business resources, technology
Interview with Rishi Kapoor, Founder & CEO of paus.tv - The Revolutionary Streaming Platform For Independent Creators
Rishi Kapoor is a MBA graduate and the founder and CEO of paus TV streaming platform for independent films. Rishi is an experienced professional in film distribution both UK and Internationally. A former executive at Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and Disney. After many years working on distribution deals with Netflix, Amazon and Apple, he turned his attention to the independent film space, supporting independent filmmakers with his streaming platform paus.tv.
Rishi Kapoor Interview Focus
1. Background on Rishi - Education and background
2. Background of creating Paus and putting things together
3. How does Paus TV works
4. You touched that 97% of creators don’t make any money. Can you tell us about that?
5. Creative economy - how do you see the challenges in these areas?
6. Film industry - Independent film - how do you see the industry? The digital transformation of the film industry?
7. IP and royalty in the film industry?
8. NFTs and film - how do you see this?
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Rishi Kapoor Biography
Rishi Kapoor started his career working as a Runner for the BBC while he was still at University. After a few internships, Rishi joined Sony in 2011 as a Sales Coordinator. In his time at Sony, he worked in the digital (TVOD & SVOD) sales and distribution team, working with major digital broadcaster across Scandinavia and Benelux to assist the sales process:
• Contract/content licence and rights management, coordinated output deals with digital broadcasters across Scandinavia and Benelux.
• Worked with internal departments (e.g. product fulfillment, finance, legal) and operated bespoke IT systems to schedule content from a portfolio of over 3,500 titles.
• Tracked sales interests in key territories, included revenue recognition of titles for budgeting and budget forecasting.
• Daily interaction with international Sony Pictures offices such as legal & business affairs and fulfilment.
• Developed relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Provided product availability reports and liaised with clients on product selections.
That experience was key in designing his professional career in film and his interest in the entertainment industry. That took him to join NBCUniversal Media, LLC as International Account Coordinator in 2015. He was responsible for forming strong partnerships with key EST services: Google Play, Amazon, Apple iTunes and Microsoft, to lead new product/territory launches and to optimise Universal’s digital revenue opportunities for catalogue and new release content. Likewise, he was in charge of selecting key titles for seasonal campaigns, reviewed revenue reports to analyse campaign effectiveness and supported further deal negotiations with key TVOD players.
From there, he moved on to Warner Bros. Entertainment Group of Companies, taking the role of Senior Analyst, The President's Office UK, Spain and Ireland 6 months later. He worked as Senior Business/StrategyAnalyst working within the President's Office of UK, Spain and Ireland and providing support and insights for strategic decisions.
In 2018, Rishi Kapoor became an entrepreneur when he founded paus.tv.
Founding paus.tv
As a sole founder with no coding experience, Rishi launched a prototype in his room for £120 called 'watchpaus'. He on-boarded several award-winning filmmakers and within a week managed to attract 50 paying users. Whilst 'watchpaus' was a rough, throw-away prototype to validate a certain user-behaviour, it was the first time he built a web-based product and surprisingly the feedback included comments on how professional the site looked. “This taught me the valuable lesson of always attempting new skills and never under-estimating one's ability,” Rishi mentioned about this first contact experience.
About paus.tv
paus is a new video platform dedicated to supporting talented content creators and helping audiences to discover inspiring work. It is a platform powered by audiences to support great work without adverts.
With paus, filmmakers can get their content in front of an audience that embraces and supports them. Creators are invited to submit their shorts or docs to paus to share their work with a like-minded community of independent film fans. It’s free and quick to submit, and once films are live on the paus app, audiences and supporters can show their appreciation by leaving a tip.
The unique digital tipping feature allows audiences to tip any film or filmmaker they want to support - any amount from 10p to £1000+, at any time. paus is integrated with native digital payment methods, such as Apple Pay, so the process is quick and easy, and gets the tip to the filmmaker with no friction. Unlike other video platforms, the scales are weighed in the creator’s favour as they keep 80% of every single tip.
Vision About paus.tv
“paus is very simple. As a user, or audience member, a film fan, if you like watching content, you will watch stuff on Netflix or Amazon. You can go to Paus now, http://paus.tv, and you sign up for free very quickly, with an email address and a password, and you’re in, and you get to watch an unlimited supply of independent films, we have hundreds of films, across different genres, from factual to scripted, to animation, to drama, to comedy, you get to watch everything. And you notice, when you’re in there, that you’re not being charged a subscription, and you won’t be watching any adverts - what we do is very simple, we allow you, the audience at home, to pay what you want at any time during the film, using a hybrid mixture of approaches: Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay with your card. But it’s really that simple. Watch films. Pay what you want. Any time. Any amount. Anywhere.”
Rishi Kapoor Links And Sources
https://www.f6s.com/rishikapoor5
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishikapoor2
About citiesabc.com
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About openbusinesscouncil.org
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