exchange.

MESA: How many companies are you expecting to be using it at that point? Have any firms who have taken part in the beta and any firms who did not already say they will either continue using it or start using it?

Brennan: Some new partners we can share include Pluto TV, Vodafone Hungary, Tastemade and Keshet International. Many U.S.-based platforms are using the Exchange to evaluate and acquire content for their streaming services as they expand into new international markets.

Also, many emerging streaming services in Europe and Latin America are using the Exchange to connect with new content partners and acquire titles that are likely to perform well on their platform.

MESA: What is the cost involved for users?

Brennan: The Exchange is priced as a monthly subscription per seat. Exact pricing and terms will vary based on the client’s objectives and the number of users they’ll need.