Bombay Sour is launching a blockchain-based video streaming platform that will allow subscribers to buy shares in forthcoming content. The company envisions a decentralised future where content is distributed through smart contracts.

This week will see the launch of yet another video streaming service, but this time with a (spicy and innovative) twist. It will use blockchain technology to allow subscribers to take a stake in pilot content before it breaks onto TV, film or streaming services. The new service, called Zest, will focus on mobile viewing. It is one of the first such initiaitves of its kind.

The UK based startup behind it, Bombay Sour, describes its platform as "crowdfunded Netflix". The company was founded in May and so far has a slate of more than 200 TV pilots and short films from directors including Eric Kissack, who directed The Dictator and Phil Sheerin, who won Best UK Short at the Raindance Film Festival in 2015, according to The Telegraph. The company said it would be ramping up production operations through to the end of the year.

Bombay Sour's founder and chief executive Piotr Kocel told the paper his company believes that premium entertainment has "a decentralised future where content is democratically co-created with audiences and value is fairly distributed through private smart contracts".

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