Tech Mahindra Ltd. has rolled out a new digital platform, branded as ‘Blockchain based Contracts and Rights Management System’ (bCRMS) for the global media and entertainment industry.

The bCRMS platform is designed to enable production houses and content creators to track revenue, royalty payments, manage rights and address content piracy by leveraging IBM blockchain.

The platform is built on open source Hyperledger Fabric protocol and utilizes techniques such as content hashing and forensic watermarking to track and trace content. The technology is industry agnostic and thereby it could also be used across other industries like trade, finance and healthcare that have a requirement for intellectual property and secured digital content. Built on IBM Blockchain, the platform will restrict unauthorized access and redistribution of digital content, mitigate content piracy and manage royalty payments. The platform is designed to be scalable and empowers artists, fulfilment partners and distributors with a clear, automated system for accessing and managing payments.

Rajesh Dhuddu, Blockchain and Cybersecurity Practice Leader, Tech Mahindra, said, “Fragmentation in the media and entertainment (M&E) landscape has had a profound impact on media consumption. Both media production houses and OTT (Over the top) players are creating intriguing content to improve customer stickiness and gain market share. This has led to an exponential increase in fraud with revenue lost due to online piracy estimated to approximately $ 50 billion by 2022*. As part of our TechMNxt charter, bCRMS is developed to usher in the next generation of digital rights management systems for the media and entertainment industry that orchestrate the entire media content life cycle workflows across pre-production, post-production and distribution phases to enhance revenues, preempt contracts or rights infringement and focus on redefining end customer’s content consumption experience”

Tech Mahindra's bCRMS will provide accurate, near real-time information and insights into the authenticity of content and detect any unauthorized use and distribution. The company is deploying bCRMS on IBM Blockchain for linear broadcast and Over-The-Top (OTT) service providers.

Also, Tech Mahindra is part of the IBM public cloud ecosystem to help clients transform their operations and accelerate their hybrid cloud strategies and use blockchain technology to help foster trust and transparency across industries.

“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. “Tech Mahindra is an important addition to IBM’s growing cloud and blockchain ecosystem.”

Tech Mahindra under its TechMNxt charter has continued its focus on leveraging next-generation technologies including blockchain, to disrupt and enable digital transformation, and to build cutting-edge technology solutions and services for customers globally. Tech Mahindra provides a holistic framework called ‘Block Ecosystem’ comprises of various levers: Block Studio, Block Engage, Block Talk, Block Geeks, Block Accelerate, Block Access & Block Value, which can be used to create industry leading applications that are architected on innovation and human excellence to unlock significant value for clients. Tech Mahindra’s technologists can also assist clients to build Blockchain-Platform-as-a-Service (BPaaS), System Integration and Product Engineering Services on IBM Blockchain.