Fragmentation in the media and entertainment landscape has had a profound impact on media consumption. With media production houses and OTT platforms creating intriguing content to garner customer loyalty and gain market share, there has been an exponential increase in fraud, with the industries losing revenue to online privacy. The losses are estimated to reach US$ 50 billion by 2022.

As a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business reengineering services and solutions, and an important part of IBM’s public cloud and blockchain ecosystem, Tech Mahindra helps clients transform operations and accelerate hybrid cloud strategies, using IBM blockchain technology to help foster trust and transparency across industries.

The company recently announced the launch of their new digital platform, ‘Blockchain-based Contracts and Rights Management System (bCRMS)” for the global media and entertainment industry. “Digital rights management is a pressing problem impacting artists, content creators and advertisers worldwide, potentially costing the industry billions every year. Tech Mahindra’s innovation using IBM Blockchain helps address this challenge with a new approach that offers the digital media market the ability to track the quality and authenticity of content as well as track downloads and usage of content in a clear and flexible manner,” said Alistair Rennie, General Manager, IBM Blockchain.

Built on open source Hyperledger Fabric protocol, the bCRMS platform utilises techniques like content hashing and forensic watermarking, and is designed to enable production houses and content creators to track and trace content, revenue, royalty payments, manage rights and address content piracy by leveraging IBM blockchain.

“bCRMS is developed to usher in the next generation of digital rights management systems that orchestrate the entire media content life cycle workflows across pre-production, post-production and distribution phases to enhance revenues, pre-empt contracts or rights infringement, and focus on redefining end-customers’ content consumption experience,” said Rajesh Dhuddu, Blockchain and Cybersecurity Practice Leader, Tech Mahindra.

The technology is industry agnostic, however, and can be deployed across other industries such as trade, finance, healthcare, etc., that have a requirement for intellectual property and secure digital content. Designed to be scalable, bCRMS can empower artists, fulfilment partners and distributors with a clear, automated system for assessing and managing payments. Tech Mahindra’s holistic framework called ‘Block Ecosystem’ comprises various levers such as Block Studio, Block Exchange, Block Talk, Block Geeks, Block Accelerate, Block Access ang Block Value, which can be used to create industry leading applications architected on innovation and human excellence to unlock significant value for clients. Tech Mahindra’s technologists can also help clients build Blockchain Platform as a Service (BPaaS), System Integration and Product Engineering Services on IBM Blockchain.