According to a company spokesperson, Fan Media will introduce crowdfunding and fan to fan mobile payments to be included in its mobile App. On March 15, Fan Media will debut its updated App at SXSW which will allow users to create crowdfunding campaigns and send tips to video creators they want to support.
Fan Media was created by Kirk Berridge, a sports marketing professional who has been engaged with various professional leagues for decades. Berridge was engaged with the 49ers and helped take the San Francisco team’s website from cost to profit center.
Berridge launched Fan Media in 2007 to build a network of video correspondents to crowdsource news. The company has enabled a social network of crowdsourced video reporting by using iPhones. The site explains its mission as;
“Fan Media ensures unfiltered fan media coverage in an organized and professional way. This is news reporting, analysis, commentary, criticism, public opinion, interviews, moments, storytelling and fan point-of-view. We are the media. And we are everywhere.”
Berridge told the Dallas Business Journal last week;
“We’re democratizing sports media. We’re giving the viewers a vote and a voice and a choice in who covers their favorite teams. It’s mobile; it’s hip.”
The Fan Media App is available for download in the App store. Users may vote for their favorite videos or video reporters with the ones with the most votes rising to the top. Crowdfunding will be an added twist and allow for more proactive funding for the fan-driven media network.