For many legacy media groups, the content is there. The interest is there. The challenge?

Navigating complex rights, internal risk tolerance, and outdated deal structures.

AI can help unlock new revenue from archives, but monetizing only happens when the business model makes sense for the industry.

Here’s how we’re doing it.

Why Traditional Media Moves Slowly

Media organizations, especially those managing sports footage, news archives, or broadcast rights, have real constraints:

Legal complexity: Rights are often split across clubs, regions, or eras
Internal approvals: New business models create friction with legal, compliance, or finance teams
Distribution risk: If a clip goes out that shouldn’t, the blowback is huge

Many of these companies prefer fixed, familiar models over unproven tech-enabled strategies.

Modern Licensing Models That Work

When introducing AI-powered video infrastructure, we’ve found success using rights-first, hybrid commercial models that lower risk and increase trust.

1. Partner-Managed Revenue Collection

We often structure deals where the media company handles the billing and client relationships, while we provide the data pipeline and enrichment.

This reduces operational burden and supports cleaner revenue recognition on both sides.

2. Simple, Flexible Rights Structures

When rights are fragmented or unclear, we avoid overdefining contracts.

Instead, Infactory focuses on:

Rights-aware metadata tagging
Real-time flagging of restricted content
Adaptive legal filters in our pipeline

This allows media companies to move forward without complete legal certainty, as the system itself reduces exposure.

Real-World Strategy: Aligning with a Global Publisher

In a recent negotiation with a legacy media brand, the breakthrough wasn’t technical; it was a matter of commercial structure.

What worked:

Restating Infactory’s value as infrastructure, not a marketplace
Offering flexible contract terms with clear technical boundaries
Showing examples of rights-safe output, not just features

The result: an accelerated path to contract approval with all stakeholders, including legal, commercial, and technical, aligned.

From Deal to Deployment

Once the structure is correct, deployment is straightforward:

Metadata pipelines ingest and enrich archived footage
Rights validation filters are configured per territory or usage type
Licensable clips and branded content are exposed via a secure API

Everything is trackable, reversible, and compliant with internal governance standards.

If your content is still just footage, you’re leaving value on the table—it’s time to talk to Infactory. Book a demo now!

Read Part 1 here: From Footage to Insights: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Video Content

Check out Part 2: How AI Converts Raw Video into Actionable, Rights-Cleared Data

The future of media monetization isn’t about building new platforms. It’s about extending the value of what’s already owned; safely, and at scale.

Infactory’s infrastructure was designed to meet technical needs and match real-world deal realities. Whether you're a league, federation, or legacy publisher, we’ll meet you where you are, then help you move faster.

Reimagining the Rights Deal: Infrastructure for Media Companies