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Journalism of Courage
Mobile content aggregator nexGTV on Monday announced a “talent discovery platform” ‘SPOTlight,’ in partnership with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, where users can upload their original videos and earn money per view.
“Very few people are now going to be able to complain that we did not get the chance to show talent,” said Imtiaz Ali while introducing the “endeavour” that uses the “fast-moving digital space” to give talented people the “accessibility that TV cannot”.
The platform will also present a cash award to the user who creates the best video every month.
“The cash prize is meant as an incentive to encourage aspiring video content creators to channel their creativity and further innovate,” said nexGTV COO Abhesh Verma.
How it works
– Users have to upload original music, fiction and reality (vox pop, social experiments, etc) videos to SPOTlight, which will subsequently be screened for violence, vulgarity, obscenity, etc. and other terms and conditions. These can be a maximum of 7 minutes and need to be exclusive to nexGTV.
– Approved videos will subsequently be published on nexGTV app, with the catch being that the uploader will start earning money only after 3000 views.
– Five of the most viewed videos each month will be screened by Imtiaz and his choice for the best one will be awarded Rs 1 lakh.
Can it work?
YouTube is at present the largest platform for user-generated videos, with at least one billion active users a month. And, though NexGTV boasts of 25 million downloads, it looks poised for a struggle.
The exclusivity clause will be one of its greatest hindrances, considering YouTube will always find users a greater audience. Furthermore, for an average user, getting 3,000 views is a struggle even on YouTube, so getting these on SPOTlight looks difficult for now.
NexGTV is marketing itself as a platform that allows users to monetise their videos. But it is not the only monetization possibility as one can do so on YouTube and other platforms like DailyMotion. The only thing that stands out here is that NexGTV claims there will not be any advertisements accompanying videos on SPOTlight.
