About

The root of the Paramount and WBD problem is the monopoly of our culture. And as many know, “Politics is downstream from culture.”

This problem existed long before the Paramount and WBD merger — and will continue, regardless of the merger outcome.

We want to tell stories about our own cultures.

And we have the stories. In the words of an Emmy-nominated documentary director, “We have so many movies people haven't seen, that I don't even think we need to be making new ones.”

What we're missing is distribution.

Festival-winning films and documentaries have never been seen by audiences — because they didn't have distribution, and their audiences didn't have access.

Here is who controls distribution today:

All of them have streaming infrastructure and massive customer bases, allowing them to continue choosing what stories get told and produced.

To tell the stories we want, we need distribution and a customer base.

Both are critical. If we build streaming infrastructure, but fail to bring over audiences, we still lack distribution.

Customers, however, are desperate for a new option – they just don't have it yet.

Has streaming infrastructure and a wide catalog, lacking customer adoption and awareness for streaming.

Has streaming infrastructure, niche catalog, and lacking adoption

Has streaming infrastructure, niche catalog, and lacking adoption

?

Can we build a streaming alternative that people switch to?

We know we can build streaming infrastructure for distribution. We know we have stories for a catalog — countless that have never been distributed. We know people are looking for alternatives.

The question is: how can we get customers to switch?

The Proposal:

Imagine if filmmakers and creators could bring their own audiences to the platform.

Why would they do this? Because they own the platform.

OurStream will be a streaming platform owned by filmmakers and industry workers, that they can use to distribute their own work — retaining profits and stewardship of the platform.

That means filmmakers and artists will post across Instagram, Facebook, mailing lists, friends and family chats — encouraging people to go watch their work on a platform that the filmmakers actually own.

That includes control over payments, royalties, rights — which gives them leverage with every other distribution platform, too.