by Herman Manson (@marklives) How can brands access content from global entertainment companies such as Sony, Disney, Paramount, MGM, Fox, Universal or Warner Bros? How many legal hoops would they need to jump through to… give it away free to their customers?
There must be a legal joke in there somewhere. But let’s skip the lawyers, because a white-label content management and distribution company, called Red Touch Media, now offers brands the rights to relevant content from the labels and entertainment brands listed above, and more, directly.
Red Touch Media, which is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, recently opened is South African office (Red Touch Media Africa) under the leadership of Hennie Theron. Born in Namibia, Theron is a partner in the SA business.
The US business launched in 2001 by offering consumers the ability to compile their own play lists and burn a CD, legally, at kiosks (burning CDs is no longer a service offered by the company). This is what launched it into the content management game; it had to acquire rights to all the content it was loading onto those kiosks.
Branded for individual clients
Today, it offers brands access to content via retail kiosks, content portals and e-stores, as well as mobile devices. All of these are branded for individual clients. In addition the company provides content management services for customers to manage their in-house content. In South Africa, the first five kiosks will soon be rolled out by one of three clients already signed up by Theron.
On one end, Red Touch Media Africa offers brands and retailers an online retail or digital in-store presence (through kiosks). These may sell video content, ebooks, software and music. With kiosks, customers can download the content onto USB devices or directly onto their phones (all content sits in a cloud). Movie rentals are also available, and are timestamped to expire two days after being rented.
The kiosks remove the need for people to use their own bandwidth to download content, according to Theron.
He sees kiosks selling music and books or renting movies as viable options for retailers which already offer similar hard-copy products. Kiosks could also be a way for brands to pull customers into their physical stores more often through free download offers which have to be done in-store.
At the other end, Red Touch Media clients pay an initial development fee, a monthly management fee, a content licensing fee and for their own hardware. The SA business holds regional content rights for Africa, and Theron sees a lot of potential for building brands through content offerings across multiple southern African markets.
Local content offered
Red Touch Media also offers local content on its system, and is signing labels and entertainment brands in local markets — especially in Nigeria and South Africa.
The group’s initial focus was breaking into the US market, especially since this would help it secure access to content and test its product offering. This done, it started looking at other markets to enter.
In the US, clients include a sports-pub chain that offers content as part of a loyalty system, a number of book stores, and a group offering content in US prison systems through device rentals — a diverse set of clients. The thread that ties them together is the realisation that people require access to quality content, and Red Touch Media makes it easy and convenient for its clients to offer this to their own customers. It grows their brands and offers consumers a legal and convenient way to access content.
Convenience, says Theron, is a major factor in Red Touch Media’s offering: he foresees a time when people will pop into a store for milk, bread and a movie — all in one space.
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