betting on media

I just read about Media Predict and felt compelled to share :)

Media Predict is essentially a stock exchange where the stock is the fate of different media projects. The way it works is that you place bets on different types of media content by buying and selling shares. So for example, one of the markets running now is how much will Evan Almighty gross on opening weekend. Each dollar of the share price represents millions of dollars in sales, so shares bought at $15, would be worth $39 if the movie grosses $39 million. Another is will 'Dirty Cookbook' get a book deal - if it does, then shares return $100. These two examples demonstrate the different goals of Media Pedict. The first is to be a fun forum for media junkies where they can go and test their industry intuition. The second is to be a sourcing forum for good ideas, leveraging the wisdom of the crowds to find the real gems (e.g., if a number of media junkies place a bet on 'dirty cookbook' then that's a flag to publishers looking to sign deals).

Currently you can't make real money off the site although they're looking to introduce some sort of rewards system. The company says that the reason there's no real money is because "Internet gambling is illegal in the U.S." - although the Iowa Electronic Markets do play with real money, so perhaps with modification. Anyway, while the idea of using exchanges to predict real world situations isn't new, I like it for this space and also how they threw in the crowdsourcing angle :)

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