Bunim/Murray Productions Announces Joint Venture with Virtual Arts to Produce NFT-driven Unscripted Content
Wonderfuel To Explore Audience-Driven and Audience-Funded Programming
Los Angeles, CA – March 16, 2022 – Bunim/Murray Productions and Animoca Brands-backed tech venture Virtual Arts have partnered to form Wonderfuel (www.wonderfuel.co), an entertainment company that will leverage NFTs to explore audience-driven, audience-funded programming.
Wonderfuel logo:
Wonderfuel will roll out a full slate of shows with NFTs baked into both the funding model and audience experience to air on both traditional networks and streamers, alongside Web 3.0 platforms. NFTs will be minted and released alongside the shows so that fans can become NFT owners and gain access to unique rewards, from involvement in creative decisions to sharing in prizes and unique fan experiences.
The sale of NFTs may also contribute to funding of future shows, with Wonderfuel exploring partnerships with traditional platforms to explore this brave new frontier of content creation.
The new venture brings together a veteran pioneer of the genre, Bunim/Murray Productions, a Banijay company, with the crypto-enabled, fan engagement mobile platform created by Virtual Arts.
Bunim/Murray President Julie Pizzi stated:
“Bunim/Murray Productions has been creating unscripted content for three decades and we value innovation – entertainment consumption is evolving and engaging with the audience has never been more critical to a show’s success. The world of NFTs is a thrilling way to put power into the hands of the consumer, creating programming that the audience has a very real stake in, and taking some of the financial burden off the platforms. It’s an exciting way for unscripted content to converge with the power of tech.”
Virtual Arts co-founder Ryan Jordan added:
“This is a moment like never before where the fans and audience can get involved and be part of the action. We’re excited to be enabling the shift that distributes more participation and more opportunity to the viewing audience.”
About Bunim/Murray Productions
Bunim/Murray Productions (BMP, http://www.bunim-murray.com) is the leading producer of innovative entertainment content. The Emmy Award-winning company is widely credited with creating the reality television genre with its hit series The Real World, which moved to Facebook after 32 seasons on MTV. BMP continued to innovate with the first reality game show, Road Rules (MTV), in 1995; the first reality sitcom, The Simple Life (E!), in 2003; and the first reality soap opera, Starting Over, in 2003. BMP’s current programming includes Keeping up with the Kardashians, Total Bellas (E!),The Challenge (MTV), Born This Way (A&E), Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project (Oxygen), Ball in the Family (Facebook Watch), Endless (Snapchat), Miz and Mrs. (USA Network), Family or Fiance, Iyanla Fix My Life (OWN), Crystal Maze (Nickelodeon) Emily’s Wonder Lab (Netflix) Challenge All-Stars (Paramount +) and Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls (Amazon). BMP, through BMP Films, has also produced Transhood (HBO) They Call Us Monsters (PBS), Valentine Road (HBO), Pedro (MTV) and the Emmy Award-winning Autism: The Musical , and Autism: The Sequel (HBO). Based in Glendale, CA, the company was founded in 1987 by Jonathan Murray and the late Mary-Ellis Bunim, who were inducted into the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame in 2012. The company joined Banijay Group in 2010.
About Virtual Arts
The venture-backed mobile app company Virtual Arts Inc. (http://virtualarts.fun) is the creator of DanceFight – the world’s first mobile competition platform for skill-based, head-to-head video competition. The U.S.-based company is focusing initially on Gen-Z and dance, but is rapidly expanding to support all forms of competition content, including singing, comedy, rap, skateboarding, other action sports and more. For more information about DanceFight and to download the app (available in the U.S. and India currently), visit: http://dancefightapp.com. Get inspired by DanceFight’s incredible community of dancers by following on Instagram.
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