As NFTs and Web3 continue to bring innovation to cultural industries, a new network – NFTV – is looking to bring the power of television creation to the people that enjoy it. The project from renowned voice actor and musician Greg Cipes will use a DAO to bring on user content along with projects from major film and TV names.
NFTV Co-Founder Greg Cipes is an entertainment industry veteran
Greg Cipes certainly knows a thing or two about the film and television industry. That’s because he’s been a part of the business since childhood. As a matter of fact, show business runs in the family. Cipes’ grandparents were actors, and his father was a television producer. As a result, Cipes was able to learn the ropes early on.
His long career has seen him pick up over 150 credits as an actor. Of course, most people will know Cipes as the voice of two beloved cartoon characters: Teen Titans’ Beast Boy and Michelangelo on Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Now, Cipes is getting ready for the launch of NFTV. Cipes started the project with fellow actor Lukas Haas after first coming to NFTs through the Bright Moments DAO. Cipes first learned about NFTs at the start of Covid-19, when some friends told him about the technology. He quickly saw it as a perfect vehicle for empowering creative communities and connecting to fans.
Indeed, talking to NFTevening about NFTV, Cipes clarifies the ultimate goal of the project. “NFTV is by the people for the people. The goal is not to make money, even though that may come.” Rather, Cipes wants to use the power of DAOs to give people more stake and control in the content they watch.
Crypto, Cartoons & Cannabis: The NFTV mission
Something that Greg Cipes highlights about NFTV is what he calls the three C’s: Crypto, Cannabis & Cartoons. This factors in three of Cipes’ passions, as well as the ethos of the upcoming network. Certainly, Cipes sees all three industries as having the power to seriously disrupt the world.
As far as the kind of content that will live on NFTV, Greg Cipes sees NFTV as, “MTV – but when it was cool – meets Adult Swim. I also call it ADD TV.” This speaks to the fast-paced and eclectic mix of short-form content that Cipes imagines the DAO greenlighting.
In a way, NFTV blends traditional entertainment networks with the user-generated content model that social media platforms have made so popular. Cipes notes that this is by design, and reflects the demographic that NFTV is primarily catering to, saying,
“This is really for the young generation, the Gen Z’s, to have content from a network that isn’t run by billionaires and oligarchs.”
How will the DAO work?
While NFTV will be built on Ethereum, the current plan is to stream its content on Twitter and YouTube. Thus NFTV content will be highly accessible to audiences. By the same token, while Cipes acknowledges that he has a vision of what the platform could be, he assures that “Every step will be decided by the DAO”.
To enable this, the DAO will have a governance model using tokens to distribute votes among members. In addition, the DAO will also issue airtime tokens for people watching NFTV content. There is no word yet on when the DAO membership tokens will become available. In any case, the goal is again to set them at a price that many people can afford.
To be sure, the road to launching NFTV has been challenging. Nevertheless, Cipes talks about how the vision for what NFTV could be, helped him to keep going. Especially when it was incredibly difficult.
“It’s been a heavy lift for me to get to NFTV. But whenever I thought about stopping, I thought, Well, somebody else is going to do it and it’s not going to be as good! And whenever I kept going, I saw that the universe liked that.”
All in all, like most creators who are early Web3 adopters, Cipes hopes that NFTV will also serve as an example to other creatives to take control of their art and empower their fans. He concludes our interview with a piece of advice to any creators looking to find their way in this emerging space.
“My advice on getting started is to just start! Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off.”
Quotes are condensed and edited for clarity.
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