StartUp Beat

By David Knight, CEO

Big Moving Pictures, or BMP, is the first digital out-of-home media company to bring a home-like television experience to outdoor audiences.  BMP’s initial offering, the Rolling Television Network (RTN) has all of the elements that a home TV network does (cameras, directors, production team), but on wheels.  The company has “prototyped” its production, operating and business models through its seed phase, including “performing” at twenty events nationwide, and is now moving into a full-scale rollout.  We are now pursuing a $15 million institutional funding round to support rapid growth and achieve a “land grab” of the largest events in the U.S. and abroad.

BMP’s RTN solves a major problem for big-name advertisers: how do they know if the public is actually watching their commercials?  There are three, somewhat insidious, and impossible to control technologically-based competitors for consumers’ attention: (1) TiVo and other DVR-devices, in many cases embedded within cable and satellite boxes; (2) hundreds of channels available at the flick of the thumb; and (3) perhaps the most disruptive of all, wi-fi—which means that even the lauded Nielsen householders do not have to change the channel during commercial breaks (thus the Nielsen tracking box thinks that the people there are actually watching Desperate Housewives on ABC), they just shift their attention to their laptop, which is now conveniently mobile throughout the home.  RTN comes as a timely solution by literally bringing the television experience, and its revenue source—commercials—to where the audiences are gathered and most receptive.  Above all, the integration of RTN with very well-attended, popular events virtually guarantees that the audience is watching the content, and paying attention.

During its prototyping period, BMP has developed, tuned and empirically proven its ability to grab and hold the attention of millions of consumers, at gigantic events across the United States.  To date, the events have been mostly aviation-oriented, including air shows featuring the United States Navy Blue Angels, and United States Air Force Thunderbirds.  The reception by both the performers and crowds has been tremendous, and we have “broken the code” on how to inject TV commercials into what were previously non-media-oriented events.  As RTN is expanded to appear at open-wheel motor races, major music festivals and other large-crowd, multi-day events, and internationally, BMP’s revenues are projected to grow exponentially.