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Highlights
- Theta TV is advised by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch
- Theta TV is advised by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch
- The interview with Randi Zuckerberg covers humanity’s navigation in the virtual world – a theme that is explored extensively throughout the season
The Metaverse has experienced its first TV interview. That Startup Show is Australia's premiere startup web-series, which has just released a new season on blockchain video streamer ThetaTV.
Just weeks after Meta (formally Facebook) CEO, Mark Zuckerberg announced his own metaverse, it appears other metaverses have kicked into gear with That Startup Show demonstrating just what’s possible in this iteration of the metaverse.
What Is ThetaTV?
First, you might be asking yourself: what on earth is ThetaTV? Well, ThetaTV is a blockchain television streaming service - and its no joke. In fact, the project is advised by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch.
On the surface, ThetaTV is similar to YouTube, in that users are both content consumers and content creators. Where it differs, though, is ThetaTV is a decentralised blockchain platform that allows viewers as well as content creators to earn cryptocurrency – known as Theta Token.
When you first go on to ThetaTV, it’s apparent that there’s a Twitch influence. Many of the channels are, indeed, gaming channels. But there are also many other channels, including a live NASA channel, a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 channel and a channel that hosts an Australian show called That Startup Show.
The Breakdown
The show is hosted by journalist and anchor Rae Johnston along with Australian author, screenwriter and cultural commentator Benjamin Law. It’s set aboard a virtual spaceship where guests join for discussion via a hologram. Think: The Project meets Star Trek.
This is the show’s third season, with the first seasons showing on other platforms, attracting an audience of over 24 million across multiple platforms seen in over 60 countries.
The first episode of the third season features CEO and UN Global Entrepreneurship Board member, Randi Zuckerberg. The conversation with Zuckerberg covers humanity’s navigation in the virtual world – a theme that is explored extensively throughout the season.
For example, there’s the story Zuckerberg tells of a farmer, whose California farm, that had previously made money from visitors, suffered a huge loss of revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic and so they pivoted their farm into a media business, where they leased out their lamas and goats to business zoom meetings. A brave new world, indeed.
The Verdict
Whether people realise it or not, the world is right on the edge of a tech revolution, where terms like “the metaverse” will go from being quirky to common parlance.
Moving into this new world, people need some form of guidance; and seeing as regular network, or even cable TV, are unlikely to fill that space, it only seems apt that a show featuring on a blockchain-based steaming service, lead the way. That Startup Show is that show.
