An IP Solution that Protects and Monetizes your Content

Commercial Archives, Stock Footage Houses, and Film Vaults are always looking for ways to maximize revenue from the collections they own or represent. While the stock footage market remains strong, it will decline over time as new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) give Content Creators the ability to create synthesized shots of exactly what they want to tell their stories.

The question for these organizations is how they expand their offerings to create new revenue opportunities in the age of AI.

The Challenge

The amount of film, video and photographs housed in Commercial Archives, Stock Footage Houses, and Film Vaults is staggering. Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of the material can be used commercially due to a variety of reasons:

• Many of the assets are still in their original analog form and not digitized.
• Visibility of the collection is limited, making marketing and sales of the content more difficult.
• Digitized copies have same imperfections and blemishes as the analog originals (e.g., blotches, emulsion streaks, cracked and warped film lines, demagnetization, and other various defects), which suppresses their value.
• Typically, only short, specific shots are licensed and not the entire film, video, or audio asset.
• Digital formats are constantly changing, necessitating regular upscaling and file formatting to meet licensee requirements.

To overcome these challenges, Content Owners and representatives need a system to:

• Digitize film, video and photographic assets and revitalize them to maximize their marketability.
• House the Collection assets in the cloud, making them quickly and easily searchable for potential licensees.
• Showcase and safeguard the assets to facilitate marketing efforts without compromising security. In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), watermarking an asset is no longer sufficient.

Once in place, a cloud-based IP Asset Management platform like studios Disney, Legendary and others use, makes it easy for Content Creators to capitalize on new monetization models available in the Content Reuse and Content Distribution arenas.

Content Reuse

Most organizations have a wealth of materials stored in their archives, libraries and even closets. In a digital format, there are several ways to generate revenue from them:

• AI Training Datasets – A tried and true way to generate revenue. Covalent helps fund the cost of digitizing collections thereby giving Stock Footage Houses or Content Owners agents more inventory to sell.
• Stock Footage Sales – The tech industry lacks access to ethically sourced AI training datasets (i.e., licensed by the Content Owner). No AI program can function without a robust, training dataset from which to learn.
• Generative AI – Whether it is a new AI generated script by a well-known screenwriter or new footage created by AI at just the right angle the director wants, our technology ensures original Content Owners are compensated.
• New Content – A recipe for revenue. Take the shelved content from an existing show, create a new theme, and mix in some new footage to create a new pilot, series, feature film or documentary distributed through our new model allows for transparent revenue generation.

Most importantly, all these options maintain the Content Owner’s IP rights and ownership.

Content Distribution

Depending on the type of the content you own, you may use one or more distribution mechanisms such as:

• Worldwide Theatrical distribution.
• Commercial (e.g., Netflix, Amazon, etc.) or Private Streaming options using AVOD, SVOD and/or EPG monetization models.
• Branded channels that stream similar content of a particular artist, genre, or theme.

Owning and controlling both the content and its distribution, creates additional revenue opportunities including:

• Advertising revenue.
• Product Placement.
• Point-to-Buy ™ (P2B) eCommerce.
• Merchandising.

By actively managing both the content and its distribution, organizations create new revenue streams where none previously existed.

The Covalent Solution

Covalent partners with Commercial Archives, Stock Footage Houses, and Film Vaults to help them create, produce, and distribute new and existing content, creating new income streams for them and their clients. Our turnkey solution adapts to any business situation, helping fund the digitization of analog content, repair imperfections to assets to increase their value, and improve collections visibility in the market, to maximize revenue generation opportunities.