David Frank to Launch New Platform for TV Content Sales

LONDON: David Frank's Dial Square 86 is prepping the launch of The RightsXchange (TRX), a new online marketplace for the sale and acquisition of TV content rights.

The new service will be led by Matthew Frank as CEO and Nigel Pickard as president, with David Frank as executive chairman. A launch is eyed for later this year. It aims to create faster, more efficient sales transactions, and will be free to use for both buyers and sellers. Distributors can feature available content rights and set prices. Buyers can screen content and bid for rights. Rights packages, contracts and delivery requirements will be standardized to simplify transactions. TRX will receive a 10 percent handling charge for all transactions on the platform. TRX is solely catering to the market for completed program rights; it will not operate in the original commissions or format markets at this time.

“TRX has been born out of a universal recognition that the way the distribution industry operates is in need of an overhaul," said David Frank. "In the last few years, hundreds of new broadcasters have entered the market place pushing up the volume of deals being done but pushing down the value per transaction. The traditional distributor business model (sales teams transacting person-to-person) is struggling for bandwidth to manage the increase in the number of buyers. Consequently many rights holders understandably prioritize selling high-value rights to high-value buyers. But this can leave the long tail rights under exploited. TRX can transform the way we trade in content rights—providing service and value to all participants, regardless of size, budget or location.”

Matthew Frank added, “We’ve already received incredibly positive feedback from distributors large and small as well as broadcasters who see the TRX platform as the means to enhance sales and streamline work processes. For distributors, TRX offers a way to generate truly incremental income. For broadcasters, the speed and ease of process provides better visibility and flexibility in scheduling. By aggregating content from multiple rights holders in one single destination and applying sophisticated search tools, it transforms the curation process.”