How royalties are calculated

Modified on Thu, 13 Apr 2023 at 12:20 PM

Licensing Contract defines relationships between Sellers and Buyers, from commercial rules to operations ones, regarding a list of Contents.

It is based on a Business Model and commercial and operational conditions.

Once the Contract has been validated by both parties, iKast starts monitoring the Contents distributed on Buyer's distribution channel and will store logs of each Viewing Logs session.

Fetching Viewing Log data

iKast proposes different mechanisms to fetch viewing data from platforms by using technical Connectors.

These Connectors connect your back-end systems, directly or indirectly with iKast and guarantee data origin and values. Different levels of integration are available, using different Connectors:

  1. direct access to a video player, best integration level. Called Direct (Player);

  2. a connection to 3rd party data monitoring systems like Nice People At Work's Youbora service. that use their API to extract data and populate iKast's data vault. Called Indirect (NPAW) for example (more integrations to come);

  3. direct API calls from external to a dedicated iKast.io endpoint, called Direct (API);

  4. CSV-based flat files are to be ingested directly in iKast's data vault, called Raw (File).

These different workflows have a different levels of trust regarding data safety and validity. Your level of reporting integration has been tested and validated at the creation of your account by your account manager and will apply some extra parameters (API keys) to work properly.

For all automated workflows, iKast will fetch and compute data every 5 minutes.

Minimum guarantees and Flat fees

Flat fee (optional) is a once-off payment to get access to Contents. It is added once on the total of all computed royalties.

Minimum Guarantee (optional): for each business model based on fixed results (number of viewing, rental, ads served, etc.) this extra condition can be added. It guarantees a minimum monthly fee whatever the performance-based revenues are.

  • If we set an MG of 500€ for an SVOD with counting views making only 375€ then 500€ will be billed. If revenue is 721€ then it’s bigger than the MG and the full amount of 721€ is billed.

Building royalties flow

For each registered Viewing Log, iKast will then create a reporting log which will calculate the money that it generates based on the commercial rules. You can then visualize your complete report in the Reports Section.

Let's take some examples:

Example A, we have a Contract with theses conditions:

  • Business model is SVOD

  • Minimum Guaranteed of 100€

  • cost per Minutes watched : 0,0025€

and this contract is validated and up and running 1st of October.

1. we get a Viewing Log from Seller's platform about a Content included in that Contract:

  • startdate is valid : 10th of October

  • duration is 120 secs;

2. we fetch a Viewing Log session:

  • duration * Minutes watched: 0,0025 *(120/60) = 0,0050€

3/ we calculate all royalties in a time period (monthly):

  • I’m am the Seller, I check my royalties balance end of October

    • there is only one Viewing Log so my balance is:

      • max (Minimum Guaranteed, ∑royalties) = max (100, 0,005)= 100€

    • I must then receive 100€

  • I’m am the Buyer, I check my royalties balance end of October

    • there is only one Viewing Log so my balance is:

      • max (Minimum Guaranteed, ∑royalties) = max (100, 0,005)= 100€

    • I must then pay 100€

Example B, we have a Contract with theses conditions:

1. we have a contract with theses conditions:

  • Business model is TVOD

  • Viewer Count : 0,002€

  • one content attached to this contract

2. we fetch a Viewing Log session:

  • startdate is valid

  • duration is 120 secs

3. we calculate all royalties in a time period (monthly):

  • Viewer Count  = 0,002€   if a view is done, whatever its duration is, its is calculated like one count