The news company has not specified which historical events would be commemorated, but it has stated that topics such as CNN exclusives, important milestones, world affairs, and presidential race would be addressed.
CNN teased that the first releases might represent space exploration and electoral results, and that the official rollout will feature six weekly releases starting in late June. The NFTs will be available in a variety of formats, including open and restricted versions.
The NFTs will be issued on the Flow blockchain, which CNN picked because of its low-energy proof-of-stake consensus process. NBA Top Shot, which has made a lot of fortune selling classic athletic “moments,” is also based at Flow.
Participants must first sign up for CNN’s vault, where they will keep their moments, in order to acquire NFTs. The site does not necessitate cryptocurrency to buy, as it accepts credit cards via Stripe, a third-party payment processing network. The following is the explanation of the vault:
“There hasn’t been a method to ‘gather’ these moments until now. Users can frequently discover old video online or in slideshows, but they cannot ‘possess’ or exhibit it in the same way that they can with a physical news publication.”
CNN has also teamed with video frame company Infinite Objects to allow users to display their NFT onto a screen and physically show it offsite. The description of the vault goes as follows:
CNN’s online repository, for example, currently includes 700,000 hours of news information that can be bought and saved without requiring ‘ownership.’ Despite emphasizing ownership as a benefit of the NFTs, they point out that “CNN retains copyright and control over the subject matter.” In 2021, an increasing number of news sources and media companies have entered the NFT industry. CNN’s entry into NFTs comes on the heels of Fox Corporation’s latest announcement of a $100 million creative fund for NFT content production to go along with its animated television series.
Time Magazine joined the marketplace with three tokenized magazine covers on SuperRare in late March, with the “TIME Space Exploration — January 19th, 1959” producing the largest transaction of 135 Ether (ETH), which is currently worth about $318,000 at today’s rates.
Since that day, Time has released seven more NFTs portraying magazine covers, with the “TIME First Issue — March 3, 1923” earning 120 ETH in June, equivalent of about $283,000 USD.