Fox Corp. isn’t exactly the first name that comes to mind when the inescapable subject of Web3 comes up, but Rupert Murdoch’s company is playing more aggressively in this innovative space than any other traditional media firm.
The company’s year-old division Blockchain Creative Labs has been experimenting with the disruptive potential of digital ownership for properties as varied as “The Masked Singer,” WWE and, unexpectedly, SXSW. BCL will have a big presence at this week’s Austin-based festival to show off its work, featuring a Web3 experience devoted to Dolly Parton, called welcometodollyverse.com.
Listen to the podcast here:
“We think Fox, as the place that taught Americans how to text 30 years ago with ‘American Idol,’ was the right place to teach Americans what a digital asset is and how to own it,” said BCL CEO Scott Greenberg on the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business.”
Greenberg, who is also CEO and co-founder of the Fox-owned animation division Bento Box Entertainment, is joined on the podcast by BCL president Melody Hildebrandt, who is also the chief information security officer at Fox, to discuss how they’ve built an NFT-focused unit within the conglomerate.
“Another reason Fox was really set up to go after this in a serious way was by some of the decisions we didn’t go after,” said Hildebrandt. “Fox is not trying to go after the streaming wars, for example. That has freed up a lot of brain space for us to actually leapfrog what we really believe is going to be the future in Web3.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety‘s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. A new episode debuts each Wednesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
