Shahrzad Rafati has tackled one of the thorniest problems of the Internet age: how to pay the creators of video, television and movies when their content is pirated and distributed on the web.
“What we wanted to do is put the content providers back in control and at the same time help the fans share the content but in the right way,” she said.
Rafati and her team at Broadband TV have created technology that finds pirated video and places ads next to the content. The advertising revenue is then funnelled back to the publisher.
The business helps large companies, like the NBA, reclaim revenue that would otherwise be lost. Through a new dashboard tool, Broadband TV will launch this December. The company also plans to help amateur video makers distribute, track and make money off their content.
“It’s an end-to-end solution where, from the point when you deploy your content to distributing your content, optimizing the asset and tracking the asset … you can increase your views, increase your revenues,” she said.
Broadband TV is ranked as one of YouTube’s top five video content partners, next to companies like Warner Music and VEVO.
Rafati is also the co-founder of the Chopra Yoga Centre, a yoga and meditation centre that was opened in partnership with Deepak Chopra. She is the founder of Make Change, an organization committed to relieving human suffering in disadvantaged areas, and has been active in fundraising for Mission Possible, the United Way and World Cancer Day. •
photo | Peter Holst
